Ever wondered what it takes to develop a website? A perfect combination of content, familiarity with the technicalities, server, web hosting and a perfect Content Management System (CMS). Most of the websites are powered by Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to develop and modify the website with ease.
Choosing the right platform to start web development with is a bit of a confusing task. The debates like which is the best platform or which is more search engine friendly have been going on for quite a while and is likely to stay. If you’re also confused about which platform to use, then this article will be beneficial for you. You might be a budget constraint and doesn’t have enough capital to invest in web development and can’t shell out big bucks, then Content Management System would be the ideal option to opt for.
Search engine optimisation is the crux of websites. There’s no point in developing a website if you can’t get the message out to the buying people. There are millions of websites out there and there might be a possibility that the functionality of your website might be similar to others. In simple words, the more up your site is on the search engines, the maximum number of people will visit your site. That’s something that you want , isn’t it? Your profit is proportional to the number of people visit your site.
This article compares the three most used Content Management System namely- WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. All the three platforms are open source and free plus has dedicated communities of users and developers. They are continuously being improved upon to support the new technologies and enhancing its performance.
So let’s compare them on the different parameter and see which is the best search engine friendly.
1. What are all the platforms about?
WordPress was introduced as a blogging platform but soon emerged as one of the best website developing platforms. With its rich features and the ease of modifying are what make it the most popular content management system. With thousands of plugins, customised themes it is widely used by people all over the world.
Joomla offers a platform for user-friendly and complex websites. With developer oriented and extensive capabilities it is used for having advanced features.
Drupal is an advanced web developing platform and is generally used for building more complex and heavy sites that require extreme advanced technicalities and features. Prior experience of programming experience and some expertise is required.
2. Ease of use:
WordPress: For operating WordPress, you don’t need any technical knowledge. If you don’t belong to technical background, even then you can easily operate the WordPress website. It’s intuitive and easy to use and the installation setup is easy too.
Joomla is less complex. It is in between WordPress and Drupal. Its installation setup is quite complicated as compared with WordPress. You need to spend some efforts and time into understanding its structure and terminology.
Drupal requires technical expertise before using it. It allows you to develop the most advanced and complex site easily. Either you learn programming concepts or outsource your project to a developer who is familiar with the programming language.
3. Caching plug-ins:
WordPress: The WP SuperCache plug optimises performance by generating static HTML files from database driven content for speeding up the loading time.
Joomla: JotCache offers page caching in the Joomla framework, resulting in faster loading page. It also lets you have full control of the site and what content is to be cached and what is not. Moreover, page caching is supported by the System Cache Plugin comes with Joomla.
Drupal comes with Pressflow for enhancing the performance and optimises it and scalability.
4. Themes and Templates:
All the three platforms can easily change their outlooks by using customise themes and templates. But WordPress comes out on top in terms of themes. Templates and plugins. There are both free and premium themes for WordPress. You can choose to depend on the requirements. WordPress has more than 45,000 plugins for different functionality. For example, if you want to analyse your site’s performance, then you have a particular plugin for that, if you want to enhance the SEO of the site, you’ve another plugin for that. All you’ve to do is just install them and use instantly.
5. Best use cases:
WordPress:
WordPress is ideal for simple sites such as blogging sites, online portal. In short, sites that are easy to manage. Add on and extensions make it easy in expanding the functionality of the site.
Sites that use WordPress: Forbes, CNN, SONY
Joomla:
With Joomla, you can easily build sites that need some advanced features and structure and more flexibility with intuitive usage. For example e-commerce sites, social networking sites etc.
Sites that use Joomla: HARVARD UNIVERSITY, The Hill, It Wire.
Drupal:
Drupal is best suitable for more advanced and complex sites, sites that require complex data organisation. If you want an online platform or site with multiple users, then you should go with Drupal.
Some sites that use Drupal: General Electric, Time Warner Inc., eBay Inc.,
6. Search engine friendly:
The more people searches for you, the more popular it will be resulting in escalating your business. All of the platforms are search friendly as without SEO there’s no point in developing a website. SEO helps you to stay at the top and makes your site visible. Again, WordPress has an edge over other as 37million WordPress keywords are searched every month and it is the most widely used CMS. Search engine crawlers easily index all the contents of WordPress websites every time you add or modify something.
Making your choice
For some Drupal is a better platform while for others Joomla and WordPress. All the three are excellent and reliable depending on the scenario. Your choice depends on the business needs and your objectives and your budget and what you really want your site to do. Different requirements call for different platform.
– For simple blogging site, WordPress is the ideal choice. No requirement of prior programming concepts, easy to use and flexible. If you’re a beginner, then it is advisable to go for this platform.
– For a complex site where you want to keep it simple but with some functionality, Joomla might be the perfect option.
– If you want to incorporate more advanced functionality and has hundreds of web pages like an e-commerce site and require unlimited customization with extensive features, then go for Drupal. Though, it might be a little bit expensive.
All the platforms are free and have specific user communities and dedicated developers making it easy for you to find the solution through online forums and discussions. Moreover, if you want paid services from third party sources it is available for long term sustainability. The more time and efforts you will spend in learning the particular system, the more benefits it will bring to you.
About The Author:
Emily Smith is an ed-tech enthusiast and has been associated with CWS Technology as a writer for more than 7 Years. CWS is the leading web development company that provides all IT solutions. Emily has a passion for writing on emerging technologies like application management outsourcing, consulting, system integration etc.