How to Hire the Best Joomla Developers
Before hiring Joomla developers, it is essential for employers and hiring managers to have a solid understanding of this content management system, its importance in building powerful and dynamic websites, as well as alternatives and hiring solutions you can choose to hire skilled Joomla developers faster and easier.
What is Joomla? Coming in second to WordPress, Joomla (stylised as Joomla!) is one of the most powerful open-source content management systems (CMS) used to power millions of websites of all types and sizes. It is the closest competitor to WordPress which enjoys a CMS market share of around 60%.
With an intuitive management interface that controls the features and functionalities of this CMS, Joomla helps developers to easily create and manage dynamic websites. It is easy to install and simple to manage, providing developers with the balance of power, flexibility, and convenience.
Aside from its inbuilt features and functionalities, Joomla also has various free extensions which web developers can use to extend the functionality of their website.
Moreover, Joomla has a large global community of developers and volunteers who help each other ensure that the content management system is user-friendly, extendable, multilingual, responsive, search engine optimised, and more.
According to W3Techs, about 3.1% of all websites from all over the world run on Joomla. In addition, their statistics also show that nearly 6% of all websites using a well-known CMS rely on Joomla. Despite the rise of WordPress use, Joomla’s market share has remained stable--a good sign that Joomla is holding its own despite the competition.
According to Built With, there are over 2.5 million websites in the world which use Joomla, and a lot of these are in the US.
Joomla.org lists down some of the numerous projects in which Joomla can be used for:
- Corporate websites or portals, intranets and extranets
- Small business websites
- Online magazines, newspapers, and publications
- Government, non-profit and organisational websites
- Community-based, school and church websites or portals
- Personal or family homepages
Why should you hire Joomla developers?
Joomla is a powerful content management system that can support all types and sizes of websites: business websites, corporate websites, online publications, non-profit and organisational websites, government websites, family or personal websites, community-based portal, and more.
With a skilled Joomla developer in your team, you will be able to maximise this CMS to build dynamic websites. Here are more advantages of using Joomla and hiring Joomla developers to create your website:
Build simple and high-performing websites
As mentioned above, Joomla is built to develop different types of websites. Joomla is not only a content management system, but it’s also a lightweight PHP framework that allows web developers to write web and command-line applications in PHP.
Moreover, it is also suitable for developing multi-user and interactive websites like e-commerce sites, forums or social networking sites, intranet platforms, and the like. With its advanced user management system and a wide variety of customisation options, the developer you hire for your Joomla development can implement small customisations with minimal dependence on extensions.
Find the right extensions according to your needs
Joomla has almost 8,000 plugins and themes in its own ecosystem which are efficiently categorised as plugins, templates, components, language, library, module, and package. This categorisation according to functions helps lessen slowdowns and compatibility issues which usually affect website development with other content management systems.
Every extension is clearly labelled and given a rating and reviews (according to functionality, support, ease of use, and documentation) to indicate how helpful it is for users. With a Joomla developer in your team, you can get the most of Joomla’s various extensions to build a functional and interactive website.
Drive traffic to your website
Joomla has inbuilt search engine optimisation tools which developers can readily use:
- Metadata creation and modification
- Keyword planning and monitoring
- Support for SEO-friendly URLs
- Sitemap generation
- Menu creation
Expert Joomla developers can also install extensions to extend the SEO capabilities of this content management system. There are extensions that provide native analytics, some URL redirection functions, and link management.
Other beneficial features
Joomla supports over 70 languages through its language extensions, thus allowing web developers to develop multi-language websites conveniently. There are also other helpful functions such as caching and GZIP compression, image optimisation, and plugin and HTTP requests restriction.
What skills should you look for when hiring Joomla developers?
HTML/CSS
All web developer must master the basics of coding and markup language. HTML is used to build websites and pages and how they function. On the other hand, CSS is used to modify how the contents on the website are displayed; this covers a website’s font, colours, layout, etc.
If HTML builds the skeleton of a website, CSS gives the website its look.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a programming language that is used by developers to make a website more functional and interactive. A Joomla developer with skills and experience in JavaScript will be able to add in search bars, social media share buttons, videos, and the like to make bring your website to life and make it more dynamic.
Analytical skills
Aside from strong technical skills, great Joomla developers also possess significant analytical skills. They must not only build functional and visually-pleasing websites, but they must also build websites that understand consumer behaviours well. Understanding consumers is an essential factor in building websites that sell.
To understand web consumers well, there are a number of tools that help in gathering web statistics, such as Google Analytics, Moz Keyword Explorer, and SEMRush. Skills in analysing web statistics enable developers to better understand specific target audiences and think of strategies to implement to appeal to them.
SEO skills
Websites need SEO to rank better, attract traffic, and ultimately secure leads. Although this is a skill that is usually required in marketing, web developers with at least a basic understanding of SEO and its best practices will be able to help you build a website that performs well on search engines and shows up high enough on result pages.
Some SEO skills that you can look for in your potential Joomla developers are knowledge and experience in boosting page upload speed, domain credibility, and keyword content.
Responsive Design
Nearly 60% of online searches occur on mobile devices. That being said, more and more web consumers use their mobile devices. For your website to stand out from the competition, you must make sure it displays or functions well even on mobile devices. Websites which aren’t functional in mobile devices normally drive off web users, consequently increasing their bounce rate.
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