Migrate Joomla to Static HTML
Why convert Joomla to Static HTML?
Understand the pro's and cons of conversion and how you benefit.
Static websites have many advantages primarily faster page loading speed and better security. On the other hand dynamic pages generated by content management systems such as Joomla! are great for publishing content. According to W3Techs, 68.9% of websites have a CMS however Joomla market share has dropped from 4.3% in 2020 to 2.7% 2023. Whereas static sites have been growing as developers switch to the Jamstack platform. The 2022 Web Almanac shows Jamstack static site adoption growing rapidly with a market share of 2.7% for desktop 3.6% for mobile.
Compare Static Site Generator, Joomla and YouDoCMS. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Manual/Static | Joomla | YouDoCMS | |
| Free Plan | |||
| Free Hosting | |||
| Content Editor | |||
| Categories | |||
| Tags | |||
| Site Search | |||
| SEO JSON-LD | |||
| 301 Redirects | |||
| CDN Integration | |||
| Pretty Urls | |||
| Import MySQL | |||
| Backup | |||
| Responsive Images | |||
| Security | |||
| Scalability | |||
| Server Log Analytics | |||
KEY FEATURES EXPLAINED
Is Joomla Slow?
Faster speed is known factor for Google search ranking particularly for mobile websites. Visitors are less likely to spend time reading your content if they have to wait for the page to load. A Typical lighthouse score for a Joomla site on mobile is 27% and 44% for desktop. A YouDoCMS static site can achieve a 100% score on desktop and mobile.
Hosting a static site for free?
Static sites do not require a database or a scripting language such as PHP. Therefore the Web server resources are much lower which is why the sites load faster. Hosting a static site uses so little resources that the major cloud providers offer hosting for free. See our comparison of static site hosting.
Is Joomla Secure?
Joomla! has historically been the second most popular content management system after WordPress and is therefore a significant target for hackers. Version 3 of Joomla! has been updated 50+ times since the original release of version 3.0 with the majority of updates due to security weaknesses. Static websites are generated off-line and are therefore secure by default.
Thinking of converting Joomla! to static HTML?
There are no Joomla extensions available to create a static site directly from Joomla! This would also appear to be discouraged by the Joomla! community as the topics are locked on the forum.
YouDoCMS supports migration directly from the Joomla MySQL database. Other static site generators such as Jekyll also support Joomla conversion to markdown. Hugo also has a Java tool for converting Joomla to markdown. However in both cases conversion does not include categories and other content such as modules.
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How to import Joomla into a static CMS?
YouDoCMS supports direct conversion of Joomla! 3 to create a static html equivalent. Our MySQL database connector imports all Joomla! content including the relationships between articles, categories, tags, and menus. A google for "static CMS import Joomla" does not find any other static site CMS converting Joomla! to static HTML.
Updating Content
Traditional static site generators such as Hugo and Jekyll require the user to learn the markdown language and edit using a text editor. For Joomla! users regularly using the default TinyMCE HTML editor this is a step backwards. Furthermore internal links between content have to be created manually. YouDoCMS incorporates the same editor as Joomla! (TinyMCE) and a similar process is followed to create internal links between content and inserting images.
Static Site Deployment
Joomla! CMS users are familiar with updating content which then becomes instantly available on the website. Switching to the JAMstack with a static site generator will involve manually uploading files to the cloud hosting provider using the command line. Not my idea of fun. YouDoCMS GUI is integrated with the five leading cloud API's for a single click deployment to your host.
SEO and Redirects
Joomla! provides users with functionality to publish dynamic content on specific dates or stop publishing if the content has expired or no longer relevant. If content is removed from the site Joomla! creates a redirect on the server to point the old URL to new content to avoid 404 errors with search engines. Traditional static site generators do not have this functionality. The YouDoCMS desktop application incorporates similar functionality to Joomla! publish/unpublish of content plus 301 redirect rules which are synchronised to the cloud.
Site Backup
Akeeba Backup is the most popular Joomla extension and we do not see why a user should go without this important feature. Static site Generators do not incorporate any backup functionality and you will be dependent upon your local machine backup to store your files and we all know how problematic that is, particularly in Windows. YouDoCMS incorporates single click site backup including images into a single file which can be stored anywhere on the network or a USB drive.
Site Analytics
YouDoCMS includes server log analytics which is linked to your content to provide common metrics such as entry and exit pages, bounce rate, visitor geolocation and search engine crawl monitoring. AWS CloudFront and Azure both offer analysis via the server logs which means you do not need JavaScript tracking. Firebase is reliant upon Google analytics which can be blocked by browser extensions. However if you are an existing Google analytics user then Firebase is the best option. Cloudflare also provides JavaScript analytics (paid). See site analytics.
Import Content
Static site generators such as Jekyll include tools to import from Joomla! however this simply converts the HTML to markdown. As a Joomla! user why not stick with HTML and import the content from MySQL.
Templates
Template's have been feature of Joomla! since version 1. If you are migrating your site why not use your existing template with YouDoCMS and avoid unnecessary complication.
Navigation
Avoid breaking the navigation of your website at all costs. Google never forgets a URL and you will squander your crawl budget while Googlebot looks for old URL's.
Convert Joomla to static HTML?
Import your data directly from MySQL.
Migration of an existing Joomla! site requires planning. A seamless transition is essential to avoid breaking the navigation creating 404 errors lowering SEO scores thus spoiling your hard earned Google search ranking.
Fortunately there is a solution. YouDoCMS includes a MySQL connector to import from Joomla! and preserve all content as HTML, menus and SEO features. Importing includes system settings for SEF URL's and site metadata.
Joomla Articles
YouDoCMS imports your articles directly from MySQL. On import, any URL's embedded within the HTML and referencing the local menu system, are rewritten from the PHP original to the static equivalent URL.
Imported articles are also related directly to the same categories as Joomla!. Articles can be moved between categories published and unpublished and related to menus in exactly the same way as Joomla!
All the individual parameters associated with the article are also imported along with the published status and information.
- Maintain existing URLS.
- Publishing Status and Ordering.
- Article image URLS.
- Joomla SEO for html suffix option.
Joomla Categories
Categories are directly imported from MySQL including any subcategories. All images category parameters, publish status and options are also imported.
Any URLs within the category description are rewritten from the PHP original to the new static URL. Where applicable a rewrite record is created within the SEO module..
- Category descriptions.
- Category and sub-categories.
- Publishing options.
- SEO meta and Tags.
Migrate Menus and Modules.
Organise your menus with drag and drop. Place multiple menus on the page without coding just like Joomla. Use the menus to allocate and modules to specific pages to customise the layout of your site.
Import the same modules as Joomla. Incorporate menus, category lists, single articles, featured, news, tags and custom html blocks at any position.
- Page specific menu modules and positions.
- Category Lists.
- Tag cloud lists.
- Custom HTML.
replacing joomla?
YouDoCMS is the ideal choice for many use cases.
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Business Site Builder
Our small business website builder includes a complete pre-defined website using a universal template. Create a new site from scratch in minutes or import from Joomla! or WordPress.
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Documentation
YouDoCMS includes pre-defined developer documentation examples with table of contents, categories, articles and menus for both small business documentation use cases and larger corporate development projects.
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Knowledge Base
YouDoCMS includes a pre-defined knowledge base including boiler plate articles, categories, FAQ's and menus. Create a knowledge base and publish for free to the cloud in a single application.
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