Web Stuff – ian leahy

A Super Fast Joomla Template – Minimal Code, Maximum Speed

Are you looking for a super fast Joomla template? How about a fast loading and responsive Joomla template? Or do you need a high speed solution to slow loading pages?

The problem…

Joomla can be slow

Here’s why:

lots of CSS files
lots of javascript files
unminified CSS, Javascript, HTML
lots of images and icons
Google fonts
lots of http requests
lots of components

And if you add Google analytics, Adsense, or Youtube videos they will also slow your site down. Although I share something later in the template that will speed up your Youtube video loads.

Out of the box Joomla is usually not optimized and it is often slow. This can depend upon the template, but there are often lots of CSS and JS files.

So I created my own template over the years that is extremely simple and fast.

Should a website be fast?

People prefer fast websites and since people prefer fast websites so does Google. It’s likely that the faster your website is the better you will rank in Google.

I don’t know about you…

But if I go to a website and it locks up my page because it’s loading a bunch of ads and other stuff I hit the back button.

And…

I silently wish to myself that their bounce rate goes up and Google demotes them.

If you want a lot of bells and whistles then you will pay

If you want a flashy website then it’s going to slow you down. Some things may look cool, but just add to the overall weight of the page.

The flashy stuff may look cool, but it doesn’t make up for something that is missing in your content.

The bells and whistles should be in your content. If you try to make subpar content look better by adding cool effects and what not then you will slow your site down.

Think Wikipedia or Craigslist.

Are these flashy websites? No. Are they popular websites? Yes. Why? Because they help people.

A flashy website isn’t go to make you any more popular.

Enter my speedy template that will get a 100% on most page speed tests

Javascript and CSS files will slow down a page. So how many CSS files does my template use?

Zero.

How many JS files does my template use?

Zero.

I eliminated them both.

What?!

Yes, it’s possible. Out of the box Joomla open source software is for everyone. It’s versatile and you can build a massive site with all kinds of different functions.

But what if you just want a simple site that’s fast and responsive in mobile view?

I didn’t need that much. I just wanted a fast simple site for my content which was mostly a blog and videos.

Is this template for everyone?

Absolutely not.

It’s for the minimalist. If you want a simple (minimal), fast loading Joomla template that’s responsive then this is it. If you want something fancy then this is not for you.

How can a site work without a CSS file?

As per Google’s recommendation for small css files I inlined the css. This template uses very little CSS.

How can a site work without Javascript?

Javascript is often used for Joomla components, so if you don’t need any components then you probably don’t actually need to be loading Javascript files.

By default Joomla is going to load a bunch of files. But they can be removed.

If you decide that you want to load these files or need them for a component you can add them, but remember that comes with a cost. They will make your site slower which may decrease your ranking.

How does this template do on speed tests?

You can check out this minimal and super fast Joomla template here. The following are some checks for Google’s Pagespeed. My template gets 100% on all of these.

The template will score 100% on speed checks, however if there is an image on the page that will slow it down a bit.

Reduce server response time
Leverage browser caching
Avoid landing page redirects
Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content
Enable compression
Minify CSS
Minify HTML
Minify JavaScript
Optimize images
Prioritize visible content

How does it compare to other “fast” Joomla sites?

There are a few sites out there that say they are fast. And some of them may be compared to others, but the ones I have tested are still not that fast.

Test out the high speed Joomla template here.

Bonuses included in the template:

How to load Youtube videos faster on your own site
Joomla SEO tips

Are Article Sites Good for Website Traffic/SEO?

Article sites are a good way for writers to get their content out there if they don’t have their own website. If you’re looking for ways to generate traffic to your website, you might have heard about writing articles on sites like: Ezine Articles, HubPages, and Squidoo to get a backlink to your site. This is how I was first introduced to the idea. I was searching the web for ways on how to get traffic and one of them mentioned by numerous sources was to post articles on these kinds of sites.

In my experience this doesn’t work and if you’re considering doing this I wouldn’t recommend it. Here’s why:

In themselves article sites don’t really generate traffic
You don’t have control
If you’re wanting to make a bit of money with Adsense you’ll only get a share
I don’t think people go to article sites looking for information

1. I have some articles that have been sitting on article sites for over a year and they don’t generate traffic. You’ll need to get links to these articles to get traffic from them. So if you are going to get links to your articles from other sites then why not put them on your site?

After you post an article there you are unlikely to get much if any traffic from the article site. I think HubPages has a system that may show excerpts of newly published articles in a kind of blog roll like way. I think the only people who look at these are mostly other writers on HubPages looking to promote their articles. So you may get a little bit of traffic and a few “Great article!” comments on your first day. But I don’t think I ever got more than 20 visits from this. After that you’ll most likely get no traffic unless you get links to them.

