Launched in 2003, Joomla is the second most popular CMS in the world (WordPress tops the list). Its popularity is due to a number of factors, including its blogs, RSS feeds, composer integration and much more. Here are five benefits of using Joomla for your website.

1. Its infrastructure is open source

Joomla was created with PHP, which is the most common programming language in regards to open source platforms. Because of this, developers around the world have been able to write new extensions for Joomla without any issues, ensuring it will remain popular well into the future.

2. It's flexible

Joomla is highly interactive, and its 8000+ extensions help to make it useful and productive for developers and business owners alike. You can easily add social media widgets to your website, and there are many customisation options available. All the extensions are divided into 33 categories, which makes it one of the easiest platforms to navigate.

3. eCommerce is easy

For eCommerce businesses, Joomla is easily one of the best options on the market. The CMS is eCommerce-friendly, and offers components that have been created specifically for these types of websites. Managing products and related content is straightforward, and there are several options you can consider, such as shipping, PayPal, and payment gateways.

4. Built-in SEO functionality

One of the top benefits of Joomla is that it is SEO-friendly. You can choose your own meta tags, keywords and descriptions that can help optimise your website for search engine results.

Joomla also encourages you to have a Google Analytics Account, a Google+ Personal Account, a Google Webmaster Account, and a Bing Webmaster Account to link to your site, which is a great recommendation.

5. Frontend editing

Not a lot of CMSs allow frontend editing, but Joomla does. This means you can edit content on the website itself. For example, if you're logged in to the website and you notice an article that needs updating, you can edit it directly without going to the backend. This is a great feature for business owners who have very little experience in website development.

For more advice and guidance on Joomla design, Canberra Web can answer all your questions. We're ready to create a Joomla website that meets your specific needs and requirements today.

Joomla is now one of the world's most popular CMS for those who want to build powerful websites and apps. Like WordPress, it is not only flexible but provides many add-ons and features to match any style and function. So let us at Canberra Web take you through the benefits of Joomla and how it's reached the top of the CMS world.

Flexibility

Once your website has been designed by professional web designers, the Joomla CMS allows you to easily add blog posts and updates with its clean and understandable menu items. You can get as creative or simplistic as you like because Joomla provides an easy to install program with added features and plugins.

Security

Code written in Joomla can be updated to keep your website up to speed with the ever-changing internet to keep it safe from hackers and guard against slow loading. You have the option of talking with the Joomla community and your professional website builder for information on what's needed in terms of security and also stability. Websites that have obvious bugs deter people browsing online and a quick and easy fix to these problems, as well as constant updates, allows you safety and peace of mind.

Professional

Novices and professionals alike are attracted to Joomla due to its user-friendly backend design and how well the finished product functions, as well as the professional finish and range of styles it caters for. A big problem with many inferior CMS applications is that the backend can be confusing and doesn't directly translate to what visitors will see when they visit your website. But Joomla handles this common and easy to fix hiccup and is one of the main reasons why it has reached the top of the CMS ladder.

Experts love it

Whoever you hire now or in the future to build and maintain your website, they will be happy you chose Joomla over other CMS programs. This is because, although the backend is customisable (if you want to learn quickly and pour over the pages of information Joomla freely provides), professional web designers find it a breeze to use! It's also easy for them to look at someone else's work and to make fixes and additions to the backend due to Joomla's popularity with professional web designers.

If you want to benefit from all this and more, speak to our Joomla design Canberra Web team today.

If you are planning to sell products online – whether it’s your homemade wares, products you’ve imported from overseas, or items from a local supplier, it pays to do your research and choose an online shop service that suits your needs.

Why you should avoid the freebies

If your online shop design is free, there’s a chance it isn’t that great. As usual, you get what you pay for, and there is normally a reason it’s free – it’s because the quality isn’t as good as the paid versions.

Free online shops might seem convenient but you have little control in the running of your website.

Things like the security of your storefront and the construction of your website are all under the control of the website builder, which can cause you hassles further down the line.

Freebies come with a catch

The problem with using free websites is that they have downsides for the free price tag. These downsides include displaying their ads on your website. Even some of the low-cost paid versions of some shopping sites still feature ads.

Not great for SEO

Free online shop fronts, such as WIX, also aren't a great website option if you want users to find your store – they aren’t optimised for search well and so your business could get lost in the online noise.

Design options are limited

Because you don’t have control over the HTML on your WIX website, your design options are limited too. You also can’t link apps and plugins to the site, like you can with other better website building options.

Why other options are better

If you decide to go with websites such as WordPress, which you can host yourself, you will have much more control over your storefront. This control includes being able to dictate the HTML code that is used to create your shop front. The free sites like WIX don’t give you these options.

So if you want to remain in control of your online shop, it’s best to go with options such as WordPress and Joomla to build your site. We find these website building options are great for keeping a corporate blog too, as all the blog functions are already built into the structure of the websites.

Shop fronts that work well

We build lots of online shops using Magento, Open Cart, Mojo Shop and Woo Commerce because we find these companies give us the most options we need for shop front creation.

