Templates in Joomla! are of course an easy way to change the look of your web site. A nice looking web site will keep visitors on your site for longer time than a web site with an old, worn-out layout, and color settings. But there is more to templates than what "meets the eye". There are some SEO factors to consider when you are looking for a new template for your web site.
A few things we are going to cover in this chapter are:
- Finding the right template for your site
- What to look for in a template
- Why validation of HTML, XHTML, and CSS matters
- Choosing between free and commercial templates
- What does usability have to do with SEO
- Going for fixed or fluid
Now that may seem like a lot to handle, and it really is, as this is one of the best and biggest improvements you can use for your Joomla! site.
Getting the right template for your site can be a long and cumbersome process. You want to check the best resources to find just the template that will show your visitor what your site is about. More importantly, you want to capture your visitors and draw them in to your web site to read more of your content and to have them do what you want them to do. This means you want to get the conversion goals you have set for your web site. These may include reading information, contacting you for service, signing up for your newsletter, and so on—you know what your goals are better than anyone else.
So, your template is really the first impression that people get and you should make it as clear and as compelling as possible. Keep not only your goals in the picture, but also the audience (your target group of visitors) in mind when choosing a template. The people working in business domains like to see more white space whereas gamers like to see more black or dark blue for some reason. Check the following sites as examples:
Once you have an idea about your visitors and how you want to brand your site, it's time to check some of your competitors' web sites. If you have already set up a web site, then this would also be a good time to check what the top 10 sites in your niche look like. If you do that (and you should really look at how the layout of the site is set up), look for the following things:
- Where is the main menu
- What information or topic sections/categories are there
- How is the general look and feel of the site
- Look at the source code of several pages, and check if and how meta tag description and keywords are used
Back to the templates, let's see what is important for search engines and their robots, before you choose and possibly buy a template, or have it custom built.