That is the fifth publish in our sequence the place we check the on-page search engine optimisation of the world’s hottest CMS techniques.
We beforehand coated WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, and GoDaddy.
This time we’re turning our consideration to Joomla. Particularly, Joomla 5 which was formally launched in October 2023.
We had already examined Joomla 3 and Joomla 4 prior to now. Whereas Joomla 3 nonetheless had a couple of gaps in its search engine optimisation performance, Joomla 4 just about closed all of them. Now, with the brand new launch of Joomla 5, we have been curious to see if Joomla has improved its search engine optimisation performance even additional – perhaps even making it to #1 in our general comparability?
Learn on to find:
- how effectively arrange for on-page search engine optimisation Joomla 5 is out of the field,
- how one can configure your Joomla website to rank increased in Google
Let’s get began with a abstract.
In Abstract: Is Joomla good for search engine optimisation?
Joomla is an open-source CMS. You’ve acquired full entry to the underlying code and may also create your personal plugins/extensions to switch the system’s core performance.
So with some coding chops (and the posh of time), we’d wager that there’s nothing you may’t do to totally optimize your Joomla website.
However with that being mentioned, on this sequence, we’re specializing in the out-of-the-box search engine optimisation performance of the foremost CMS techniques. Give or take a couple of plugins/extensions, we wish to hold our arms (and web site) fairly clear.
Earlier in 2021, we examined Joomla 3. And whereas we preferred it general, there have been positively a couple of gaps within the CMS’s search engine optimisation performance. Later, we additionally examined Joomla 4, and it already plugged many of the holes we bumped into by then.
The excellent news?
Joomla 5 is even higher!
Every little thing we like to regulate for on-page search engine optimisation will be configured in Joomla’s admin space. And we have been additionally impressed with Joomla 5’s out-the-box pace — with solely minimal tweaks required to get a powerful rating on Google’s PageSpeed Insights.
How we examined the search engine optimisation capabilities of Joomla
Like WordPress, it’s tough to check Joomla in isolation as a lot of its search engine optimisation efficiency will likely be right down to particular person configurations (i.e. host/server) and selections (templates/extensions).
However as with our earlier assessments, we tried to maintain extensions/plugins to a minimal, configuration to as near “out the field” as potential, and opted for widespread templates.
Right here’s what we did:
- We arrange a small check website on an A2 internet hosting plan with the identical specs because the server internet hosting our earlier WordPress check website
- We added demo content material just like our different check websites
- We tried out 3 Joomla search engine optimisation extensions (and settled on one)
- We examined 2 of the preferred Joomla templates (Helix Final, and Joomla 5’s default Cassiopeia template)
- Exams included handbook assessment, working the positioning via our personal search engine optimisation audit software, and testing utilizing third-party instruments comparable to Google’s PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix.
Which Joomla search engine optimisation extensions did we attempt?
Whereas testing each Joomla 4 and Joomla 5, we road-tested three search engine optimisation extensions:
So which can we suggest?
Firecoders Route66
It’s as shut as you’ll get to a WordPress search engine optimisation plugin like YOAST for Joomla, whereas additionally being free to make use of. You’ll get snippet previews and full management over all the important thing on-page search engine optimisation fundamentals.
Fairly merely, Joomla 5 and Route66 go collectively like peas and carrots.
Any downsides?
Not likely.
In precise truth, Joomla 5 covers most, if not all necessary search engine optimisation performance straight out of the field. So, regardless that we selected to make use of Route66 for a few additional nifty options, it’s not required for many on-page tinkering.
Joomla search engine optimisation: The nice, the unhealthy, and the ugly
Earlier than reviewing Joomla’s management of on-page search engine optimisation components, let’s run via a few of the search engine optimisation highlights (and lowlights) of the platform.
Good: Joomla 5 is lightning-fast out-of-the-box
Joomla 4 was already tremendous quick and this stays the case for Joomla 5.
With out putting in any third-party extensions, our check website (when working on Cassiopeia) scored 93/100 on PageSpeed Insights cellular.
What did we do to optimize the positioning’s pace?
