A content management system like Joomla is as beneficial for what you can do on an ongoing basis as it is for the original creation of a website. When it comes to troubleshooting your website “in progress”, there is an array of tips and tricks that will make the process a lot easier, and this is just one of the reasons why Joomla has become such a popular site for people who would otherwise find the maintenance of a website to be a headache they could do without.

The following are some of those tips and tricks.

• For sites where you have a registered list of users, Joomla allows you to block problem users rather than delete their account. This means that you can “suspend” users rather than simply banning them.
• Joomla separates the HTML for content and design. This allows you to make smaller specific changes without having to change the whole coding of your website.
• If you are using Joomla for sales purposes, then you can install a PayPal module into an article, allowing you to streamline your sales process by keeping the sales content and the payment screen on the same page.
• During the spells when downtime is unavoidable, you can display your own “Site Offline” page which is relevant to your site. This allows you to make the experience more personal, and to include updates on when the site will be back up and why it is down.
• Joomla allows you to edit your “favicon”. This is the little icon that shows up on the corner of a tab in your web browser. Therefore, instead of having the default Joomla favicon showing, you can have your own personalized one, making for a more distinct site identity.
• When writing articles on Joomla it is possible to include an alternative title. This title will not be seen by your readers but is used for SEO purposes – so if you want to have a specific title showing to interest or amuse your readers, and another one to attract search engine “crawlers”, you can.
• Although it might be tempting to load a “splash” entry page as the first thing people will see when they come to your site, forget about it. You can have one of those on a set-piece secondary page if you really must, but these pages have no text on them and that means that search engines will wander on by – ruining your traffic numbers.
• Always fill out the Meta Description and Meta Keyword fields when you are updating a page on your site. As a default, these are loaded with Joomla-specific information and it means that when people search for the terms which apply to your site, they will find … sites that are not yours. Even if your site does show up, there is a chance that the description underneath will read “Joomla – the dynamic portal engine and content management system”. Which won’t make them visit, most of the time.