As a web development agency, one question you may hear from many of your prospective clients is, “Can you build me this website?” No one likes to turn away business, so I bet almost all of you say “Yes, of course, we can build you a website with <CMS>“ and then rush to YouTube to find out how to use it.
Stop, you are doing it wrong!!
They chose you!
The prospective client has contacted you either as a result of a recommendation from an existing client or because they admired the sites you have created and showcased in your portfolio.
Were any of those built using <CMS>? No? So why are you agreeing to use that to build this new site? They’ve chosen you because they want to work with you. They like your previous work, and other people have said that you are great to work with.
What you should be saying is:
“No, we don’t build websites with<CMS>. We are experts at building websites using Joomla, and that’s our CMS of choice.
Joomla is the technology stack behind all the sites in our portfolio that you like so much.
Joomla is the technology that enables us to work the most efficiently and productively and to be able to deliver a website that will match all your needs.
Joomla is the technology that empowers us to produce websites on time and on budget.
Be an expert – lead don’t follow
When you become an expert in one CMS then your productivity increases. Increased productivity results in shorter build times. Shorter build times allow you to create more sites for more clients. More sites for more clients means more revenue.
When you are an expert, the sites that you build will take full advantage of your skills, and there will be nothing that you cannot achieve.
Joomla hits that sweet spot between being a powerful tool to customize your content types and being easy to use.
Why you should choose to be a Joomla Expert or Why Joomla wins the SPACE RACE
SEO, Performance, Accessibility, Customisation, Extendibility
Reliability, Access Control, Ease of use
SEO
Installing Joomla for the first time, you will already have a perfect SEO score on PageSpeed Insights. There is no need to purchase, install, and configure an addon – you already have everything you need.
When it comes to SEO readiness, Joomla has the edge over WordPress. The CMS is SEO-ready out of the box – for example, users can set keywords and meta descriptions for new articles, something that requires extra plugins with WordPress.com.
Author: The WordPress.com Team
Performance
A website built with Joomla uses all the latest techniques for ensuring optimal performance.
jQuery is the new Flash – Once it was everywhere, and now it should be nowhere.
Joomla doesn’t require the use of jQuery for your scripts and instead relies on browser-native, vanilla JavaScript.
Vanilla JavaScript is the core language of JavaScript, meaning that it is the pure form of the language and doesn’t need any additional libraries or frameworks. This makes it lightweight and fast. Your scripts don’t need to be compiled, translated, or interpreted into something that your browser understands.
It may not seem obvious at first how much of a performance hit you take when you use jQuery, after all, it’s a relatively small download. But that’s not where it smacks you in the face and impacts performance. Whenever you use a script that requires jQuery, the user is having to execute the framework on their device in order to parse your script. As vanilla JavaScript is supported directly by your browser, you miss this out completely.
Depending on the operation you’re comparing, vanilla JavaScript can be up to 10x to 25x faster.
Only Load it when you need it
You should never consider loading every image on every page. It might save a little time when loading future pages, but that comes at the expense of terrible performance on that first page. So bad that the visitor might not even wait to view that page or reach subsequent pages.
The same is true for JavaScript. When you need to add a script to a Joomla website, it’s only loaded when you need it and not on every page. Do you really need to load a script for your payment processor on the homepage? – surely it makes sense to only load it on your checkout page.
Accessibility
Joomla takes accessibility seriously. It is not an add-on or something that you do at the end of the build process – this is integral to everything Joomla does. By making a website accessible, it becomes usable for a wider range of people, including those who may use assistive technologies such as screen readers or keyboard-only navigation. And not just for those that are visiting the website but for anyone working with Joomla to build an online project.
Ensuring that you build an accessible site is about so much more than being legally compliant. It’s about “doing the right thing”.
“Working on @joomla accessibility with @brianteeman. These folks take it seriously, which is totes refreshing. “
Author: Bruce Lawson,
As a free bonus, by building an accessible website, you also remove barriers for people using mobile devices, older browsers, and slow internet connections.
Customization
As a Joomla expert, you will benefit from being able to do more with the core app rather than relying heavily on extensions. Knowing when to customize and when to extend can make all the difference.
Joomla is designed so that you can customize almost everything, all without touching a single core file and with nothing more than your web browser. It is done in such a way that it is always safe to update to the latest release without the fear of any of your customizations being lost and having to repeat your work.
Extendibility
What other CMS solutions may consider to be optional extras for you to discover, and integrate into your site, Joomla considers to be essential features that are included by default. Not only does this reduce your development time, but it also ensures that the quality, security, and reliability of the code is consistent. This also guarantees that all core features are fully integrated and share the same user interface.
Although Joomla comes with many perks, there will always be something special that you wish to add to your website. That can be as small as a “Thought for the Day” or as large as an “Event Management and Ticketing system”. There are thousands of easy-to-install extensions available for you to choose from.
You won’t need to use them to generate some obscure code that you have to insert into a post as you might need to do with another CMS. The extensions follow the same approach as the rest of Joomla, which means they carry all the same benefits when it comes to customization and extendibility. They are also fully integrated so that you won’t know where Joomla stops and the extension begins. It all becomes a single unified entity.
Joomla speaks many languages (at the same time)
When it comes to building a site in a language other than English, Joomla has you covered. With over 50 supported languages, you can create pages that best suit you and your target audience. If you speak French and the client speaks Arabic – you can both use Joomla in your own language at the same time. It doesn’t force you to work in English as other software solutions may do.