Completely nothing.
Notice: Joomla 5 is tremendous quick out of the field. However poorly optimized templates, or sub-optimal server configurations might nonetheless gradual it down. So take a look at our web page pace optimization information for a ton of suggestions.
The unhealthy: Fewer assets accessible if you wish to make customized adjustments in comparison with another CMSs
Though this sequence focuses primarily on search engine optimisation fundamentals, there might come a time when you should add some customized code or stray away from the fundamental configuration settings provided out of the field.
Now, we should admit that we’re nitpicking a bit of bit right here…
That is one thing we haven’t talked about for different CMSs which do have the identical concern. Nevertheless, when in comparison with a CMS like WordPress, there are fewer beginner-friendly assets on the market for extra superior adjustments.
This positively shouldn’t be a dealbreaker although. Most issues are very straightforward in Joomla and, whenever you embody plugins, customized adjustments are few and much between.
The ugly: Out-of-the-box many primary search engine optimisation settings are buried
It may be- straightforward to overlook primary search engine optimisation settings because of the method Joomla’s customary management panel is organized.
For instance, on an article, the search engine optimisation title is buried proper on the backside of the choices tab…
…whereas the meta description is positioned below the publishing tab.
Wouldn’t it make extra sense to have these in the identical place?
On-Web page search engine optimisation Fundamentals: How does Joomla measure up?
Now let’s flip our consideration to regulate of a few of the elementary on-page search engine optimisation components.
Does Joomla cowl all of them?
Just about. We’d have preferred to have seen higher management of templating for titles and meta descriptions. However apart from that, Joomla 5 with the Route66 extension put in has you coated.
Right here’s our abstract once more.
Notice: having management of an search engine optimisation rating issue just isn’t equal to its optimization. search engine optimisation audit instruments like Seobility provide recommendation on easy methods to correctly optimize every factor and discover errors in optimization that could be holding again your website. See our search engine optimisation audit information for extra info on easy methods to absolutely optimize your web site.
search engine optimisation Titles and Meta Descriptions
Management in Joomla: sure
A web page’s title continues to be one of the vital necessary on-page rating components. And a well-written meta description can assist you get extra click-throughs (though Google received’t at all times use it).
The excellent news is, you may set web page titles and descriptions in an out-of-the-box Joomla 5 set up. However you’ll have to know the place to look.
The search engine optimisation title (which Joomla calls “Browser Web page Title”) is tucked away on the (VERY) backside of the choices panel…
Edit Article > Choices > Browser Web page Title
…whereas the meta description setting is bundled below the “Publishing” tab.
Edit Article > Publishing > Metadata > Meta Description
We expect it might make extra sense to maintain these collectively. However no biggie.
When you’re utilizing Route66, you get an additional search engine optimisation tab the place you may set a goal key phrase and consider a preview of how your publish will look within the SERPs.
This may even provide you with an search engine optimisation rating, very like Yoast does for WordPress.
Candy.
Relating to templating titles, sadly, there’s no straightforward technique to do it.
You may select to incorporate your website identify in your titles as a prefix or suffix in your website’s international configuration.
System > International Configuration > search engine optimisation
And naturally, if you wish to write some customized code, you’re free to create a customized title (or meta description) format in your template (directions right here).
Study extra about search engine optimisation Titles and Meta Descriptions
Web page slug / URL
Management in Joomla: sure
We suggest creating brief, descriptive, 2-3 phrase slugs, together with the first key phrase (or phrase) for every web page. Use hyphens to separate phrases.
Earlier variations of Joomla did assist search engine pleasant URLs. However the course of was a bit of fiddly and you’ll most likely have wished to make use of an extension to handle them.
Fortuitously, Joomla 4 has made the method of enabling (and managing) search engine pleasant URLs rather more simple which remains to be the case for Joomla 5.
Your first step is to allow “Search Engine Pleasant URLs” and “Use URL Rewriting” within the search engine optimisation panel of worldwide config.
System > International Configuration > search engine optimisation
As soon as enabled, you’ll have to rename htaccess.txt (present in your website’s root listing) to .htaccess for those who haven’t performed so already.
