Joomla or Wordpress

[Brian Terry]

My vote goes with WordPress every single time.

[sonicadam123]

As others have said, they are both the same.

You can do great things with either, and if your web host has fantastico you can install either within 3 minutes.

There is great free content out there for both of them including plugins/extensions/themes.

Although there is a lot more WordPress content at the moment.

That's probably partly due to so many people raving about WordPress and saying it's better than Joomla without even looking at Joomla.

Which is stupid.

Reminds me of a conversation I had once -

My friend - "oh yeah I thought the first matrix film was awesome, the second one is rubbish though"

Me - "I thought you said you haven't seen the second matrix film?"

My friend - "Yeah, I haven't seen it ..."

Me - *Facepalm*

[turbot]

I have been very successful in getting many many joomla based sites (20+) to rank highly. So Joomla gets my vote.

[eyedsign]

i prefer wordpress and its easy to customized

[iAmNameLess]

Man... people are dense..

[SEOExpert999]

Wordpress is really the best when it come to a pure SEO focus because it is built on a true Blog Format. If you are thinking of build a online webstore Joomla works best straight out the box with the least amount of add-ons and know how.

[veeco]

Here's my perspective

SEO Aspect: both are equal
Learning Curve: Wordpress
Web Features and Customization: Joomla (or Drupal)
Making money online - blog (Internet Marketing): Wordpress
Making money online - salespage (Internet Marketing): Joomla(or Xsitepro/dreamweaver)
Corporate Site: Joomla

once, my client would like to create a salespage with WP( template: OptmizePress)... it is true the template had lots of feature, BUT customization is very bad, you're strict with the limitation of the OP can do... for salespage a clean HTML editor is better.. .

[faysal969]

I do not see any effect of Joomla or Wordpress on SEO. Success in SEO mostly depends on your ability. If you want to make a eCommerce site then use Joomla and if you want to make a blog type site then use WordPress.

[deekshavarji]

I usually use Wordpress to get traffic to my sites...I am satisfied with the results. So, my vote goes to Wordpress.

[msrathore]

I use both and I found joomla better

[saimaspider]

both are good we need to make use of the plugins and etc url structure

[StreetBacon]

If you are serious about building a 'website' I wouldn't use Joomla. I'd use Drupal. Drupal is amazing once you learn it. But a steep learning code. But for some sites it's perfect. But WP is fast, easy and there are so many plugins. And the plugins are the real strength. It's a bit like Microsoft, everyone knows Linux is better, but all of the great software is written for Windows, so it is continually used. Would love to see that cycle broken!

[intimer]

i think wordpress is better

[massivemarketing]

Wow. Interesting to read all the comments here... On page SEO is 100% exactly the same for both platforms. In fact this is true for just about every open source CMS/ commercial CMS/ hosted CMS out there.

The difference is in functionality. Wordpress sites are great for simple stuff done quickly and Joomla is perfect when your looking for a website that is designed to make your visitors jaw hit the floor.

Let me put it this way, Wordpress is like a Volkswagen Passat and Joomla a BMW 5 series, both are capable of cruising at 100 km an hour (on page SEO), but there's a lot more to a 5 series than just cruising.

[retsek]

Wordpress is better.

-Easier to learn
-More plugins, extensions and themes available

[retsek]

Originally Posted by iAmNameLess

Man... people are dense..

Lol what's with your personal grudge against Wordpress. Matt molested you?

[App Developers]

hey, great question. I learned a lot about joomla! thanks for asking. I honestly wasn't sure but have had that question asked a lot!

[mindcrazy]

I have a question for the people using Joomla. What do you do to avoid the duplicate content issues? I'm not familiar with the innerworkings of Joomla, my experience is with Wordpress. The problem is I'm working as an SEO administrator for a company who has several clients all with Joomla websites.

There is a person on staff for the company that is a Joomla developer but did not catch the issues of duplicate content. I caught it when researching why certain keyword rankings were dropping for a particular client.

I discovered all our sites had 3 versions of the main homepage.

the root .com
/index.php
/home.html

Google has all three versions of our sites indexed and Joomla has created dynamic content for one of the pages and it's showing in Google as this:

/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8&Ite mid=8. The same content with our SEF URls is also indexed, creating duplicate content issues for that page.

The only helpful advice I've received is to disallow the index.php in the robot.txt file but is there a better way to stop this from happening?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[TryBPO]

Has anyone ever done a side by side comparison of WordPress vs Joomla and compared the results? Maybe in the same niche just to see if it made a difference?

I doubt it would but testing it sounds like a good idea...

[BarryWheeler]

Each has advantages and disadvantages.

There's some sites I use Joomla others Wordpress.

Great success with both.

[gahirsh]

Me votes for WP. Wider support and easier to find talent to assist in the event of breakdown or failure.

Although both can deliver similar results with enough time (and money).

[SEOHelix]

Originally Posted by iAmNameLess

I Effing hate these threads... because tons of inexperienced people overall will speak so many wonderful things about how wordpress is absolutely the best there is, but it isn't.

They are both good for SEO... neither one will hurt you. You just need SEF urls on joomla, that is all. Anyone that does SEO will tell you, there is no advantage to one over the other, that the advantage is whoever you use for SEO.

Yes... there are extensions for Joomla.... Yes, there are extensions for wordpress.... Which one is better for SEO? Neither.... Which one is more flexible? Joomla.... which one is easiest to learn? Wordpress.

People will say Google loves wordpress... that isn't true at all. Wordpress is a blog platform, and google loves fresh content. Blogs typically get updated often and therefore have fresh content, which google likes. A blog on Joomla will do just as well as a blog on Wordpress.

