Using Joomla!, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2. Planning Your Website

When you first sit down to create your new Joomla site, a little bit of planning and forethought can save you a lot of time and heartache down the road. But don’t worry if you haven’t worked out every little detail. Joomla is flexible enough for you to be able to move things around and readjust later on.

Example Website: Joomla Pet Center

We are going to create an example website called Joomla Pet Center for fans of pets. Joomla Pet Center will include articles, a store, social community, and many other elements which together will give you a real-world example of a website with a variety of features. While Joomla Pet Center will be fairly complex, your site may be simpler. Regardless, planning is key.

Goals of the Website

Knowing your business goals is helpful when planning a website. We have to have a good handle on what we want people to do when they get to the site. If you have a marketing plan, or mission statement, this is a good time to pull those out and review them so that the website works with them and the mission of your business.

If you don’t have a business plan or mission, no need to worry (though you may want to consider it for the future). Simply ask yourself, “What do I want my website visitors to do when they get to my site?”

Our Joomla Pet Center has several goals:

1. Encourage visitors to buy products from the site’s online store
2. Provide helpful information via the Joomla Pet Center blog
3. Give pet lovers a community in which they can ...