After which you should use the “Alias” area to set a search engine pleasant slug for a person article.
Study extra about URL slugs/permalinks
Canonical URLs
Management in Joomla: sure
On smaller websites, you most likely received’t want to fret about this.
However if in case you have a sequence of comparable pages in your website — i.e. focusing on the identical key phrases, or with very small variations in content material — there could also be instances whenever you’ll wish to set a canonical (grasp) URL.
This helps to keep away from duplicate content material points.
Route66 robotically handles matching URLs, including a canonical pointing to the principle web page. This covers most causes of duplicate content material.
Nevertheless, if you’d like extra granular management, you’re going to want one other plugin. Plenty of Joomla plugins for canonicalization can be found.
Index management (robots meta tag)
Management in Joomla: sure
The robots meta tag instructs Google to both index (1), or to not index (2) a web page:
- – index this web page please Google
- – ignore this web page please Google (however comply with the hyperlinks on it)
You don’t really want the primary one as (assuming your web page meets their high quality requirements) indexing is Google’s default motion. However it doesn’t do any hurt to have it in place.
Joomla 5 allows you to set this within the “Publishing” tab of an article’s edit display screen.
Edit Article > Publishing > Metadata > Robots
I switched to the Route66 plugin as a result of it’s free – utilizing a paid plugin isn’t a good comparability. It doesn’t provide canonicalization within the free plan, however there are free plugins on the market.
We will probably change this to “partially” for those who choose, though it technically is feasible with a free plugin.
Study extra about index management
Heading Tags (h1, h2, h3 and so on)
Management in Joomla: sure
Heading tags (h1, h2, h3, and so on) assist Google perceive the construction and subject(s) of your web page.
They need to be correctly nested.
For instance, an h1 tag would usually be the principle subject (degree 1), an h2 a subtopic (degree 2), and an h3 a sub-sub subject (degree 3), and so forth.
(subject of the web page)
Goldfish
(subtopic)
Caring to your goldfish
(subtopic of goldfish)
Clear your fish’s tan
okay usually (subtopic of caring to your goldfish)
Cats
(subtopic)
Caring to your cat
(subtopic of cats)
Joomla helps a full vary of heading tags from H1-H6.
Because it ought to!
Study extra about heading tags
Schema Markup
Management in Joomla: sure
Structured information (also referred to as schema) can assist Google perceive:
- the kind of content material on a web page (i.e. recipe, assessment, product, article),
- the entity behind the web site (i.e. group),
- and will also be used to point out extra search options (wealthy snippets)
When you’re not accustomed to structured information and its influence on search engine optimisation, we suggest studying our wealthy snippets information.
You’ve acquired a number of choices for together with customized schema in your Joomla web site and pages.
First up, there are a number of specialised extensions, comparable to this one from tassos.gr (free and paid variations accessible). They make it straightforward so as to add schema and a few will even do all the factor for you.
However you may as well handle schema straight in Joomla 5!
Navigate to Edit Article > Schema and click on the hyperlink to get arrange:
You may then add your group schema and click on on the save button. After doing that, navigate again to your publish and click on on the schema tag once more.
Now, you must be capable of add Schema.org schema to your pages and articles.
After filling it in, click on save and also you’re good to go!
Study extra about structured information and wealthy snippets
Picture search engine optimisation
Management in Joomla: sure
The three most necessary components of picture search engine optimisation are:
- Alt textual content (description of the picture for display screen readers and search engines like google and yahoo)
- File measurement (smaller = sooner = higher)
- File identify (we suggest utilizing descriptive file names)
Joomla 5’s customary picture editor helps alt textual content, permits you to change the picture title, and set width and top attributes…
…and so they received’t mess together with your filenames. So so long as you utilize a descriptive filename when saving earlier than importing to Joomla, that’s what you’ll get.
As regards to optimizing picture file sizes, you’ll must deal with that otherwise.
Your choices are to both:
- a) be certain your photographs are compressed earlier than importing (most well-liked, whatever the CMS you’re utilizing), or
- b) set up an extension to compress your photographs for you
When you go for choice b, then the Picture Recycle extension ought to do the trick.
