Pitfalls in changing to something like Joomla?

[dpd1]

So my site is ranking pretty good nowadays. Many product related keywords are getting top ranking. My site was scratch built, and the present-day version is about 6 years old. I would like to be able to do stuff that's a little more dynamic... I'd like to start being able to quickly add news related pieces and such. I'd also like to be able to make site-wide changes without killing myself. The problem is that, doing it manually takes way too much time now. As far as adding products, news pieces and other content... I'd like to be able to just take the photos and other content in a slightly more raw form... add it up there and be done. I would like the site to do more of the grunt work for me. Is something like Joomla a good idea, and if so... Am I looking at a potential SE ranking train wreck by switching?

Thanks for any advice.

[dpd1]

Maybe I should have put this in Web General.

[samc]

I don't think Joomla! is a very good ecommerce solution. It's an extension added on that gives it that function. It's more a question of what commerce system will work for you? I would not start with Joomla! and I'm a big fan of the CMS

[chromahoen]

I love Joomla! For many years I built custom websites. I find using a framework allows me to deploy 90% faster. Also, the community is better than I alone at keeping up with security fixes.

I agree with "samc" that Joomla! is not an eCommerce system. It is a CMS system, however, another page is just another link. Currently, I am using Joomla as my front end CMS and I just link to my Magento store from the CMS. I find no need to integrate logins and other functionality between the two. I recommend Joomla! Especially since version 1.6RC1 has been released as of this post. Joomla can be made to look like your existing site easily. You can launch this without making any changes to your store and get the benefits you are looking for.

Good luck,

Chromahoen

[chromahoen]

As long as your content doesn't change, and you have completed all of the SEO steps in Joomla! Your results could even improve, as a result of your domain age, if you setup Joomla! correctly.

If you know how to build a site from scratch, you can make Joomla! contain the same info in the same order it is now. I would be happy to provide some assistance to get you on the Joomla! fast track. Not a pro joomla user, but I am not a noob, and I can save you months off your learning curve.

[dpd1]

OK, thanks... I'm just in 'thinking about it' mode for now, but I'll keep that in mind. My biggest concern was the SEO thing. I was also thinking about Drupal possibly. I was messing with iWeb today... Obviously not a CMS, but it's sort of a cross over, between full editing and CMS. It handles the core page links and everything automatically, but it's not customizable enough.

I just want an easy way to add content, where it doesn't take a whole day. Like... OK, I want to add this photo page... It would be great to just choose all the photos and have it come up pre made, with all thumbnail links pre done and everything, then pre linked into the core pages... without having to do all the tedious work by hand. Same for news items, were you would just create a new page... enter your photos and text, then get automatic incorporation into the site, with sample headlines on the core page, and thumbnails and all that automatically.

I'm sure that can all be done, but it's just a daunting task to think about having to learn a whole new system just to get to that point, when the whole point is that I'm trying to save time in the first place.

[lorax]

Once you learn a CMS like Joomla, you won't have to learn it again and you'll be able to flex your creativity knowing it's quirks and limits. It's the learning curve and committing that are the hardest to swallow. The learning curve is worth it if the CMS can do what you want. If you're a coder and/or can think spatially, Joomla is a very powerful tool. IMHO - take the time and learn it but prepare for an overhaul of your site within a year or two later. While you can get it up and running pretty quickly, there will be much that you will likely miss in planning and forethought because of a lack of experience.

[BillyS]

I agree with lorax. Once you know something like Joomla, you can very qyickly deploy new ideas. That worry is removed completely.

[dpd1]

I'm sure you're right... It's worth learning. It's just hard to get up the gumption to relearn stuff these days. I recall back when I would actually try all kinds of new stuff, just for fun. Those days are long gone. I was playing with RapidWeaver and gave up after 1/2 hour, and just went back to my trusty DreamWeaver. It's not perfect, but at least I know which parts aren't perfect and how to fix them.