Yes. If you can afford it!

Here’s why:

• Prospects are much more likely to enquire/buy from a local site.  I.e. Americans are much more likely to enquire/buy from a .com site rather than a .au site
• Google will rank your site higher in America if it is on a .com TLD (Top Level Domain), likewise a .au site will rank higher in Australia, etc
• The IP address of your site (while minor) does go someway to affecting your Google search results – so ideally the site would also be hosted in that country
• Content is king – and should be localised to the country you’re targeting.   Content is such a critical aspect of your SEO, and needs to be considered for each country individually
• Credibility – if you can get your hands on a US phone number and address to plaster all over your .com website – all the better – even if diverting to a messaging service
• In-bound links – another critical aspect of SEO is in-bound links.  If your local site gets links from other local sites, you’re also creating much Google love

Some things to consider:

• It can be expensive to build several websites, so try to ensure they’re very similar, and also use a CMS platform that supports multiple sites (I.e. Drupal for websites, Magento for eCommerce) to minimise development and maintenance costs
• Each of these sites requires their own SEO strategy, link building efforts, etc – which can be expensive.  Look to get discounts from your provider for bulk link building
• If you can’t afford all of this, then consider using sub domains or sub directories for country specific “satellite sites” that are optimised for those countries, then send the traffic back to your main site
• There are compromises you can consider – talk to your agency for some advice

A lot of our customers use POS systems to manage inventory, front of store transactions, etc.  The providers of this software are great at creating Point of Sale solutions – that’s what they do.   Some of these providers offer eCommerce software platforms (which integrate with their POS solution.  This is fine for customers with a need for a very simple eCommerce website.  For large companies wanting a professional approach to eCommerce, unfortunately these providers will sometimes be a bit opportunistic and over state the capabilities of these POS eCommerce solutions.   In short, it’s often the case that these eCommerce “add-on”s to a POS solution, are unsuitable for a professional eCommerce sites.

Apart from the fact that these eCommerce solutions are proprietary (see my post about the problems with this), they pose the following advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of an eCommerce solution offered by a POS provider

• They integrate seamlessly with the POS system – they’re created by the same vendor, so obviously work very well together.
• They’re typically much cheaper to setup.  The solutions are usually rather simple, and quick to setup, with a few configuration files, and few  template files to be edited to suit.

Disadvantages of an eCommerce solution offered by a POS provider

• They’re typically not SEO friendly (they may have some basic SEO capabilities) and they’re not built with SEO in mind.  They’re built with integration in mind, and the software vendors expertise is in POS systems, not eCommerce, so SEO is overlooked or given limited focus.
• Closed platform (proprietary).  As mentioned already, this makes it hard to customise, and almost impossible to partner with an expert eCommerce agency, as they’ll know almost nothing about the vendor’s system, and are unable to modify it to maximise your ROI.
• License costs – as with most proprietary software, there will be license costs.
• Product evolution – since the software has been written by a POS company – whose expertise and main focus is selling more POS systems, the product evolution will be slow in comparison to a dedicated eCommerce platform provider.
• Addons & customisations – if you need a new component built, or changes to the standard product, you need to pay the provider to do it – which is likely to take a while since they’re busy writing and selling POS solutions and may have many large customers – are you big enough to be a priority in their product development stream?

All of this is important to consider, however the overwhelming issue we see with most POS based proprietary eCommerce solutions is that they are an afterthought of the POS software;  they’re created to fill a perceived hole in the market, and while you may end up with a “suitable” software solution, you can often miss out on a “business changing”, well thought out, professionally executed, eCommerce solution that opens up a new channel to market for your business – which is what a good eCommerce solutoin is all about.

There comes a time when you need to bite the bullet and upgrade your site from the old to the new. Not only are you leaving yourself open to security vulnerabilities as older versions are no longer supported so new security holes found are left open, but future work will also be more complex as extensions are no longer being made for your sites outdated framework.

This can only spell disaster, maybe not in the immediate future (hopefully never), but you’re doing yourself and your sites users a disservice by leaving it outdated and vulnerable. It’s also a perfect time to give the site a facelift, but that’s fuel for another post.

