Route 66

Introduction

Route 66 is an advanced SEO extension for Joomla that helps you optimize your website for search engines using modern tools and automation. This documentation outlines all features and how to use them.

Key features include:

• AI Tools
• SEO Crawler
• Content SEO Analysis (by Yoast)
• Content Readability Analysis (by Yoast)
• Metadata Management
• Custom URLs
• Performance Optimizations
• Robots.txt editing

Looking for Route 66 v1.x series documentation? It can be found at https://www.firecoders.com/documentation/route-66-v1 

Compatibility

Route 66 is compatible with Joomla 5.3 and later. Compatibility with future versions of Joomla! is added through extension updates.

Requirements

Your server needs to meet the Joomla! system requirements, including PHP version 8.2 or higher and MySQL 5.6 or higher. There are no additional server requirements for Route 66.

Installation

To install Route 66:

1. Download the Route 66 package from our website.
2. Log in to your Joomla administrator panel.
3. Navigate to Extensions > Manage > Install.
4. Upload the Route 66 package and click Upload & Install.

For more details, refer to the official Joomla documentation.

Updating

There are two ways to update this extension:

• One-Click Update:
  1. Navigate to System > Update Sites.
  2. Find the Route 66 update site and enter your account Download Key, which you can get here.
  3. Go to System > Update > Extensions and click Check For Updates.
  4. Select Route 66 from the list and click Update.
• Manual Update:
  1. Download the latest version of Route 66 from our website.
  2. Navigate to Extensions > Manage > Install.
  3. Upload the new package; it will automatically overwrite the old version.

  Note: Always back up your site before performing manual updates. An active subscription is required to download Route 66 PRO.

Upgrading from Route 66 v1.x

If you are upgrading to Route 66 v2 from an existing v1.x installation, the extension will automatically detect the upgrade during installation. Upon successful installation, you’ll see a message with a link to complete the upgrade process.

Note: This step is optional and non-critical.

The upgrade process simply imports your existing SEO/Readability Scores and any saved Open Graph metadata into the new version. If you missed the link in the installation message, you can manually run the upgrade at any time by visiting the following URL in your Joomla admin panel:

/administrator/index.php?option=com_route66&view=upgrade

Options

After installing Route 66, it's recommended to configure the component options according to your needs. The default settings should be fine for the majority of sites.

To access the Route 66 options, navigate to Components > Route 66 > Options. The configuration options are divided into several tabs:

Crawl your site

After installing and configuring Route 66, the next step is to crawl your site to collect SEO-related data.

To start a crawl:

1. Go to Components > Route 66 > Pages. 
2. Click the “Crawl” button.

Important: Crawling may take some time depending on your site’s size and your server’s performance. Do not close or navigate away from the page while crawling is in progress.

If the crawl is interrupted (for example, if you leave the page), Route 66 will detect the unfinished task. When you return to Components > Route 66 > Pages, you’ll see a message indicating that a crawl task is still running.

If the crawler shows no activity for more than 5 minutes, the task is considered incomplete. You’ll be given the option to:

1. Resume the crawl
2. Discard the unfinished task and start fresh

Crawl Report

Each crawled page has a report tab where you can find crawled data info and crawl related issues.

Crawling via Command Line (PRO Version Only)

The PRO version of Route 66 supports command-line crawling using Joomla’s CLI system. This is ideal for large sites or users who want to minimize web server load.

To run a crawl from the command line:

1. Connect to your web server via SSH.
2. Change directory to your Joomla CLI folder:
   cd /YOUR/SITE/PATH/cli
3. Verify the CLI commands are available:
   php joomla.php list
   You should see the list of Joomla CLI commands, including route66:crawl.
4. Run the crawler:
   php joomla.php route66:crawl

Understanding Slow Page Alerts (False Positives)

Route 66 flags pages as slow if their response time exceeds 1 second. However, during a crawl, Route 66 uses multiple simultaneous connections to process pages in parallel. This can temporarily increase server load, especially on shared hosting, and result in false positives.

If your pages appear slow in the crawler but load quickly in your browser, try lowering the Crawler Concurrency setting in Route 66 configuration.

Automatic Page Discovery (PRO Version Only)

With Route 66 PRO, new pages are automatically discovered and added to the crawl list as your site receives traffic. This is especially useful for frequently updated sites — you no longer need to initiate a full crawl every time new content is published.

Refreshing Page Data Automatically

Route 66 uses Joomla’s Scheduled Tasks API to refresh crawled page data.

To set this up:

1. Navigate to System > Scheduled Tasks
2. Click New
3. Choose the task type: Route 66: Refresh Pages Data
4. Set a title and choose a suitable frequency: 
   • Every 15 or 30 minutes for frequently updated sites
   • Once per day (or less) for low-activity sites
5. Save the task

This ensures your SEO data stays up to date without requiring manual crawling.

Configuring Cloudflare to Whitelist the Crawler IP

If your site is behind Cloudflare and you have enabled a JavaScript (JS) Challenge for incoming requests, the SEO Crawler may be blocked or delayed when trying to scan your site. To ensure smooth crawling, you can configure Cloudflare to bypass this challenge for the crawler’s IP address.

This is done by creating an IP-based exception in Cloudflare’s Security Rules.

Steps to Configure an IP-Based Exception for the SEO Crawler

1. Log in to your Cloudflare Dashboard.
2. Select the domain you want to configure.
3. Navigate to Security → Security Rules.
4. Click Create a Custom Rule.
5. In the When incoming requests match… section, set the condition:
   • Field: IP Source Address
   • Operator: equals
   • Value: Your server’s origin IP address (the IP where the SEO Crawler runs).
6. Under Then… set the Action to Skip (JS Challenge).
7. Save and deploy the rule.

