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The Open Source War – Joomla vs Wordpress
Friday, 19 August 2011
Search Engine Friendliness Deciding on a CMS system can be a tedious task. There are many opinions and articles on the topic and the open source war is still ongoing. Wordpress and Joomla are arguably the biggest and most popular CMS systems available, and with good reason. Both Joomla and Wordpress have outstanding qualities and benefits in different perspectives. Deciding which would hold the most advantages for you needs some investigation and research.
Straight out the box Joomla’s default SEO settings are non-existent, but with a quick overview of the setup manual you can set up user friendly URLs and customise the meta-data of each individual page. Wordpress on the other hand is more of a plug and play option and a lot more SEO friendly. Google loves Wordpress, except of course when you have a fully customizable website, then the SEO responsibilities lie in the hands of the developer. Bottom line is that both CMS systems can be fully optimized, Wordpress just requires a little less work. However, if you do have the experience and knowhow, Joomla comes highly recommended.
CMS Usability Right off the bat, and thousands would agree, if you looking to set up a blog or simple blogger style website in under 24 hours, you are going to want to go with Wordpress. The Wordpress popularity is evident to this. The simple straight forward and very user friendly backend design will get you publishing content, creating pages, galleries and forms in no time at all. The downside is unless you have a good understanding of coding or have someone who can customise Wordpress you won’t be able to get away from the “blog” look and feel. Joomla unlike Wordpress is first and foremost a content management system (CMS) that is primarily used to build websites. If you are looking to build a corporate website, portal, intranet, online magazine, ecommerce, reservations or any other site that requires greater functionality, Joomla wins hands down. The disadvantage of Joomla is that it requires a lot more patience to master, which isn’t the biggest train smash. For a static website Wordpress is King, for more opportunities Joomla takes the crown.
In a nutshell Both Joomla and Wordpress have extensions and plugins to make building the ideal website and running it much less of a headache than in previous years. Social media integration and SEO are hardly comparable since both CMS systems have equal pros and cons depending on the user. That is what it boils down to – the end user. It all depends on what you want to do with the CMS system. If you want to add an affiliate program then Joomla will be the best option since you can easily add it the same way you would add an extension. If your goals call for a blog or even a more interactive website, Wordpress could be a viable option. This platform is highly regarded as the most streamlined publishing tool available, allowing you to get online fast with little to no technical knowledge. Joomla is better for managing a larger amount of more complex content. In the end, an expert user should be able to make the most of both solutions. With all the available plugins, Wordpress can be extended to the point where you wouldn’t know the site was power by a blogging tool. If this platform can’t deliver the functionality you need, a genuine CMS such as Joomla makes a great choice. The key is knowing what you need to get the job done and making the right choice from the start.
 

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