How does Wordpress compare to Joomla?
04/02/2010
- Both Wordpress and Joomla are ‘free’.
- Both Wordpress and Joomla are poor for SEO when installed in default settings.
- Both Wordpress and Joomla have plugins for SEO and other functionality which require varying skill to install.
- Both Wordpress and Joomla have the problem that many ‘unsafe’ and badly written plugins exist, making the website non safe in terms of hacking. Anyone using these plugins is unlikely to realise this – or why are they using the plugin?
- Wordpress is simpler to use, simpler to install.
- Joomla can do more, but most installations we have seen end up being a confusing mess and the Joomla system ends up adding considerable time (ie cost) to any changes in website layout.
For many websites we would recommend Wordpress in comparison to Joomla, but in general we would recommend the Cornish CMS which is a CMS written from the start to be search engine optimised. The Cornish CMS does not have ‘SEO modules’ – it is one search engine optimised system. The extra modules are for ‘nice to have’ functionality, not for one of the most fundamental requirements ie visibility on the search engines.
Do you use Wordpress?
Of course! For research and to ensure we can give good advise.
How we could we write on advise clients about Wordpress if we have not used it? We carry out ongoing research for SEO comparing Wordpress to our own Articles system. We use Wordpress on our eXtraSearch blog. Wordpress does have some useful features for articles and is an effective blogging tool. But in preference we use Cornish Articles (used for this article) as to date the SEO performance is better.
We do not use Wordpress for any standalone website for our business. This is because SEO is so key, and a Wordpress website is not as effective in terms of SEO.