Study extra about picture search engine optimisation
HTTPS
Do Joomla websites run over HTTPS? sure
HTTPS has been a confirmed Google rating sign since 2014.
And as of late, there’s actually no excuse for any website to nonetheless be working over HTTP. However any search engine optimisation advantages, it’s unsecure.
Ensuring your Joomla website runs over HTTPS is your (or your hosts) duty.
That being mentioned, practically all managed hosts will robotically kind you out with a TLS certificates and guarantee it’s configured appropriately.
Study extra about HTTPS
Robots.txt file
Management in Joomla: sure
A robots.txt file permits you to cease search engine bots from accessing sure areas of your website.
For instance, you may need a bit with user-generated content material that you simply don’t need crawled or listed by Google.
Since Joomla is self-hosted, you should use FTP or your file supervisor to straight edit your robots.txt file. Thre’s a web page devoted to the robots.txt file within the official Joomla docs.
There are additionally a variety of free and paid plugins accessible that can assist you obtain this.
Study extra about Robots.txt
XML Sitemaps
Generated by Joomla: sure
An XML sitemap helps Google discover (and index) all of the pages in your website.
And the excellent news is, Route66 will robotically create an XML sitemap to your Joomla website. All it’s important to do is select your required configurations and it’ll do the remainder!
Elements > Route66 > Sitemaps
As you may see, it additionally allows you to exclude particular pages, photographs, and permits you to set numerous different configurations.
Study extra about XML Sitemaps
Are Joomla websites mobile-friendly?
One phrase reply: sure
When designing your Joomla website there’s a great probability you’ll be specializing in the way it appears on desktop.
However cellular site visitors overtook desktop site visitors method again in 2017. And Google now prioritizes the cellular model of your website for crawling and indexing.
Most Joomla templates are mobile-friendly. And if yours just isn’t…
…then it’s time to discover a new one!
It’s so simple as that!
In conclusion: when mixed with the Route66 search engine optimisation extension, Joomla is a superb alternative for search engine optimisation
Joomla has been round for a very long time and has a comparatively massive group.
So it’s no actual shock that there will likely be an answer (be that with an extension or some code tinkering) for many technical search engine optimisation duties that you simply wish to full.
After we beforehand reviewed Joomla 3, we have been important of the drained admin interface and gaps in search engine optimisation performance. And we felt that each one issues thought-about, WordPress was most likely a better option for search engine optimisation, and usually as a CMS.
Joomla 4 already stuffed the search engine optimisation gaps, and the slick new admin interface made it rather more interesting to new customers.
Joomla 5 is even higher, with nice efficiency and lots of search engine optimisation options in-built.
On prime of that, it’s tremendous quick.
Fairly frankly, after spending the previous few years in a slumber — permitting the competitors to march forward — Joomla appears like a challenge that’s alive once more.
And with the fitting information and a stable search engine optimisation technique, there’s no motive your Joomla website can’t rank extremely in Google.
So for those who’re working a Joomla website, right here’s what we suggest:
- run a full search engine optimisation audit (you may comply with this search engine optimisation audit information),
- allocate time to fixing points and optimizing your website (the place potential),
- concentrate on creating high-quality content material that helps your customers and absolutely solutions their search queries,
- construct your website’s authority by incomes prime quality backlinks (take a look at our advisable hyperlink constructing ways)
Notice: This CMS assessment has initially been written in 2021 by David McSweeney and has been up to date for 2024 by Bram Vergouwen. Bram is a search engine optimisation specialist with greater than 6 years of expertise working with firms throughout completely different nations and industries, offering personalized search engine optimisation options and techniques that enhance on-line visibility.
Within the different components of this sequence, we reviewed the on-page search engine optimisation of Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy and WordPress. And we’ve in contrast the search engine optimisation execs and cons of every CMS in a roundup publish, the place we additionally revealed the perfect CMS for search engine optimisation. We are going to publish the up to date model of our roundup within the coming weeks, so keep tuned!
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