Is a Joomla website right for your business?

Joomla is open source software that anyone can access and use – free of charge. A Joomla website has a fairly sophisticated CMS (Content Management System), meaning you can manage your own site (make changes, upload content, add pages etc) – without having to go through a webmaster.

It is very popular and at a basic level is easy to use. You don’t need any programming knowledge to operate Joomla. Most businesses choose to engage a web developer to design and customise a site with one or these open source platforms – which is often safer than a proprietary system.

The other benefit of open source software is that any improvements made by the development community are shared with everyone. This means that there are many add-ons to Joomla, making it a very flexible website platform.

Once you start requiring particular customisation you may require the assistance of a web developer. The system structure is quite complex.

Joomla website snapshot:

• Comprehensive Content Management System
• Multiple templates supported
• Supports multiple languages
• Easy menu, contact, news and user management
• Powerful ecommerce capabilities
• Integrated search module
• SEO friendly
• Photo and video galleries
• No knowledge of HTML required
• Capacity for deep level and complex navigation
• Flexible - changes to menu and nav structure easy to make
• Particularly strong for community sites (membership, newsroom, forum, Content Management Systems etc)

Are there any drawbacks to a Joomla website?

The main challenge facing users who create a Joomla website, is that the core system is complex – meaning it requires a lot of resources from the server. Your website performance can start running into trouble if you are adding a lot of plug ins, and getting a high volume of visitors to the site.

If your website gets to this level, you may need to engage the services of a web developer who has experience in high traffic sites – to ensure your system is equipped to deal with any issues.

Another issue that is reported regarding Joomla website management is that while it is possible to amend templates slightly (e.g. basic elements such as colour and logo), this can get complicated if you want a great deal of customisation.

To change layout templates substantially you will need knowledge of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) – the style sheets language. If no-one within your business has this knowledge, it will pay to use an outside developer. Just make sure you get one who is experienced in Joomla – you don’t want to be paying for their time as they work out the system.

iQuantum can advise you about the benefits and features of all website software platforms. Our commitment is to providing you with reliable, unbiased information that will best serve your website and online marketing goals.