Are you looking to build an online shop? Then get in contact with our friendly staff today and we will show you how we can assist with your WordPress design in Canberra.

How to make your website more functional

While having a website design that is unique and contemporary is important to attract your online audiences attention, if your site is difficult to navigate it can cause visitors to leave early, otherwise known as a high bounce rate. Unfortunately, this may result in loss of sales, especially if you have an e-commerce website, because the longer your audience spends on your site often increases your chances for sales opportunities.

When you have a website built, it's important to incorporate features that make it functional and easy to navigate. To assist you in this process, we've highlighted some of the things to consider.

Timely loading speed

There's nothing worse than having to wait ages for a website to load. A vital factor in having a functional website is ensuring your site loads quickly. In fact, when surveyed, 40% of web users said they would leave a site that took more than 3 seconds to load. If your customer or user is left waiting, you'll often find they won't bother staying unless they desperately want the products or services you sell.

Page linking

By adding links between pages you can make your website more functional, so your online audience can navigate it with ease. Often online consumers will want to find out more about products or services, so linking these pages to your contact page means it's a simple and streamlined process for visitors to send an enquiry.

Make it easy for the user to go back

If users have ended up on the wrong page by accident, they will quickly want to go back immediately. An easy way for your customers to trace where their path went wrong or return quickly is with an ever-present drop-down navigation menu or with breadcrumbs, which show the pages a user accessed to get to where they are. Users can easily click on these to get to where they'd like to go, adding more fluency to your web design.

Another tip is to regularly review your links to check for any that aren't working and either fix those links or create page redirects. That will eliminate any instances of users landing on a 404 page, which can result in site abandonment.

These are some of the essential features that will increase your site's functionality. If you need help creating a functional website, our team at Canberra Web have the expertise to assist you. We specialise in building user-friendly, fully responsive websites on a broad range of platforms including WordPress, Joomla, Magento, Open Cart, Mojo Shop and Woo Commerce. Contact ustoday to get started!

There are a whole range of good website builders, but here at Canberra Web we know which ones are the best.

Open Source: WordPress and Joomla

Open source platforms such as WordPress and Joomla offer our clients the best opportunity to create the exact website that they desire. Open source platform means that there are loads of great themes and plug-ins that we can apply to your website. Your website can be fully customisable so that it suits your exact requirements.

WordPress is also always concerned with maintenance and security and updates its platform several times a year, which means that you will also need to update your own WordPress website. This is great, as it means that any rogue bugs are fixed quickly and you can be confident that the latest security measures are in place. Canberra Web can also help you keep your WordPress website up-to-date.

Because of its open source platform, WordPress can be more complicated for the inexperienced website builder. In order to make full use of WordPress, a knowledge of modifying codes really comes in handy. This is where Canberra Web can really help you to get the most out of all the amazing things WordPress has to offer.

Joomla is great because it places plug-ins and extensions as its core features, which increases the performance and flexibility of your website.

Closed Source: Wix

Not all website builders use this open source platform. Wix is a closed source platform, so only their private development team can develop and produce its website building tools, giving you less choice and fewer advanced features compared with WordPress and Joomla. Similarly, if you want something that the Wix App store doesn't have (and these Apps in themselves are often problematic) then adding additional code to the site is extremely difficult. Another big problem is that there is also no way to export your data if you do want to move platforms

Open source platforms like Joomla and WordPress allow Canberra Web to meet all their clients website building needs, ensuring that everyone is happy with the outcome.

Using Joomla is one of the best ways to create a website for your business, but inexperienced users are prone to making mistakes. Here are some of the top errors that you could have been making so far:

Not backing up

This is a very simple mistake that can have dire consequences for those who make it. No matter how well you've designed your website, if it gets hacked or your computer fails, you could be at risk of losing everything. A reliable backup means that your hard work is never lost, so make sure you create one today.

Falling behind on updates

Updates, especially core Joomla updates, are what keep your website running smoothly and securely. Installing updates is really simple, as you'll be notified of any new ones and all you'll have to do is click a button. However, many users don't log into their admin dashboard, so they don't find out about new updates, thus leaving their site vulnerable to attack and bugs. Make sure you're on the lookout for new updates on a regular basis.

Neglecting hosting

You might think that by using Joomla, your site is all set for success, but this isn't the case. Your host provider has a lot to account for when it comes to speed and security. By choosing a reliable host provider, you'll be setting your site up for more uptime and enhanced protection against hacks with elements like SSL certificates.

Lack of organisation

Although your website navigation menu might be neatly in place, that's not all that matters. It's important that your image folder is also well categorised and uses proper sections and names. This will help you when the time comes to revamp your site, as you'll know what needs to be deleted and what needs to stay. Cluttered folders make for a slow website, so keep everything behind the scenes tidy.

To avoid these mistakes, seek out our experts at Canberra Web for professional Joomla design Canberra businesses can rely on. Your website will be running better in no time at all, just get in touch.