Important Notes

• Your origin IP is provided by your hosting provider. In most cases, if you have a dedicated server or VPS, the IP remains static.
• If your hosting provider changes your origin IP, the crawler will no longer be able to bypass the challenge until the new IP is updated in Cloudflare’s DNS and Security Rules.
• Only add trusted IP addresses to this exception to prevent abuse.

Pages Management

Perform SEO tasks on a page-by-page basis via Components > Route 66 > Pages. This offers a unified editing experience and is ideal for large-scale SEO reviews.

AI Tools Management

Route 66 provides a comprehensive AI Tools management system for administrators. Access it via Components > Route 66 > AI Tools. The system allows you to edit, filter, and reorder AI tools.

Sitemaps Management

Create or manage sitemaps via Components > Route 66 > Sitemaps. The system allows you to edit, filter, and reorder XML sitemaps.

Edit robots.txt

Edit robots.txt via Components > Route 66 > Edit robots.txt. The system allows you to edit the site's robots.txt directly from the administration area. 

AI Services

AI Tools are using popular AI services behind the scenes. Note that those services are paid services so additional costs may occur. To set up AI services:.

Metadata

Search Metadata

Search metadata helps define how your pages appear in search engine results. With Route 66, you can easily customize the most important metadata elements for SEO visibility:

1. Title. The clickable headline shown in search results. It should be clear, relevant, and within the recommended character length
2. Description. A short summary that appears below the title in search results. Use it to encourage clicks by describing the page content clearly.
3. Robots. Controls how search engines index and follow the page (e.g., index, noindex, follow, nofollow)
4. Canonical. Defines the preferred version of a URL to avoid duplicate content issues

These fields are available in the Route 66 interface when editing individual pages, giving you full control over how your content is represented in search engines.

Social Metadata

Social metadata controls how your pages appear when shared on social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and X (formerly Twitter). Route 66 lets you customize key Open Graph and Twitter Card tags to ensure your content looks polished and engaging across networks:

Open Graph (used by Facebook, LinkedIn, and others):

1. Open Graph Title.The title shown when your page is shared.
2. Open Graph Description. A brief summary that appears below the title.
3. Open Graph Image. The preview image displayed in the post.
4. Open Graph type. The content type (e.g. article, website), helping platforms interpret your content correctly.

X/Twitter Metadata (Twitter Cards):

• X/Twitter Title. The headline used when your page is shared on X.
• X/Twitter Description. A short description that appears beneath the title.
• X/Twitter Image. The image shown in the Twitter card preview.

By customizing these fields, you can control how your content looks when shared — improving click-through rates and reinforcing your brand presence on social media.

Setting Metadata

Route 66 lets you manage search engine and social media metadata in two easy ways:

1. Via Crawled Pages
   Go to Components > Route 66 > Pages to view all crawled pages. Click on a page to open its details. Use the “Search” and “Social” tabs to update metadata. Don’t forget to save your changes.
2. Via Extension Edit Forms
   Where supported, Route 66 adds extra tabs to existing edit forms (or inside a toolbar dropdown). These tabs let you set metadata for specific resources directly within the extension.

SEO Analysis & Readability

Route 66 includes SEO and readability analysis powered by Yoast, giving you insights and suggestions to improve your content. You can access this in two ways:

1. Via Crawled Pages
   Go to Components > Route 66 > Pages and click on a page. Use the “SEO” and “Readability” tabs to view suggestions. To enable analysis, make sure to set a focus keyphrase under the SEO tab. Save the page to store the results and use them later for filtering or reporting.
2. Via Extension Edit Forms
   Where supported, Route 66 shows additional tabs in the edit form (or in a toolbar dropdown) that let you enter a focus keyphrase and instantly see SEO and readability scores.

URLs

Route 66 allows you to define URL patterns and automatically generate SEO-friendly URLs for your site. This is especially useful for websites with a large amount of content, where creating individual menu items for each page is not practical.

Instead of manually creating menu links, you can configure a URL pattern and let Route 66 handle the URL generation dynamically.

For smaller websites, we recommend continuing to use Joomla menu items and skipping this feature.

Note: Existing Joomla menu items always take priority over Route 66 URL patterns. For example, if you have a menu item pointing to an article, any matching Route 66 pattern will be ignored for that article.

Enabling Custom URLs

Navigate to Components > Route 66 > Options > URLs and set a URL pattern for each supported extension.

URL Patterns

URL patterns in Route 66 can include both static text and dynamic variables—called tokens. Tokens are enclosed in curly braces, like {articleAlias} or {categoryAlias}. Each supported third-party extension provides its own set of tokens.

Some of these tokens are designated as identifier tokens, which are required to ensure that each URL is unique. A valid URL pattern must include at least one identifier token—such as {articleAlias} or {articleId}.

When creating a URL pattern in Route 66, the available tokens for the selected extension will appear below the input field. Identifier tokens are shown in bold to emphasize their importance.

Examples of valid URL patterns:

• blog/{articleYear}/{articleMonth}/{articleAlias}
• {categoryAlias}/{articleAlias}
• {articleAlias}
• page-{articleId}

Module Assignments

Your module assignments will continue to function as before, even if Route 66 changes your URLs.

For example, suppose you have a menu link to a category named "Cars" and have assigned modules to display on that page, accessible via the URL /cars. Route 66 might generate article URLs that do not include the /cars part, depending on your URL pattern. However, the modules assigned to the "Cars" category page will still display on the article pages within that category. This behavior aligns with Joomla!'s default functionality.

Route 66 automatically detects and assigns the correct modules, so you do not need to make any changes to your site's structure.

Supported Extensions

Below is a list of supported extensions along with their available tokens. Identifier tokens are marked in bold. Remember, you must include at least one identifier token in your URL pattern.