Joomla Support

The aim of this tutorial is to cover the basic's to improve the performance of your Joomla content management site. Please note we are not experts in this field but just sharing our knowledge about getting the most out of your Joomla content management system.

Joomla Hosting

The first topic is hosting for Joomla. Basically You have a number of options available when choosing a hosting solution for Joomla ranging from shared hosting, VPS , dedicated hosting all of which have there pro's and con's when it comes to performance of your Joomla CMS content management system.

Dedicated Server

From a performance point of view the dedicated hosting solution is the ideal option for your Joomla site because you will be the only site using the CPU / Memory / Disk and MYSQL resources. This means your Joomla site is less likely to suffer from any major performance issues. The down side is the cost, dedicated hosting is not cheap and expect to pay between $100 / $150 dollars per month but if you want a stable, fast server environment then this is the solution for you. Also remember memory  plays an important role when it comes to server preformance, the more memory you have the better.

VPS

The VPS hosting option is becoming popular for hosting Joomla web sites. With VPS your Joomla site will be hosting in its own " virtual server environment " and resources will be allocated to the environment in terms of memory / CPU and so on. One of  the draw backs to VPS is you are still sharing the server hardware resources. If you choose the VPS option speak with the hosting company first to find out how many virtual machines ( servers ) will be hosted / sharing the server resources.

Shared Hosting for Joomla

Shared hosting is the most popular choice because its affordable and plus many providers are now offers lots of functionality, bandwidth and disk space. The down side from a performance point of view is you will be hosting on the same server as 100 other web sites who will be using the same resources ( CPU / memory / Disk space / ) as you. If you have a popular site this could have an impact on the performance of your Joomla! site.

Joomla Template

The template / theme you use for your Joomla content management system can have an impact on the performance of your site if  not optimized correctly.

When choosing or developing a Joomla template for your site consider the following.

Make sure the web design theme uses valid XHTML / CSS code

If the code is incorrect it will take more time for the browser to render the design.
before loading the theme correctly. You can find lots of tools which you can use to check / validate your code.

Additional Template Performance tips

a) Try and use optimized ( Jpeg / Gif / Png ) images. The smaller the better.
b) Slice up the images in Photoshop first.
c) The less images the better. You can create an effective, eye catching template for Joomla using CSS without the use of  images.
d) Check the code ( CSS / Index.php ) for images which may not be referenced correctly in the CSS.
 e) Try and avoid using Flash or Java script. 
 f) CSS compression. You could also compress the CSS code for your Joomla theme . Check out 
http://www.fiftyfoureleven.com/sandbox/weblog/2004/jun/the-definitive-css-gzip-method/ for more information.

Disable statistics reports

Disabling the Joomla statistics function can improve the performance ( page load time ) of your CMS. If this is enabled 
every time some visits your site data is written to the MYSQL database. To disable this option select site / global configuration and statistics. Remember most hosting packages now offer static software via the control panel so you can still analyse / monitor your traffic / visitors.

Cache

By default the cache option for Joomla is not enabled but by enabling this option for you site and modules you may see a performance increase.  This option is useful if your content is changing all the time for example RSS feeds or chat module. To enable the cache select site and global configuration. For the modules select the modules and the module you wish to enable the cache for.

GZIP Page Compression

Again this is another way to speed up your Joomla site. If your server supports GZIP Page Compression then from the administrator area select "Global Configuration" then choose the "Server" tab. Select "Yes" next to "GZIP Page Compression" then choose "Save"

Modules

I know when you first start using Joomla you have lots of cool modules to choose from which can be displayed on the front page of your site. Don’t fall into the trap of plastering modules all over your front page. This will only slow your CMS down if you plan to use modules then assign them to specific pages.

Error reporting

I would recommend you switch off error reporting for Joomla which again can speed up your site. To switch off error reporting select Global Configuration / Server Tab / Set the error reporting to None.

Mambots

Have a look at the mambots you have enabled and disable the bots your no longer require.