Of course this is easier said than done, particularly if you’ve let your site age quite a bit. Fortunately for the most part, the upgrade process for Joomla is relatively straight forward, the downside though is any third party or custom extensions that your site has will not gracefully be moved over in the upgrade process.

So if you have a basic, content only site, you’re in luck. If not, some planning needs to happen to make the transition as smooth and painless as possible.

There’s no path at this stage (and nothing has been announced) to migrate directly from 1.0.x to 1.6.x, so this article will cover both migrating from 1.0.x to 1.5.x, then from 1.5.x to 1.6.x.

Migrating from 1.0.x to 1.5.x

This step is the easiest of the whole process, and is well documented on the Joomla wiki http://docs.joomla.org/Migrating_from_1.0.x_to_1.5_Stable

It basically involves installing a component on your existing 1.0.x site to create a file that will be used when installing a fresh Joomla 1.5.x site.

Note that we said ‘migrating’ instead of ‘upgrading’, this is because you actually need to download Joomla 1.5.x from the Joomla site and do a completely fresh install on your development machine, rather than edit any existing files.

Nearing the completion of the the installation process of the Joomla 1.5 site there will be a screen that will allow you to kick off a migration process, simply upload the file that was created earlier from your old site and it will import with a good amount of success the following:

• content
• core modules
• custom html modules
• menus
• data from core components

What it will not import though are (among others)

• 3rd party plugins / components / modules
• custom plugins / components / modules
• templates (as these are file based)

If you are making the move all the way to Joomla 1.6.x, then this is all you need to do with the Joomla 1.5.x migration, move on to ‘Migrating from 1.5.x to 1.6.x’

Why? Joomla 1.5.x allowed plugins, modules and components to run in what was called ‘legacy mode’, which meant that it allowed code that was built for Joomla 1.0.x to run in a Joomla 1.5.x site.

This backwards compatibility is non existent in Joomla 1.6.x as the core of the site has been modified too much to efficiently be able to allow for older code to be supported. While initially it may seem like a pain, looking forward this is a good move as it will force extensions to be well written and closely follow the Joomla conventions, making it much easier for developers to make their own extensions or work on existing code.

If you are planning to stay at Joomla 1.5.x for now, then you will now need to start the process of reinstalling all of the components, modules and plugins that you had on your 1.0.x site and switch on the Legace Mode plugin to allow them all to run smoothly.

You will also need to make a few modifications to your template file as the syntax for displaying Joomla elements has changed somewhat. Details on upgrading a template from Joomla 1.0.x to 1.5.x can be found here: http://docs.joomla.org/Tutorial:Upgrading_a_Joomla!_1.0.x_template

Migrating from 1.5.x to 1.6.x

Thankfully a component has been created to help out with this move, at the time of writing though there were a few issues we found which we’ll outline shortly, but first, how to use it.

The component is named jUpgrade and can be found here: http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/migration-a-conversion/joomla-migration/11658

This step doesn’t require you to download and install a fresh Joomla 1.6.x site, this component when run will actually download the latest stable package for you, install the files in a new folder that is creates called jupgrade, and will create all the tables it needs to run in the main database but with j16 as the prefix instead of the default jos prefix. This allows you to run the two sites side by side until your migration is complete.

The installation process is pretty impressive to watch, however as noted earlier, there were a few issues that we found with this upgrade (at the time of writing the latest stable version of Joomla was 1.6.0 and the latest stable version of jUpgrade was 0.5.3, while our experience was with 0.5.1, some bugs are noted to be fixed and will be marked as such)

• Placeholder / separator menu items were not moved over (possibly fixed in v0.5.2)
• Many menu items were pointing to the wrong article (possibly fixed in 0.5.2)
• Multiple menu items were marked as the default (possible fixed in 0.5.2)
• Creating new menu items throws an error if an alias is not explicitly set, however the menu item is still created (this may be a Joomla bug, not the jupgrade)
• Content of custom HTML modules were lost in the move and needed to be manually re-entered
• At first attempt trying to view a category listing (from a newly created menu item) the site throws a 404. The quick manual fix was to move the category to be a child of another category, then move it back. It seemed to work fine after that, but obviously that’s a pretty poor workaround. Hopefully this has been fixed in a later release of jUpgrade.

