One of the worst things (SEO wise) that you can have on your Joomla website is duplicate content. Duplicate content will dilute the importance of your content by confusing search engines on which content to list in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). There are many causes for duplicate content to appear on your website: […]
Before discussing the topic in the title, we want to say that this is the hundredth post on our blog! Hooray! We took a decision last year to blog nearly 5 times a week about the technical issues that we face during our work on your websites, so that other people can learn from our […]
Sometimes you find a very beautiful Joomla template (no, not all Joomla websites are ugly), you download it, and then you install it. Once you try to install it, you will be faced with one of the six following scenarios: The template works and your website looks exactly as the demo image/website for the template. […]
Hotlinking is one of the most annoying problems on the Internet that website owners have to deal with. Hotlinking is when one website includes in one or more of its pages a reference to one or more of your images (or videos, or pdf documents, or music files, etc…). In other words, let’s say that […]
If you want to enhance your Joomla website’s SEO, the first thing that you will need to work with is your meta tags, particularly the description meta tag. If you’re using sh404, you can set the meta description for each page using the sh404 interface. However, this method is not convenient for the following couple […]
A couple of days ago a customer approached us with the following problem: His Joomla’s VirtueMart shop was displaying the category ID in the title of the page of each category details page. So, for example, instead of having something as “Cheap TVs” as the page title, his page title was “72-Cheap TVs”. Obviously, this […]
We have explained before on how to block a specific IP or range of IPs from accessing your Joomla website. Since we have published that article, we had many requests asking us on how to block a specific country from accessing a Joomla website. Now why would anyone want to block a whole country (or […]
You think that it’s time to enable caching, or you think that you want to rewrite your URLs, or you want to take your website temporarily offline, so you just change the configuration settings in your Joomla website, you click on Save on the top right, and you are greeted by the following error: An […]
Sometimes, especially if you’re on a slow connection or if your website is hosted overseas (with a slow host), the Joomla installation can take a long time, mainly because of the time it takes to upload several thousand files to your server (Both supported versions of Joomla: Joomla 1.5.25 and 1.7.3 have over 4,000 files […]
Every once in a while, we get a new (or an existing) customer asking us to migrate his osCommerce website to VirtueMart. Some of these customers already own a Joomla website and know how powerful it is and they know that VirtueMart is a reliable alternative for osCommerce (these customers usually run their osCommerce website […]
Quite often, we have customers coming to us and telling us that they have some images that are not appearing on their Joomla website. After investigation, it all comes down (mainly) to three reasons: Joomla SEF or an equivalent URL rewrite extension The short_open_tag directive in php.ini The asp_tag directive in php.ini Let us discuss […]
We had an interesting problem a few days ago. One of our customers was using VirtueMart to run his online store, and he had a security warning on his secure (https://) checkout page, claiming that his checkout page contained some secure and non-secure items. Here are the errors that our customer was experiencing: On Internet […]
One of the hottest things on the web at the moment is Google+, it seems that everyone wants to have it on his website in order to drive more traffic. There is currently a Google+ craze the same way there was a Facebook Like craze a couple of years ago. In our opinion, Google+ will […]
As a Joomla website owner/manager, it might be that you need a Joomla technician because: Your whole website is down and you need it up as soon as possible. (Note: We’ll be able to fix it for you, even if it’s midnight. You can call us anytime!) Your website is functioning, but there are some […]
We have talked before on when to clear your cache in Joomla, so probably you have read the article and thought that now is the best time to do it. So, you went ahead and disabled the cache, thinking that this will delete your cache. But your pages are still cached. Weird! You double check […]
If you are on a shared hosting plan that restricts you to a specific amount of hard disk space, then you might be wondering how much disk space does Joomla need to see if your hosting plan can accommodate it. Fear not, Joomla (core Joomla – with no extensions installed) is lightweight, so it has […]
If you have been using Joomla for a long time, then it might be that you have faced the dreaded “Invalid Token” when you try to login to the Joomla (on the real website, not the control panel), or when you try to perform other activities, such as voting, submitting forms, etc… In this post […]