Multilingualism is not just for the user interface. Joomla has all the tools to create a website in any language. The CMS has you covered with automatic language detection for your visitors and translation management tools for your content creators.
Non-Latin character sets and/or right-to-left languages are all directly supported out of the box – there is no complicated and time-consuming configuration and customization required.
Use the CSS framework of your choice
By default, Joomla uses the Bootstrap 5 CSS framework, but if you prefer to use another such as UIkit, Tailwind, or your own in-house framework to design your sites – that’s not a problem.
Every single part of the presentation layer can be customized if needed. Joomla even comes with a change management system for the presentation layer so that you can easily see on a side-by-side view if any updates in Joomla may have an impact on your modifications.
If design is not your thing, there are thousands of readymade templates available that you can use if you prefer. All of these can, of course, be modified to match any brand style guide.
Reliability
No software is ever bug-free or completely invulnerable to cyber attacks.
Even a pencil has a bug, you can break the lead, and a critical security vulnerability, anyone can pick it up and use it for whatever they want.
Joomla is a secure software platform that is provided on a model of shared responsibility. The Joomla contributors are committed to developing a secure and bug-free CMS by regularly releasing patches and security fixes when needed.
Your responsibility is to keep Joomla and any extensions up-to-date, configure the website correctly, and implement the best practices for security. Updates are always easy to install and don’t require any special skills or knowledge, and extensive documentation and guidance is always available.
As Joomla is an open-source software, perhaps it’s biggest benefit is that this allows for transparency and collaboration. The source code is freely available for anyone to view and modify. The more popular it is – the more developers will be reviewing and improving it.
“given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.”
Author: Eric S Raymond
Anyone can see how the software works. If they find any bugs, there is an open issue tracker where these can be reported. Analogically, if they have found a fix – they can contribute that fix for inclusion on the next patch release of Joomla. This ensures that the time between a bug being identified and a fix being released is considerably shorter than what would be found in more traditional software.
Access Control and Authentication
Joomla has an advanced access control system (ACL), which allows you to set different levels of access for different users and user groups. This makes it a great choice for a website with multiple contributors or for an ecommerce or membership site.
You can easily control not only what your visitors can see but also what they can do. If you want to give access to someone who writes or translates your content, you don’t have to give them rights to change anything else. This gives you the freedom to let your client make changes to only the parts of the site that you want. You don’t have to give them all the keys to the door where they can fiddle around and break things.
Whenever you give someone access to your site, whether it is to read premium content, add a new activity to the calendar, or correct some content – you must always do it securely. Joomla includes everything you need to authenticate your users.
You can set your own rules for password complexity; you can require two-factor authentication such as with a hardware token (eg, a YubiKey) or one-time passwords (eg Google Authenticator); you can use the modern WebAuthn protocol to provide passwordless authentication and multi-factor authentication that supports hardware tokens, one time passwords, and even Windows Hello.
It doesn’t stop there. With a robust action log and version management, you can see who changed what and when. Maybe in the future, with AI, you will also be able to see why they made the change, but for now, that is one thing that you can’t do.
Easy to use
Joomla is recognized as an easy-to-use platform and has won many industry awards.
As with all software, the more you use Joomla, the easier it becomes. No one wants to start the day dreading their work because of the battles they face making the software do what they want. When you become a Joomla expert, you will wonder why you didn’t make the decision earlier.
If you ever get stuck, there is an almost inexhaustible set of resources available to help you along the way. The very latest Joomla release even includes step-by-step walkthroughs for many of the major features.
Joomla is not only the correct platform for you today, it is also the correct platform for you tomorrow as you expand and grow.
Hosting matters
Don’t be a Hosting Expert
Building websites and managing web servers are completely different tasks that require their own skill sets. Don’t try to cut corners and manage the servers yourself. That’s not where your time and expertise is best served, and unless your time is free, it will become a very expensive venture.
Find a web host that you can build a partnership with, and that understands the path to a profitable and successful relationship is by being there for you when you need them.
Changing your hosting provider is not something that you want to do often. It’s like buying a new house. Sounds quick and easy, but it never is. So make sure you get it right.
- Performance
A good web host will provide fast and reliable servers that can handle the traffic and load of your website. - Security
A good web host will provide a secure environment, including regular backups, firewalls, and other security measures. - Technical support
A good web host will offer quick and efficient technical support that is available anytime, night or day. - Scalability
A good web host will ensure you can easily scale your website as your business grows. - Cost
A good web host will give you value for money and pricing plans that you can rely on as your business grows.
How can Joomla and ScalaHosting help developers?
Knowing all of the above, pairing the Joomla CMS with the best possible host for the job is essential for your future success.
This is where ScalaHosting comes into play.
Тhe VPS-oriented host partners up with Joomla to deliver a unique and unforgettable experience for all web developers and agencies.
Clients get access to SPanel, with intuitive Admin and User interfaces to easily operate their server and hosting accounts. Installing a new Joomla instance takes no more than a few mouse clicks and unique Scala tools like SShield and Joomla Manager further complement your experience.
Choosing a VPS hosting for Joomla is a natural choice for any type of business. Virtual servers ensure a secure environment with guaranteed system resources for each client. Those resources are also scalable, meaning you can easily add more as the need arises.
Contact the ScalaHosting Team with any questions regarding Joomla hosting – they are available 24/7 for your assistance.