A few extra notes for 1.6.x first timers:

A new feature for ‘discovery’ is available in the extenuation manager which allows you to simply add your files to the site and have Joomla discover them and present them to you in a list of items that are available for installation rather than have you need to package them and upload them as an installable package.

• There’s been a change in the required XML format for your extensions, which you can see here: http://www.finishjoomla.com/blog/22/joomla-16-vs-joomla-15-templatedetailsxml/
• When installing a module, while the installation will be successful, it won’t show up in your list of modules straight away as you are used to. You need to create a ‘new’ module, the module you installed will show up in the list of modules you can choose for the module you are creating.

Joomla 1.6 is about to be released! How exciting!

Joomla.org have gone through 14 beta releases so far, in their efforts to ensure the end product is robust and as bug free as possible.  It’s this dedication to quality that entices Salsa to continue to use and highly recommend Joomla for not only our own website, but those of most of our customers.

1.6 is planned to be released on November 29th, 2010.

Some of the principle differences of Joomla 1.6 include:

• New Access Control System – Allows site administrators control over who can view and manage content, removing the need to implement 3rd party components to deliver this functionality.
• Unlimited Depth Organizational Model – Gives site administrators and content creators user-defined category levels that allow for the creation of a category tree with as many or as few levels for organizing articles and other content as needed.  Previously, this functionality was also available via various plug-ins, with varying levels of complexity/cost to implement.
• One-Click Extension Updates – Allows users to keep sites secure and controlled by simplifying the process of updating extensions.  Similar to it’s competitors, Joomla will now allow you to easily update extensions with one click via the admin tool, rather than having to upload new files, install, etc.
• Semantic XHTML Layouts – Provides a better baseline for content presentation.  Will help in the delivery of accessible websites, and more consistency around content layout.

A more complete list can be seen here.

Any Joomla site can be upgraded/converted to 1.6, however the effort required to do so will vary considerably depending on:

• Version – The current version of your Joomla site will determine how much work is required to upgrade – some really old versions may require a re-build of some areas.
• Customisations – Although it is rare a Joomla site’s core infrastructure is customised, if it is, then there is more custom work required to implement any customisations.
• Components – The more components that are installed, the more work is required to upgrade the site – each component will likely require individual upgrade, and some may not have a 1.6 version available.

Our general advice is to wait a while before upgrading a site to ensure all required components are supported (the component vendors may take a while to implement 1.6 compatibility), and also to ensure any other production bugs are removed.

If you feel there are highly strategic benefits of upgrading your site immediately, we can provide some assistance and guidance about the best way to do this.

I have this conversation at least once a week with clients.  About 20% of our new customers come to us to have an existing site re-built from a proprietary CMS, into an open source CMS such as Joomla, Drupal or WordPress; or Magento or OSCommerce for eCommerce sites.  They feel locked into their CMS, and their provider.  We’re exclusively an open source house, so I am biased, but strongly believe that there is very little advantage in using a proprietary CMS to build any website.

Effort

The amount of work required to build a site in a proprietary or open source CMS is generally the same.    It could be argued that a proprietary system is intimately understood by the developer, and as such the site can be built faster;  however many development houses have built up just as much knowledge in Open Source systems, and so this isn’t a challenge – as long as you choose an agency that specialises in your chosen open source CMS.

Initial Costs

When building a site using a proprietary system, the client is usually paying to help cover the costs of development of the software development exercise.  This means setup costs are in fact higher, even though the effort required is similar.

Ongoing Costs

Most proprietary CMS systems have licensing costs attached to them to cover the cost of maintaining the software.  Also, for any additional components that need to be added to the site, these typically also attract their own maintenance costs.  We’ve recently re-built a website for the same cost as the annual licensing fees the client was paying – and this was a substantial site (tens of thousands of $).  What’s more, the new site is far better!

