Joomla! ranks second among the most popular content management systems, conceding only to WordPress. There are more than 2,000,000 websites all over the world, leveraging Joomla. It’s a free and open-source CMS, which helps create exclusive websites. Although Joomla is pretty easy to use, there’re some things you need to keep in mind. These tips will be of help for developers, webmasters, and designers who’re just at the beginning of studying this platform.

Create Prettily Designed Pages

If you’ve already given preference to Joomla, downloaded, and installed this CMS, it’s time you thought through the further actions. How to build a convenient and appealing website? How to set up all the required and essential options? What’s the best way to optimize the site? And the main question is where to begin?

It’s not the most obvious tip, but we suggest you begin with design. When start working with Joomla, the majority of developers think about such aspects as filling the site with content or search engine optimization – definitely substantial ones. But don’t forget about the visual component, because it really matters.

Design is the first thing visitors pay attention to when scrolling down your website. Nicely designed web pages draw visitors’ attention, inviting them to stay a little longer. The results of the conducted research have shown that simple website design is better as it keeps visitors focused and engaged. It happens at a psychological level. According to Hick’s Law, the more stimuli are present, the more time an individual needs to react to the given stimuli. In other words, it’s much harder for a visitor to make a choice if there are too many menu items and various buttons.

Joomla interface allows you to set it up for any use-case. Customize your website, don’t add too many share buttons, think over the number of displayed menu items. It’s better not to experiment with on-site navigation in general. Put the navigation menu in standard places across the top or down the left side. Although Joomla provides lots of functions, and additional features, don’t overuse it. Keep it simple.

Manage Your Content

Producing and maintaining a high level of content is one of the key aspects of the business. You can hire a writer who will be responsible for the content or turn to special content writing services. There are some platforms where you can pay for essay online and get all kinds of articles, including research and other papers, in case you are building an educational or academic website. Since you’ll get to work with content a lot, this advice might come handy.

Joomla provides a convenient interface for publishing articles and products. A great variety of tools streamlines the publishing process for webmasters and content managers. And speaking of useful options, Joomla has a Versions button in the toolbar, thanks to which you can restore previous variants of articles.

Leverage Templates

By default, every Joomla site, whether it’s Joomla! 2.5 or Joomla! 3, contains one simple, and functional template. But as a rule, few people are satisfied with the functionality of these templates, even despite the possibility of changing styles and colors. That’s why Joomla has a collection of more than 110 additional premium and free templates.

At the beginning of exploring Joomla, installing a template is a perfect start. Created by a team of professional designers, such templates provide the framework that brings together all the site elements. As mentioned above, elaborate website design and user-friendly interface are essential parts of the prosperous Internet business.

Instead of writing all the code for each page separately, you can install a template for each major section of your site. And then make minor changes when creating new pages. Handle templates in the Template Manager section.

Reduce The Site Loading Time

Speed is a killer. Today’s customers are impatient. How long do you wait for the page to load? A couple of seconds, right? According to the research conducted by Google, 53% of mobile users leave a site that takes longer than three seconds to load. It clearly demonstrates why the speed of your website matters. In order not to keep the visitors glued to your website, think about fast loading from the very beginning.

Reducing the site loading time is one of the fundamental needs you have to fill while developing a site. Joomla’s basic configuration allows making your website load faster without resorting to third-party apps and extensions. You need to find the “Gzip Page Compression” option and turn it to “Yes.” Simple as that. Remember, that fast website loading boosts conversions and generates revenue.

Web Site Administration Aspects

• Change the Title in the Browser Tab

Displaying the site name on the browser tab will be better than just a page title set by default. It doesn’t require additional extensions to change it. You need to go to the SEO Settings and change “No” into “Before” or “After” in the “Site Name in Page Titles.” Then your site name will be shown before or after the page title. It boosts brand recognition, helping visitors remember your site.

• Let Users Rate Your Content

It’s always useful to get feedback from the users. Let them rate every post or article by enabling “Show Voting” in the Global Configuration settings. It provides you with information about whether they’re pleased by your content or not.

• Activate HTTPS

Take care of security and privacy when you publish your site on the Internet. You must have a valid SSL certificate installed on your website. When you have one, activate HTTPS, it’ll make your site secure.

In conclusion, Joomla! is a powerful platform that is constantly changing and growing. It lets you create your very own website, design it exactly how you like it, and add whatever features you need. It’s suitable for businesses, bloggers, online sellers, and others. And for those who already joined or planning to join the growing Joomla family, these tips might come in handy.