In the beginning, Joomla had its share of good times until WordPress arrived and stole all the attention. Not only did WordPress give Joomla a big jolt by gaining quick popularity but also it pushed back Joomla on the back foot. However, Joomla is down but not out which is the reason we saw the launch of Joomla 3.7 in February 2018. Even today, you would find more than 50,000 Joomla websites that point to the inherent strength of the CMS. In some cases, users of Joomla are happier with the CMS than with WordPress. Although Joomla is less popular than its counterpart is, there are reasons why people are still showing interest in the CMS that had once enjoyed high popularity.
The inherent strength of the CMS has enabled it to survive the storm that had threatened its existence as now we wait to see the emergence of a new Joomla. The most significant advantage of Joomla is that it treads the middle path – it is more potent than WordPress but less complicated and less powerful than Drupal, the other content management system. The extensions and themes on Joomla are no less useful than WordPress plugins, and this gives more options for customization. Creating social networks by using Joomla is super easy, and those interested to develop a profile system for their audience would find Joomla unbeatable.
Brush up on the fundamentals
E-commerce websites find Joomla to be the CMS of choice, while beginners and bloggers find WordPress more suited for them. However, if you are implementing SEO, then for using Joomla you must have some technical knowledge as well as coding knowledge. This problem does not arise for WordPress that does not require any specialized expertise for using the CMS. Joomla SEO can be as effective as much as WordPress SEO provided you have a good understanding of the platform and knowledge about the accompanying resources of templates, extensions, and themes. Moreover, the best practices of SEO remain the same regardless of the CMS, as the experts of any link building company would confirm. The indexing of Joomla websites does not happen as promptly as WordPress sites, and you need to help the search bots to get the site indexed.
To make Joomla more efficient for SEO, you can go through the tips mentioned here that can give you more confidence for better SEO outcomes.
Create meta tags and title tags for your pages
Title tags and Meta descriptions are parts of the website content and extremely important for SEO. Since the title tag shows up in the search engine results along with the meta description, it is important to include keywords in it and even brand names. During indexing, search engines look at the title tags and Meta descriptions to understand what the website contains and relates to by looking at the keyword phrases or keywords. The norm for title tags and Meta descriptions are same for any CMS, and you have to keep the title tags restricted to 70 characters while the limit for Meta descriptions is 160 characters. It is easy to identify page titles in Joomla marked as H1that Google focuses on to understand the subject of the page. Therefore, paying attention to H1 is your top priority.
Emphasize local SEO
More than 50% searches originate from mobile devices and searchers are keen to identify a local source for purchasing. Also, 61% of searchers end up purchasing something. Therefore, it becomes evident that for doing good in business you have to create local pages for search engines that drive traffic to the local address. Since local SEO is now a part of the best SEO practice that is the same across all kinds of CMS, you have to embrace it when you are using Joomla. Optimize the pages for local parameters so that it catches the eyes of search engines that cater to the local audience. Create a local page of Google Plus, include the name, address, and phone number (NAP), and maintain consistency of data across all platforms and channels where it appears.
Empower SEO with Joomla extensions
Extensions or plugins enhance the inbuilt functionalities of websites and for better SEO performance make use of the extensions explicitly created for Joomla SEO. Many plugins or extensions are available free, and it takes just two minutes to download one of your choices. Since it is easy to customize Joomla sites, you gain more power in better content management by using extensions. The extensions ensure that the indexing of the website by search engines goes well that enhances the search rankings. Sh404SEF, SEOSimple, and SmartSEO are some popular SEO plugins that you should find useful too. With the plugins, you can set up 301 redirects, update your Meta descriptions and titles and create search-friendly URLs.
Improve web page speed with a suitable plugin
The website speed, which includes the speed of web pages, is a critical factor in search rankings today because Google uses page speed as a factor in the search algorithms. Fast loading websites rank better than slow sites, and you cannot compromise on this aspect. Fast loading pages attract viewers and keep them engaged that increase the possibilities of lead generation and conversions. You have to ensure that the website opens within 3 seconds because if it takes longer, viewers will abandon the site. Check the speed of web pages by using the iJoomla Speed Check and do whatever is necessary to increase the speed if you find it below the mark.
Create a sitemap with Joomla extension
A sitemap is important because it can direct search engines to index web pages in a proper way. Joomla extensions are available that help in creating sitemaps and after it is built; you get a link that you can copy and paste into the Google Web Master tools and submit it for indexing by Google.
While the choice of CMS adds to the ease of using the website, the SEO performance depends on your skills in optimization and creating useful content that holds the center stage in SEO.