One of the common and recurring problems that our clients have is when their Joomla website shows a 404 Error on the homepage (and it says something like Article #n not found). There are many causes for this error, including SEF installation/compatibility issues. However, the most common cause of this error is when the client […]
In a previous post, we explained how to create a super administrator user in Joomla. In that post, we also explained how to delete a super administrator, which can simply be done by going to the User Manager under Site, clicking on the checkbox next to the super administrator you wish to delete, and then […]
We have been working on Joomla websites since the creation of Joomla (before that we were working on Mambo websites). We consider ourselves Joomla experts, we know all the ins and outs of Joomla. Not only that, we are experts in web development in general, and we can see trends when it comes to web […]
We, at itoctopus, are the Joomla Experts! That’s what our ad on Google says! But do we deserve this title? We believe that we do, and here are 20 reasons on why we think we deserve the title of Joomla Experts: We know how to create any feature (extension) you want. We also can modify […]
In our post about Acunetix and Joomla, we briefly mentioned the topic of Cross Site Scripting (XSS)1 in Joomla. In this post, we will discuss it in details. Let us first explain what is Cross Site Scripting, and then we will discuss how it can affect your Joomla website, and finally we will tell you […]
In our last post on how Joomla can be used by doctors, we briefly discussed that doctors, as well as any other small businesses, should list their Joomla website on Google Places in order for their business to get more exposure. In this post we are going to elaborate on how to do this. Below […]
We have talked before on how small businesses can use Joomla to their advantage. Today, we are going to talk on how doctors (who run probably the most and critical important small business in every country) can use Joomla. Let’s first discuss on why doctors need a website in general… In this day and age, […]
Several customers approached us at one time or the other with the following problem: When they try to add an item to the cart in VirtueMart (on their Joomla website), the add to cart doesn’t work (nothing will happen – the person remains on the same page). They also tell us the following information: The […]
It is normal for a business to advertise on its website to get some extra revenue. There are many ways to advertise on a Joomla website: Use contextual ads: Contextual ads are advertisements that are displayed by 3rd party companies such as Google and Yahoo. The advantages of contextual ads are the following: They flow […]
At itoctopus, we have started using Joomla since its inception, and we are familiar with every single version of Joomla. We are always excited to know when will the next Joomla version be released, and that’s why we’re writing this post… As stated earlier, we have been using Joomla for a long time, however, we […]
Many of our customers ask us to disable right click on their Joomla website. As such, we have decided to write a post explaining how this is done. Before starting, you need to be aware of the following: Preventing right clicks will only deter non-technical visitors from stealing your content (such as text and images). […]
We have talked before on how Joomla is ideal for small businesses. One small business that we think is greatly benefiting from Joomla is the dog breeding business. It’s amazing how many dog breeders out there use Joomla to power their websites… Now why do dog breeders use Joomla? And how does a dog breeding […]
It is a fact that Joomla, as a CMS, is used extensively for non-profits. And, from our experience, one of the main non-profits taking advantage of Joomla to establish a web presence is churches. In this post, we will discuss the following: Why many churches use Joomla to power their websites What is the typical […]
In previous posts, we have discussed how you know if your Joomla website is hacked and what to do when you discover that it’s hacked. Right now, we want to discuss what will happen to your Joomla website when it’s hacked. According to our experience on the subject, here’s what will happen when your Joomla […]
At least every other day, a customer contacts us and asks us the following question: “Why is my Joomla website so slow?” We reply to her/him that since Joomla is a very large and powerful CMS, it is somehow slow. However, it shouldn’t be very slow, and there are ways to make a Joomla website […]
You own a Joomla website, and you’re proud of it, but the thing is, Google still hasn’t indexed it, or Google has indexed only a few pages of your website. So, what do you do to fully index your Joomla website with Google and other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing? Before starting this […]