2. I had my articles on HubPages for like ten months and was starting to get some first page results with one article generating 40-80 hits a day. That’s not a ton, but it was in the 5 or 6 spot and climbing for that keyword. Then I got some message that I was linking to “prohibited sites”. I inquired and found out that my site was the prohibited site and it was because I had an email sign up page on it for a free ebook. So they said I had to remove my links from the article.

That was why I was using them in the first place, to get traffic. For me I already had my doubts about using article sites, so when they said that I removed all of my articles from their site. What I lost was time. That one article took maybe 7 or 8 months to get on the first page and then maybe a couple more to get where it was.

So there you don’t have ultimate control and you have to play by their rules.

3. If you would like to make some money with Adsense then you should know that you will only get a share. I never understood Squidoo’s earnings and never saw any as most of my articles were on HubPages, but HubPages takes earnings 40% of the time. So if you want to make money you’ll make more if you have your own site or blog.

4. People go to Google and Yahoo to look for information. I don’t think people go to any article sites to look for information. The article sites get traffic by showing up in search results. But typically articles won’t show up unless they get linked to, which brings us back to…if you’re going to have to build links to your articles for traffic then why not put the article on your site?

So my advice is to just put your articles on your site. Other than that sites like HubPages and Squidoo are pretty easy to use if you don’t want to set up your own site or you’re just dabbling. I haven’t done this, but I suppose you could always fill out a profile over there that includes a link to your site. And then you could do some commenting on other articles. And maybe someone will find your comment interesting enough and click through to your profile. And then maybe they will click on the link to your site and you’ll get some traffic.

SEO/Website Traffic – How long does it take?

SEO takes time. I have been working on a site for a long time. And it really feels like a lonnnng time. So I am wondering how long did it take you to get the amount of traffic to your website that you have now?

My story is the following and I’ll be referring to my other site ESLinsider and not to this blog that I have just started. I owned the url on a one page site since 2009. It’s incarnation of content took a long time and then I had developers build this video based site for ESL teachers. Originally it was a private membership site. It was completed at the end of 2010. After it was completed I was hopeful to get some traffic.

The thing is traffic didn’t come. I tried Adwords, but that was a huge unsuccessful expense. I realized that the developers didn’t do any SEO, like metatags and titles. So I had to learn how to do that and then I learned I needed to get links. So I got a few links and then a little traffic from forums. I found more forums, a few article sites and Yahoo Answers, but I still wasn’t getting much traffic. After nearly a year of little success selling access to my site I gave up on the selling and I made it free.

So then I put my videos (over 100) on Youtube and rebuilt the site myself, embedding the videos in my site, so that it was fully public and no longer behind a login. That was around the end of 2011. That added like 130 pages to my site and links, so I thought for sure I would be getting some traffic fairly soon.

I used the following methods for generating traffic and links:

Forum posting
Q&A sites
Youtube
Tried Facebook
Article sites

But I still saw little to no search engine traffic. Around April 2012 one of my articles on Hubpages got on the first page and that article started to get traffic. A few months later that one article was getting as much traffic as the rest of my site. I think the reason why it was getting traffic was that:

I had linked to it from a page 7 ranked site with my choice keyword in the anchor text.
It had been there for nearly 8 months.

So that article and another on Hubpages started to generate search engine traffic, but I don’t recommend article sites for traffic and you can read more about that here.

A sample of my current traffic is this (Jun 20-Jul 21, 2012):

Unique visitors: 2,633 (This was over 4,400 until I ripped my articles off of Hubpages)
Page views: 11,330

The most I ever got was over 4,400 unique visitors. So my site has been online for more than a year and a half. However, it’s been in it’s current form since the start of 2012. So then let’s say it’s been nearly 7 months. So tough to say, but I could say it’s taken at least seven months to get that much traffic.

And you know what? I have worked hard on it and put a lot of time into it. Granted I am no expert, but I have to say that I have read a number of books on SEO, website traffic and marketing. But these numbers are pretty low especially when one would like to earn money from Adsense. So all I can say is that it is not easy and that it takes time.

There have been moments where I’ll get discouraged or ticked off and assume I have created something not as a great as I originally thought. But then I’ll look at the numbers and see a growing amount of return visitors and direct visits. So then I know that I have created something of value for some people.

So how about you? I would love to hear your story and…

How long has it taken you to get the amount of traffic that you have now?