So next on our list of content management systems in Joomla. Like WordPress and Drupal, Joomla is open source, uses PHP and a MySQL database and is highly regarded.
According to W3Techs, 2.7 percent of all websites use Joomla, which places it above Drupal, so you know it’s well used. And companies like IKEA, Linux and Holiday Inn use it to power their websites. I’d say you’re in pretty good company should you go down this road.
So today, let’s dive in a bit on Joomla to see what it is, what it offers you and how it can help your business and your website.
What is Joomla?
Like WordPress and Drupal, Joomla is an open source content management system. And you can build a Joomla site in just minutes, especially with the tools web hosts now offer you. And you can easily maintain all of that content with an easy-to-use interface on the backend of the website.
And it also features a bunch of different extensions and themes, so that you can easily create an ecommerce site or do something more with a website than just let it be a website. And you can customize it to really make it your own unique website out there on the internet.
And, if you’re a developer, it’s fairly complex. It uses something called the model-view-controller, something that’s similar to how apps run on your phone. If you’re confused by that, don’t worry. That’s just something more for developers out there. But it is worth knowing that it has that the complexity and structure to do more complex things if you want it to.
Top features
So, now that we know a little bit more about what Joomla is, let’s go over some of the top features so you can figure out if it’s going to help you and your business.
Media management
So one of my favorite things that I’ve found about Joomla doing research for this is really the way that it manages the media. And more specifically, it’s the way that you can organize the media files.
With Joomla, you can actually organize those media files into sub folders and directories. This makes keeping things, you know, nice, clean and organized so much easier. So I could have a subdirectory for images I’m using on a landing page or for blog posts.
And to be quite honest, I wish was something that was in WordPress core.
Front-end editing
One place where Joomla really has a nice step up over WordPress and really other CMSs is the ability to edit posts and pages on the front end. That means you don’t have to go to that back end editor to make the changes and then go back to the front end to see if, you know, the changes actually worked. You can do it right from that page itself.
This, you know as I said, takes some of the guesswork out of creating posts and pages. You don’t have to make a few changes here and there and hope that the styling carries over to the front end. And that’s the way it currently works with WordPress, even with the new editor.
That’s going to save you time and probably some headaches. And to be quite honest, it’s probably the number one thing I’m jealous about as a WordPress user.
Banner management
Finally, Joomla core comes with support for banner management. This makes creating and managing advertising banners so much easier on your website.
You can manage and create different clients and campaigns and what not right from the content management system itself. And you don’t have to write any lines of code for it. That’s not really possible with WordPress or Drupal without going out and getting a plugin for it.
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, so to speak. But if you need to run some sort of advertising, whether external advertising or advertising for your own campaigns, well Joomla makes it pretty easy for you.
How can Joomla help your business?
So, just how can Joomla help your business and your website? Well, again like Drupal and WordPress, Joomla can help you create a website quickly without touching any lines of code.
Also, if you know what you’re doing, there’s a lot of flexibility flexibility with Joomla. And even if you don’t really know any coding or what not, you can still create cool and interesting websites just with the extensions and themes that it offers.
And again, it works great with ecommerce solutions, so if you’re wanting to run a store, you can do that.
That being said, because of the lower usage rate, there might not be as many themes and extensions as there is with WordPress. And the customization is a little bit trickier than WordPress.
Still, if you do your research and come to the conclusion that Joomla might be what you want to use, then I really don’t think it’s a bad idea. All the more power to you; I don’t think you can go wrong here.
Up next
So that wraps up our look into Joomla. I know this was a very quick and brief overview over what Joomla is, but I’ve put links down in the description below so you can do more of your research on your own to figure out if it’s right for you.
Also, if you have any questions about Joomla, be sure to leave them in comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them. And as always, you can reach out on social media if you need help as well.
Next time we’ll be taking a look at Wix and Squarespace, the elephants in the room. But until the, I wish you and your business the best of luck.
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