3 Business Tips for Better Joomla Site Management

I recently got the following feedback from a frustrated small business client and issues he had with Joomla: 

Streamline Joomla by adding all content, pictures and stories in one location but in different folders. Hunting in Letterman, Stories, Menus, etc is confusing, maybe not to someone that is in it all day, every day. I make changes once and maybe don’t come back for months. I forget when and where to put things. It’s like re-learning the program every year. And to have you do it is cost prohibitive. 

This client is not alone as I hear similar complaints. I know many other small business owners who have issues with Joomla usability and here I would like to comment on 3 tips on how to manage your Joomla site so it works for your business and not against it.

Less is more
When I first speak with new prospects, most of them are excited about all possible extensions that Joomla CMS allows for. There are over 6000 extensions in the official Joomla extension directory. Even when integrated and streamlined in the best possible way, having all these different extensions makes it difficult for clients to later find what they are looking for or accomplish what they would like to do. 

In this particular case, among many extensions that this Joomla site had were extended user management, forum, form builder, newsletter, advanced joomla content editor, weather module, slideshow, directory, recipe extension and more. We even considered adding a shopping cart at one point. Many of these extensions were never used because of lack of time and their criticality to the busines operation. 

Understand your high value website workflows
It is possible to make a lot of changes on your Joomla website. However, only a limited number of them will result in higher conversions and better marketing of your business online. For example, you should create a list of high value items with your Joomla developer and then have her either provide you training or tutorials on how to  manage those important items on a regular basis. This could potentially include creating a new newsletter, publishing a new blog post, approving a new registered member or editing current content on the site. For most small business websites, there are probably 3 to 5 most important business workflows. Knowing how to do those on your own will account for 95% of your website management work. 

Implement your website in the most intuitive and user friendly way
Here you need to hire the best Joomla company because you won't know how to do this yourself. For National Consumer Law Center, we recently replaced a hard to manage front page linked image with a nice looking front page slideshow. This means no more having to know HTML, photoshop and spending extra time when everything is much more automated.

So for your website not to be just an expense, I recommend you to implement high value items, understand workflows that are critical to your organization and set up a good initial foundation which will position you for a sustainable and effective online presence. 

Ogy Nikolic
Joomla Consultant