Let's talk about why you chose Joomla!. Was it because it's open source, or because it's free, or you were looking for one of the best content management systems? Why does it matter at this point? If you say because it's free, then you are more willing to look for free templates. If you say open source, your first bet will probably be a free template as well, along with the possibility to change it yourself as you have free access to the code. If you were looking for a very good content management system, then you are in the market for the best templates money can buy. Yet, it is possible that you could end up with a free template for your site.
Note
Free is not the same as open source. There are some commercial templates that are open source. Open source means that you have access to the code, and hence the freedom to change it to suit your needs.
There are several good web sites that you can use to find great templates for free—for example, www.joomlaos.de which is the same as www.joomla24.com, but with a better gallery system for the templates. Don't worry about the language, you are looking for the most visual part of your site. Besides that, demo means demo and download means download.
Let's look at the web sites where we can get templates. Most of these web sites offer free templates:
Always look at the license that comes with such a template. It might not suit your site to keep a link to the web site builder. There is one problem with free templates—most of them state that you have to keep the link intact, and if you want to remove it you should pay for it. If you run a web site about Joomla!, you can easily keep the link because it points to another site that is also about Joomla!.
If you run a web site to sell gardening services, why would you link to a Joomla! site? That is not the best option for your Search Engine Optimization efforts.
I use free templates. I always look at the source code of the pages generated after I install and activate them, and so should you.
The intention of the template builder is not always clear. It is possible that he/she built the template for a company that paid him to promote their site. Building a free template and sharing it with the Joomla! community is a great way to get lots of incoming links. You know that such a link is not always in your best interest, and the template builder will know that you will remove the link if it is too obvious—for instance, a link to an insurance company or a car sales dealer. If you know how to read the footer of the template file, or even the index.php file of the template, you know how to get rid of such a link.
So they changed their tactics, now you won't see the link on your page, because it is "hidden" using a CSS code such as .hidden. Therefore, you need to step up and check the .css file that is referenced in the template as well.
Another option that is now gaining momentum is to put in some extra JavaScript called PHP file, in which a hexadecimal code line is embedded. Now that is going an extra mile to hide your intentions. You have to decode the code and see what it's all about.
You could even end up with a link to a malicious software distribution site which will most certainly get you out of any search engine index. When you download a free template, make sure you check that it comes from a reputed source. It should deliver quality templates and check the templates they offer before they make it into the downloads section.
It's also good practice to check the web site of the template builder for two reasons:
- If there is an update for that template
- What the site is really about and if that doesn't look good, stay away from that template
One of the reasons for choosing commercial templates is the fact that you get support if something goes wrong. Support should not be the only reason to go for commercial templates. Also consider the fact that there are a few other web sites that use the same template. This makes your site more unique than many free template-based sites. Search engines love unique templates.
Price is really not an issue anymore as most of the templates and template clubs will charge you between 20 to 50 USD per template for a three month membership with access to multiple templates. This is good value for what you get. If you want a truly unique template, then those template builders will offer you this possibility as well. However, you may have to dig deeper into your wallet.
The commercial templates are well formatted when it comes to standards such as XHTML and CSS. This makes it a good choice for your Search Engine Optimization efforts. Commercial templates use the most up-to-date settings for Joomla! and will use the possibility to incorporate parameters that make it easy for you to do some customization or add extra functionality.
Images used in commercial templates for the background, and other images used for the layout are also optimized to reduce loading time for the template. You will also see that commercial templates are making good use of getting CSS and JavaScript out of the main index.php file. Setting these files outside the template and including them using external files will get your main content loaded faster.
The main reason for choosing commercial templates is that they look really good and are specifically built for a certain purpose or niche. We will consider two examples of such templates. The first one is that of a blog-like template such as Sketch from www.joomlabamboo.com.
The second example is of a special car magazine template from www.gavick.com.
There are many others to choose from and you will find templates that will suit your needs without any major problems.