In the unfortunate event where you know that your Joomla website is hacked you need to follow the below steps: Remain calm: Your website is hacked – period. There’s nothing that you can do to change this fact, and most of the harm is already done. Why panic? In addition, most website owners/managers experience the […]
We frequently get requests from our customers asking us to check if their Joomla website is hacked, because they think it is behaving oddly. And so we do check the website, and in most cases, we discover that the website is actually hacked. So, the first sign that your website is hacked is if you […]
Our article, 10 reasons why your Joomla website got hacked, was well received by our readers (clients and visitors alike). In this post, we want to list the top 10 security tips to protect your Joomla website. Always keep your Joomla website up-to-date with the latest version of Joomla: Every Joomla update addresses security issues […]
After our posts on Joomla for law firms and Joomla for universities, we wanted to write a post about Joomla for small businesses, since this is where Joomla really shines… Almost every week, we receive 2 or 3 phone calls from new clients. The calls usually go the following way: New client: “Hi” Us: “Hi” […]
We have discussed before the use of Joomla for Law Firms: How Joomla is used in a law firm environment, what are the basic features for a Joomla website in such an environment, and what are the extra features that some users ask for. We will discuss today Joomla websites in a university environment. In […]
Sometimes, you don’t want to show some or all of the article’s information (such as the creation date or the author name) in Joomla. This article will explain to you, in details, how to remove some or all of the article’s information from a specific article or from all articles. If you want to remove […]
If you’re reading this article because you want to reinstall Joomla, then check this article on how to reinstall Joomla. Sometimes you may wish to just uninstall Joomla from your server for one of the following reasons: You want to move your Joomla website to another server and you wish to remove all the information […]
Quite often, some site owners realize that the domain name they picked and used for their Joomla website doesn’t cut it anymore, so they decide to change it and move their Joomla website to another (better) domain. In this guide, we provide step-by-step instructions on how to do that: Step 1 – Move your Joomla […]
Sometimes you have an important page that you don’t want every visitor to your website to have access to. The first thing that comes to your mind is to make this page only accessible by members, but you then realize that you don’t want all your members to have access to this page. Just a […]
We know it, you’re here because either you’re a Joomla fan who wants to know how many websites are powered by Joomla to prove a point to your manager, or you’re a business owner/technical manager who’s deciding whether to use or Joomla or not (you want to know if there is a lot of websites […]
First time clients often ask us (during their first call) the following question: “Is there a Joomla Customer Service Number I can call?” Our answer is always as follows: “Since Joomla is free, then there is no official phone number that you can call to get support”. Joomla support is usually handled by third party […]
Sometimes, people experiment with some of their Joomla core files and/or with non-content tables in the Joomla database to the point that their websites become inoperable. The easy (well sometimes it’s not very easy) solution at this point is to reinstall Joomla from scratch. But how do you do that? Well, here are the steps […]
We often get the following call: Customer: “Hi” We: “Hi there, how can we serve you?” Customer: “I was told that Joomla is an excellent CMS and I want to use it, but I want to know first if it’s free or not” We: “It’s free sir!” Then the conversation goes on, and we are […]
Many of our clients come to us and ask the following 2 questions: Is it legal to remove the “Powered by Joomla!” message in the footer? If it’s legal, then how can we remove it? To answer the first question, yes it’s perfectly legal to do so. However, it is not legal to remove the […]
In this article we are assuming that you have already purchased an SSL and you have installed it on your website, and all that is left for you to do is to enable it. If you need help purchasing and installing an SSL certificate on your Joomla website, then please contact us, we will definitely […]
From our experience, we know that there are some misconceptions about the Joomla Super Administrator user: You can only have one Super Administrator user per Joomla website. You can not delete the Super Administrator user that was originally created. There is no interface for adding Super Administrators (this is a corollary to the point #1 […]
Although it is published on our fees page, some new clients ask us about our Joomla Hourly Support rates, thinking that our published rates are only for established clients. We would like to clarify this for all our prospective clients, we currently don’t have maintenance clients (clients who pay a monthly fee and will get […]