Joomla?

[KingPin]

Is Joomla any good? I mean, I have never worked with Joomla and now I have decided on my new project, Joomla would be absolutely perfect.

My only problem is, do I want to run the risk of using Joomla, not knowing what the SEO capabilities are like or do I used a bog standard CSS/HTML site, which has been proven?

The CSS site will be more work and won't look as good as the Joomla site would.

I don't think I have ever seen a Joomla site ranking ell for competitive keywords.

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

KP

[Bagi Zoltán]

KP, if you want a Joomla to rank well in accordance with my opinion you will need to install sef components, which make the script load quite slow, not as if joomla would be a super fast script. As far as i know the new version 1.5 provides much more seo related settings, in faster performance, but you will need to check the compatiblity of the necessary components. Joomla is a robust script and personally i prefer lightweight ones where you may find everything in the code pretty fast. I believe if you want to hack the joomla you need a lot of free hours.

[KingPin]

Thanks for your input Bagi and I agree. I am looking at 1.5. It seems to load fast for me but I'm on a fast connection.

I have just brought a really nice template and I don't need a bunch of plugins, just the SEF one mainly.

Fingers crossed it won't be really slow. At least I can convert it to a static site if need be.

As I say, it's perfect for what I want it for, I just don't know what other CMS can provide what Joomla can.

And right now I'm on the Joomla site looking at SEF plugins/components!!

KP

[Bagi Zoltán]

If you stick to Joomla i suggest you to go with the sh404sef component, that seems to be the best imo. OWG put his vote on modX. I don't know the available plugins for that cms, but i think Joomla know nothing that WP could not solve and there are some advanced caching option for the blogging script.

[KingPin]

The only reason why I'm opting for Joomla is because of the layout etc etc.

Well, guess we'll see how it performs lol.

KP

[OldWelshGuy]

Joomla is VERY heavy on server resourses, epecially when you ar rewriting everything to be Search engine friendly.

[KingPin]

Ok, thanks OWG, I'll take that into consideration.

KP

[RiverWire]

I use it alot, 1.5 is more SEO friendly as it has header and image tags correctly unlike the older versions, as already stated it also loads slightly quiker. I really like JoomSEF for SEO friendly URL's i havent tried the one that bagi uses but id recommend JoomSef to anyone.

[tb987]

I also use Joomla for several sites - this is the best SEF plugin Sakic.Net web development - Sef advance IMHO

[KingPin]

Thanks for all your input guys.

After careful consideration I will opt for Joomla. I have never used to before so it will be a learning curve but one that could turn out to be good.

If all else fails I can just switch to CSS. I'm hoping that's not the case tho.

KP