Joomla vs WordPress
I’m using Joomla for the main website and WordPress for blogging. Both software were installed in the same server using two MySQL accounts. Joomla provide the best content management system I’ve seen in open-source software. As for now, I don’t think I should try other software to compare with its content management system. Somehow, one thing I don’t like about using Joomla is the SEO. Comparing to the WordPress blog, I am really not satisfied with my traffic to the main website (Joomla page) because I have not received any traffic from search engines to the Joomla site eventhough they are indexed but every articles in this WordPress blog got most of their readers from the search engines moments after they are published. I am still figuring if there are problems in my setting that might have causes this or I might need additional plug-ins or modules to overcome the problem.
Joomla was chosen for the main website because the content management system allow me to organize the contents with sections, categories, and manage their placement in the website. Modules are used in Joomla that are quite similar to widgets in WordPress. These modules can be placed anywhere on the website at predefined places such as right column, header, footer, or user defined locations. The standard mod_banner module allow banners or advertisements to be managed easily with option to limit the number of banners to appear. This allow you to have as many advertisement in the website but limit only some of them to appear at one time either randomly or by keywords related to articles. The mod_section module allow menus to be made automatically based on how many sections you are using in the websites. Front Page Manager in Joomla let users to specify whether an article is to be shown on the front page or only in their selected categories giving dynamic and organized feature to the website. Joomla main template use simple php and css coding allowing template modification to be made just on one file. This is quite similar to Blogger xml template as everything are in one single file.
Even though most of the standard feature are great, more add-ons or plugins are required to unleash the true potential a Joomla website. I’ve just installed a patch last night for my Joomla 1.5.9 version containing SEO fixes and still waiting to see what the patch can do for my website. There are a lot of add-ons for Joomla in the community websites but searching for the best and most helpful is quite a messy job.
WordPress is the ultimate blogging software ever. Even without any plugins, the software has already been optimised for search engines. Adding additional plugins will only boost the standard capability of the software. With so many webmasters creating their own plugins for WordPress, users should just browse the plugins database if they have any problems with their standard WordPress features. In WordPress, widgets can be placed anywhere but limited to areas predefined in the template. Some template only allow widgets on the sidebar while some allow widgets to be placed in the bottom section of the page. Comparing to Joomla template, WordPress uses many different files for each headers, post pages, sidebars, and footers. These files need to be modified seperately to modify blog appearance. The php coding used to links these files together could somehow confuse users especially to those whose not really good with php.
There are not much to say about WordPress since you can simply find the solution for any problem by browsing the plugins database. WordPress have the best SEO tools that will help to bring visitors within minutes. The only thing I don’t like is the content placement is really limited to templates or layouts. I don’t know if there is any WordPress template that allow widgets to be added to any part of the page such as header, footer, or sidebar as what you see in Blogger. Joomla have this feature only without the ability to drag and place the widgets (module) anywhere we want to.
Conclusion:
For organized contents and more corporate look, Joomla can be a good choice as you can choose to let an article to appear on the front page, in their categories or only to specified user category. You can also do this to modules and let only registered users to have access to some menu or contents. If you want to have the best blogging experience, use WordPress with a good template. After installing some top rated plugins, all you have to worry is what to write about in your blog. You can see why I used both software if you compare the articles in this blog to those in the main website. I also hope that the advantages of both softwares will help to popularize my website. If any of you are using both just like I did, please share your experience in the comment box.
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thanks for giving nice difference in between wordpress and joomla
thanks for posting.
i am a webmaster myself and i always seek information on the net on how to increase website traffice and make a good website”.~
I have never used both Joomla and WordPress in one site, but I have worked with them both on separate projects and personally, I like wordpress way better than Joomla! In my experience, wordpress is much easier to design and customize than Joomla is and I think that clients find it easier to use too.