I think we should look more closely at the joomla templates, for instance, the last yootheme template looks good but.... Total HTTP Requests: 234 Total Size: 438961 bytes I don t think heavy templates like this can be used on websites where you expect a lot of visitors.... I am analyzing now all the templates i am using to make sure they are loading quickly. Google annonces ( Matt Cutts blog) that they ve started to integrate loading time in their algorythms If you want to test design s performances, use http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/ or yslow in firefox So far, rockettheme, alledia and youjoomla have released at least on seo optimized lightweight template , but most of the time, to fat.... Good templates are fast loading and seo optimozed templates. They should try to give up on
"Fast loading" just became more important to SEO since google made their latest rule to penalize slow ( "fat" as you say " ) sites.
It is not so important anymore, unless you are selling something only the poorer people need. The people with the money have speedy modems.
yes but content is richer and hosting more expensive. it all depends on how many hits you get. I still say it s important
my rank 1 joomlart 2 rocketheme 3 joomlaxtc 4 gavikpro 5 yootheme 6 youjoomla 7 shape5 8 template plazza 8 bonustheme
I Love Joomla Art and Yoo theme. Very nice to my eye... one are for company (formal use) and one for more casual look
Inherently what happens is you have a talk with your client and they layout what they want with pages and functionality. The next step is to find a template that looks and does sort of what the client wants. You choose your template and install it. Now what do you do? Does the company have clear tutorials? Do they explain how their templates are laid out. Is the structure 960 or some other proprietary layout? How does the template company support custom changes to the template. Do they have a REAL FAQ or some b.s. thing. Do they have video tuts? Is there some one from the company answering questions on the forum in a timely manner? What do you consider a fast response, one day, 6 hours, 1 hour? Is there a good quantity of data on the forum? Can you find a solution with out asking a question? These question I pose can usually only come from signing up and installing a template which forces you to get involved with support. I did this with Yootheme and I will now spill my guts for you concerning my experience with them. 1) Template design is awesome super sexy 2) Template complexity is pretty damn high 3) Support is executed from the forums 4) Finding exisiting solutions to your problems via the forums (forum search) is not great. 5) Yes they have a single dude assigned to each template via the forum 6) Turn around time on your questions via the forum are 24 hours. This is too long. The company is out of England and this may contribute to the delay. 7) Don't use Yoothem if you just starting out. They are too complicated. 8) If you have built a few custom templates yourself these templates are a good step forward. I know of a local company that builds Joomla CMS sites exclusively. They have been through it all and they use RocketTheme exclusively. I've done my research and the word on the street is they are easier to modify (does not apply to their newer templates, they seem a bit more advanced). This thread seems to be happy with their support but I can not provide opinion on it myself. Can any one elaborate on RocketTheme support? Thx
Did you try ZooTemplate.Com? They have many cool free templates, joomla club template and single licensed templates You can check zootemplate demo page at http://www.zootemplate.com/demo
hello they have some good templates but some are really poorly optimised. i like the news templates but look at the performance report : This page has 16 external Javascript scripts. Try combining them into one. This page has 21 external stylesheets. Try combining them into one. This page has 43 external background images. Try combining them with CSS sprites. 16 javascript, 21 css , OMG. Therer another point that bugs me with this template. I have no access to the admin but it seems like k2 is installed but that the frontpage modules are not linking to k2, what s the point? not worse than other template clubs but definitevely not better...
You're completely right, I don't think it's a good idea to use such heavy templates without modifications to lighten them by deleting all code parts you don't expect to use on your website.
I had a developper membership at Rocketthem for years and each time I had to contact their support, I had an answer in a business day. And their answers were always clear and constructive I was really satisfacted by their support. For example, each time I asked for a little bug, a fix was sent on the board in the 3-4 days after my question and they notified me to download it.
Joomlart like javascript too much and the t3 framework is not speeding up anything in my opinion... they are not the best. There s not "best" template club, there are just good or bad templates...
Seems like some interesting comments on which club is best. I use Joomlart and Rocketheme. Both have good and bad points. It seems much of the bloat is coded in to make them look good but also flexible in its design change. What the answer is I dont know