I was recently asked by a potential client why I recommended Joomla! to be used for building their website.

Let me explain the benefits of using Joomla versus using anything else, and by anything else I mean comparing building a website using some type of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, such as Frontpage or Dreamweaver, or building a website with a comparative type of software package.

Joomla! is a Content Management system

which means that it is built to ensure that website pages can easily be maintained and updated. This includes for example, adding new pages or removing pages. This is the main advantage above building a website in straight forward HTML that would normally be the end product of using some type of HTML editor.

But why Joomla? Why not something else like a Microsoft based product or another commercial product?

• Joomla is Open Source, which means that there are no licensing fees payable, that you have often pay for a Microsoft product or a commercial product
• Because Joomla is Open Source, there is a huge pool of community resources available to provide support. The Joomla community is huge worldwide as well as in local countries, there are often local user groups which are very well supported often even in small countries such as South Africa. There is an enormous pool of people supporting the product. The forum on the Joomla.org site has over 200 000 members all providing support and input into making Joomla! a better product.
• There are millions of sites worldwide (about 10 Million if you do a guestimate using Google) that runs on Joomla. It is therefore extremely popular and widely used which also means that it will never be difficult to find developers and people to support it.
• Because it is so popular, it also means that by now there have been quite a few books written about Joomla! from various perspectives to assist both the developer as well as the end-user.

Some other good reasons to use Joomla!

One of the most attractive features of using Joomla! is the fact that is so very easy to extend its functionality. You can build anything from a brochure website to a full-featured shopping cart or interactive membership site. This is because there are over 3500 add-ons and plugins available to extend its functionality. This ranges from shopping carts, image galleries, video plugins, forums, blogs, project management tools, etc etc

The Joomla templating system

Makes it easy to change the look and feel of your site without having to redo the whole site from scratch. You can literally change the whole graphic design/look of the site in a matter of seconds while retaining the content.

 Features & Benefits

• Ability to edit formatting, such as changing fonts, sizes, colours etc..
• A complete file manager allowing you to insert, remove, resize and create pop up images as well as insert flash animations.
• On-site and off-site linking functionality providing the ability to create links to other website's as well as links to other pages within your own website.
• Video (YouTube / Vimeo etc), Google Maps and affiliate code insertion.
• Insert and manage PayPal "Pay Now" buttons, enabling you to accept payments through the website.
• Spell-checking functionality. 
• User friendly table creation for page layout.
• No software required to download or install.
• Easy to use, no training required, although we do provide training to get you started and additional support if you require 
• The ability to upload any file type (for example, PDF, Word document, Excel file etc) and offer it for download by your website visitors.
• Content Management System can be accessed from any internet connection allowing you to update your own website on the fly.
• There are no on-going fees to use the system.
• No reoccurring fees or licences, the system is yours included in the cost of the website.

6 ways to decide: WordPress or Joomla?

So as we race into 2020, it's no longer necessary to recommend getting a great website up and running.

But if you've decided to upgrade, or you're just making those crucial decisions about how to get online in the best possible way, there are plenty of options.

So let's discuss two of the best content management systems (CMS) for creating, editing and publishing your content, and ask yourself the simple question: WordPress or Joomla?

1. Performance
   
   Some believe WordPress is the slower option, and there is some evidence that suggests this is the case. But a well configured WordPress site will perform as well as Joomla! - it just has to be set up right.
   
   
2. Security
   
   If you were judging purely on widespread usage, then WordPress seems like the best bet. There are almost 80 million WordPress sites out there, while comparatively less Joomla! sites have been built.
   But Joomla! also takes security very seriously, with any vulnerabilities that are identified quickly patched up. With both, the key is good configuration and management.
   
   
3. Support
   
   Again, the fact that WordPress is used so widely means that the team has greater resources when you need support. That's great news for novices, due to all the support content and also a bustling community willing to help
   Joomla! users, on the other hand, will also be able to get answers to any questions they have, while these days it's all too easy to hire a professional to affordably sort out your issues.
   
   
4. Potential
   
   Now we're talking about extensions that add functionality, and the plugins available to WordPress users are endless. Sometimes, however, the fact that there are so many makes finding the quality ones more difficult, while Joomla! users report less problems in this area.
   
   
5. Upgrades
   
   WordPress is famously easy to update with the click of a button, but Joomla is also impressive in this area.
   
   
6. Usability
   
   Getting up and running with both CMS options is straightforward, but WordPress really is easy when it comes to managing content - even for the novice user. Joomla is slightly harder to get your head around, but you still don't need any knowledge of complex web languages.

The verdict

If what you're looking to do is to run a blog, a simple news or marketing site, or a small eCommerce store, WordPress is a great option. But Joomla! is perfect for slightly more complex sites that require more flexibility, with the trade-off of trickier usability.

To help you make the decision, Canberra Web are the experts in building both WordPress and Joomla! sites. We've done WordPress designs Canberra clients swear by, but the same is also true for Joomla! - so get in touch today to explore your options.