When I get asked about Joomla as a platform for building websites, I am often asked about how well they can be optimised for SEO.
Yoast SEO is a popular SEO plugin that is associated mainly with WordPress sites… but can it be used in Joomla?
In this article, we will discuss how SEO friendly Joomla is compared to other CMS and whether you can use Yoast or any SEO plugin to help optimise your websites.
What is Joomla?
- What is Joomla?
- Is Joomla good for SEO?
- What platforms does Yoast use?
- Does anyone still use Joomla?
- How can you improve your SEO in Joomla?
- Is Joomla better than WordPress?
- Conclusion
Joomla is an open-source Content Management System that allows users to build dynamic websites and web-based applications.
Joomla is the fifth most used content management system behind the likes of WordPress and Shopify. It has a number of features that make it great for bloggers to use with their RSS feed and caching features.
Joomla is written in PHP and the site data is stored in a MySQL database and is a CMS platform that is used globally.
Is Joomla good for SEO?
The user interface for Joomla is not the easiest to navigate when compared to the likes of WordPress and Shopify. Whilst Joomla has great potential to rank highly in terms of its out the gate performance unless you know the platform well, then it can be challenging to optimise your website well.
Joomla requires a lot of care in order to get your on-page SEO executed successfully and may require experience of the platform and some coding knowledge. It does allow you to add metadata including titles and descriptions at a page level but certainly, it is not as easy to implement these things directly through the platform.
There are Joomla SEO extensions that you can install that make your SEO management easier but again, you need experience of the platform in order to install them to your Joomla instance. You can follow this guide that tells you in full how you can install an extension for your website.
What platforms does Yoast use?
Yoast SEO plugin is available on a number of content management systems. Some of the platforms Yoast is available on include:
- WordPress
- Shopify
- Neos CMS
- Drupal
Whilst Yoast is one of the more popular SEO plugins, it is actually not available with Joomla. The free version of Yoast is used widely by website owners but is not a Joomla SEO plugin that is available if you use it to build your website.
Does anyone still use Joomla?
Joomla powers around 3% of websites on the internet. Whilst other content management systems like WordPress and Shopify are becoming increasingly popular for website owners, Joomla is certainly a platform that is used.
Joomla is still a platform that is used but its popularity is shrinking wi5h the likes of WordPress, Shopify and Magento becoming far more powerful in what they have to offer.
It may be a platform that is better suited to developers and it might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it is certainly not a platform that is not used. Depending on the level of experience that you have, different platforms offer different design capabilities and it really comes down to personal preference and the way that you work.
How can you improve your SEO in Joomla?
When it comes to improving your SEO in Joomla, whilst it may not be as straightforward as it would be in some of the more popular CMS platforms, there are certain things you can do to improve the experience a potential customer has (and Google) has with your site.
Simple website navigation
Implement website navigation that is easy for users and Google to understand. Ensure that your home page and menu navigation have clear navigation to your subcategories and this will improve the experience that both Googles crawlers and potential customers will have with your website.
Internal linking
Build internal links where you see fit. Whilst you should not overbuild internal links, if there are opportunities that make sense within your content, then you should always look to build internal links when you can.
Off-page SEO
Building links on other websites that are relevant to what it is your site offers will help you build relevance for what it is that you offer. Link building is a great way to help build the authority of your website and is a key part of any SEO campaign.
Schema markup
Schema is a great way to tell Google about what it is certain pages are about within your website. Structured data is implemented within the header of your HTML and helps Google read your web pages far easier. You can implement reviews and make your search result snippet far more attractive for potential customers to click, in turn improving CTR.
Is Joomla better than WordPress?
There are significant differences between Joomla and WordPress and both platforms have different functionality. Joomla is a platform that is a lot better suited to web developers with a bit more experience whilst WordPress offers a more inclusive solution to anyone looking to create a website. Whilst both offer SEO extension integration, for the average web designer, WordPress is by far easier to get to grips with. The majority of website designers will say that WordPress is actually better than Joomla just for the fact that it’s far easier to set up and more scalable if you require multiple users on the website.
Conclusion
Whilst Yoast SEO might not be available for Joomla, there are other alternatives that you can use for your website if you are using this platform. Yoast SEO is generally a plugin that is mainly associated with WordPress but there are certainly alternatives that you can use. Joomla as a CMS platform is becoming less popular than it once was because of the likes of Shopify and WordPress that make editing content and search engine optimisation far easier.