Flexibility

Open source code can be edited by anyone; anyone that has the right skills of course.  You can take your site to anyone that is skilled in your particular system, or language, and have them make changes for you.  Alternatively, if you run a proprietary system, edits can usually only be done by the provider.  This of course means less access to appropriate developers, and typically higher prices.  Also many proprietary systems will only implement changes that can be rolled out to their entire customer base, so that they don’t have to maintain too  many different versions of the software; so getting customisations can be difficult.

Intellectual Property (IP) Ownership

Most open systems are covered by the GNU General Public License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), which basically means you have the rights to do whatever you please with the code, and any customisations that are applied under contract.  On the contrary, most proprietary systems are owned solely by the developer.

Portability

Mentioned already in flexibility, open source sites are able to be picked up and shifted to just about any other hosting/support provider.  Proprietary systems can often only be run on the developers environment, as they like to maintain ownership of the IP.

It has been reported that Joomla alone, which is the most popular of the open source CMS tools, is responsible for 1.5-2 million websites (out of about 16 million active CMS driven sites).  WordPress is probably responsible for even more!  So these open source tools are also very, very widely used, being used for some of the most high profile sites on the internet.

WordPress and Joomla are by far the most popular open source CMS tools available – we’ve built hundreds of sites using these technologies, and so are intimately familiar with their structure, limitations, pro’s & con’s.  Until about 2 years ago, most clients didn’t really care what CMS was used, most didn’t know what a CMS was, but these days people are coming to us with some idea of their options, and often need a little guidance to ensure they make the right choice.

1. Content structure

If the site is just a simple brochure site, with a straight forward menu system (top/side menu), simple content pages, for example, use WordPress.  Similarly, if it’s just a Blog – use WordPress.   This site, for example, is built in WordPress.

If you’re looking to build a larger, more complex site, with a more sophisticated content structure (multiple levels of content), more than 1 menu system, more modular content (in left/right columns for example), and would like more control over what menu appears where, then use Joomla.

2. Community/larger more complex site

If you want to build a community site, including member login functionality that provides users with members only content, or create a feature rich website including user polling, banner advertising, user profiling, etc – then use Joomla.  Likewise if you want a corporate site that is more feature rich, including categorised content for case studies, or whitepaper download capabilities with integration into a 3rd party CRM database, use Joomla.

3. Administrator technical capability

If the website administrators are less savvy, use WordPress, if you can get away with it.  Joomla, while not hard to use, is hard-er to use than WordPress, which is just a bi-product of it being so much more sophisticated.

Wordpress admin - simply about managing content

Joomla admin panel - lots of options and functionality (although most only ever use about 20% of it)

4. Design

The design of a site can also lend itself better to either technology.  Simpler designs, using more traditional content structures (limited number of pages, less modular content, little interaction) are better suited to WordPress.  Either CMS is incredibly flexible in terms of being able to conform to just about any design, so that’s not really a consideration.

5. Future development possibilities

It’s painful to swap over (need to build from scratch – there is no “upgrade”, so make sure you consider the above points for future development also – if your needs are simple now, but they will grow later, you’re better off choosing Joomla right off the bat – it may cost a little more (5-10%), but worth it in my opinion.

6. SEO

You’ll read a LOT about which tool is better for SEO.  In our experience, the technology is only a very small part of the SEO story.  Both CMS’ offer the necessary infrastructure to effectively optimise a site, including (albeit with a free additional module or 2):

• Search engine friendly URL’s
• Ability to control meta data for each page
• CSS styling to support H1, H2, tags, etc
• And many more…

There are a bunch of other factors that weight into how well your site performs in the search engines (content, back-links, internal menu structures, etc) – so don’t let this affect your decision.  You can build the same site in either CMS and achieve the same SEO result.

The takeout – if your needs are simple, use WordPress, which is more geared toward Blog or simple brochure-ware sites.  Otherwise, use Joomla.