Exactly, for SEO it ABSOLUTELY does not matter. Typically you will see novice users who want to create a quick website use WordPress. Joomla is typically used by web design firms. Take it from me both work fine for SEO. You can see many top sites from both CMS platforms.

[FizzaKevil]

I suggest you Word press .. Joomla is quite hard for upcoming circumstances.

[aeroturner]

Wordpress is more powerful !! Best of Best !!
More themes, plugins and templates available

[kolbywhite28]

I like to code html from scratch.

[rooze]

So let's try and add a little bit of science to all this "mine is bigger than yours" nonsense.

Looking at the actual SEO parameters from the perspective of a relative newbie, and giving marks out of 5 -

URL/ File name formatting -
Both can be setup for optimized URL's without plugins. Joomla uses 'sections' and 'categories' to organize content and the section name and category name are used in the URL. Wordpress uses Permalinks. With Joomla, it's actually quite difficult to create a full file path without the page appearing to be in a subdirectory. Google gives more prominence to pages in the root directory and less as pages are one or two steps down.
Out of the box, without using plugins,
Wordpress 4
Joomla 3

Ease of setting up out-of-the-box SEO components -
Joomla - On some apache installations when you select the the 3 SEO parameters to 'yes' in global config, you'll need to manually login to your Cpanel or FTP and change htaccess.txt to .htaccess. This is made clear in the config but newbies may have trouble working with the htaccess files particularly as some programs class them as system files and you may need to change your file permissions to see the file.

Wordpress - setting the Permalinks is easy enough but there's a LOT of conflicting information over which settings are best for SEO. WP doesn't make a recommendation inside the Admin, so you'll need to either just use one of the default options (not recommended) or go off and research the best settings, which could get you into even deeper trouble.
Wordpress 2
Joomla 4

Meta Tags (Title)
Joomla - Fairly intuitive in that the page title will appear as the Meta title on all pages with the exception of the Home page. Then it becomes a newbie nightmare trying to find out how to set the home page Title tag. You'll need to research it the first time, the key is within the menu default landing page setting, which is not at all intuitive.
Wordpress - pretty straightforward to set the page title tag, which is the actual title you've created for the page. But what if you want to use all 70 characters in the Meta Title tag? - it means you're going to have a long and ugly page file name. Also, the Title will appear at the top of every page above the content block, so unless you manually remove it from the theme page.php you're stuck with it.
Joomla 4
Wordpress 1

Meta Tags (description)
Joomla - simple to set the description tag on any page from with the page/content edit screen.
Wordpress - You can't set the Meta description Tag without a plugin. You can handball code into the header.php but it will be static from page to page. Not good.

Joomla 5
Wordpress 0

Meta Tags (Keywords)
Joomla - Easy to set on a page per page basis
Wordpress - You can't set the Meta keywords Tag without a plugin. You can handball code into the header.php but it will be static from page to page. Not good. Some say you don't even need a keywords tag, but some SE's still seem to use it.

Joomla 5
Wordpress 0

Heading Tags (H1, H2 etc)
(These are important for on-page SEO)
Easy enough in both. For Joomla I'd recommend you go to 'plugins' - 'TinyMCE' and click 'Extended'. This isn't installing a new plugin it's merely adding more features to the existing plugin and it will give you more page formatting options.

Alt Tags
Easy enough for both.

So with an out-of-the-box approach my vote goes to Joomla for SEO. (you can add up the scores if you want).

IMHO Joomla can get by without an SEO plugin, in fact I rarely use one unless I'm converting an old HTML site to Joomla and need to match the file structure.

Wordpress absolutely needs a Plugin, at which point the playing field is leveled, maybe even tipped slightly in WP's favor.

Generally, I find myself doing more code-hacks when I'm working with WP than with Joomla. Getting that Title tage out of the page.php is standard when I'm doing a WP install.

There are other more in-depth areas of CMS SEO that I won't cover in detail. One is the order in which the page is read by the SE. You ideally want your 'content' area to be read first, followed by column/sidebar 1, then 2. I've had more success finding Joomla templates with an optimized layout than WP. But YMMV.

Disclaimer - more experienced users will find a way to work around the limitations of each, and will build up an arsenal of tips, tweaks, cheats - but I've offered the above aimed more at newbies than experienced users.

When using Plugins-
As I've said I don't usually need an SEO plugin to get good results with Joomla
Using an SEO plugin with WP is pretty much mandatory. But given that plugins are free and very easy to install, my vote goes to Wordpress for SEO. (but only by a tiny fraction).

Fortunately is doesn't all come down to SEO, or at least it shouldn't. You should select your CMS based on your specific content management needs. Are you a blog, or are you more article based? Do you run eCommerce on your site or send people off via affiliate links?

Those questions are more important than fussing over an ounce of SEO.

[greggorio28]

WordPress all the way, more freedom to customize

[rooze]

Originally Posted by greggorio28

WordPress all the way, more freedom to customize

I don't understand that comment at all - you can have "freedom to customize" all you like in both WP and Joomla -

[tylerjaysen]

yes that is true that in terms of SEO, either one of these will work better. And yeah google loves WP because it is a blog platform and usually blogs are updated frequently which is fresh content...so that's why google loves them. But that's not to say that WP will outrank a traditional html website. Not true. I have some basic ugly html pages with only 7 pages on them....but they are ranking higher in the SERPS because of the content that is unique and the on page seo ( tags, description etc) is done correctly and links are good...therefore I get good rankings.

WP does allow for cool plugins though...for the newbie....or technically challenged...that make is alot easier for them to compete in the IM space because you can just enter stuff in the back office and WP php will create the html for you and make all your pages look good to google bots....oh and don't forget the sitemap too.