You may be thinking about using this common CMS (Content Management System) package for your next website. In this article, I will explain why I would advise against this if you want your website to perform responsively.
Whilst Joomla is often used to host websites, it relies on a wide range of extras to get the websites on it to function in a way that the user wants. These extras are often referred to as “plugins” or “modules”. The plugins are pieces of code which manipulate the base software or enhance it to achieve an end result needed by the user.
The problem with this approach is two-fold. Firstly, Joomla is already quite heavy on code and has to process a variety of scripts to render the web page to the user’s browser. Secondly, plugins are generally a “one size fits all” solution, often using more code to achieve their result. Moreover, some of these plugins are quite expensive. And for the free ones, they can often be poorly coded and introduce a whole range of issues ranging from styling issues to breaking your website entirely. When you combine both these factors together, the end result is a lot of code (some of it unnecessary) in your web page. This extra code results in your web pages becoming very code heavy, or in other words, bloated.
Bloated web pages take far longer to download to the user’s browser and to then render the content. The more plugins on the page, the longer it takes for the web browser to display the information. This can have a negative effect not only to the end user but also in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). For example, Google penalises slower loading, code heavy websites over faster ones when it comes to search results.
That is why the website I design for you doesn’t rely on a multitude of plugins, add-ons or scripts and is hosted on highly scalable servers meaning that your website will load quickly. This will not only reflect well in terms of SEO for your website but will also ensure your end-users are kept engaged.
If you’d like to find out more about how I can help you with your website requirements, send me a message via the contact form, or email me.
