Joomla Website Design Company - Joomla Experts

Sooner or later you will want to make changes to your website's look and feel - this is controlled by your Joomla template.  Whether you bought an off the shelf Joomla template, perhaps through one of the many Joomla template clubs, or whether you had a designer custom program you a totally bespoke template design, chances are you will want to carry out some template customisation.

Recognised Joomla Template Experts

We've worked with some of the biggest names in Joomla template clubs. We have years of experience of editing website templates, day in and day out.

Help with Joomla Template Customisation

We can help you implement all manner of tweaks to your Joomla template

• Swapping template images - do you need to change a background image or swap the template designer's logo for your own
• Changing template font colour and font sizes - make links a different colour or switch to a font with a little more character
• Template edits -
• moving modules - add new 'template positions' to house Joomla modules (sidebar blocks)
• Lost your Favicon - shown in the browser address bar and on browser tabs the 'favicon' helps identify your website
• HTML Validation - sites that don't validate may break disability discrimination laws. Poor validation is also a major cause of websites displaying differently in different web browsers. We can help you fix Joomla template glitches.
  
• Done but with error on page - depending upon a user's settings Javascript errors may go unnoticed or may be very much 'in your face'.

Whatever the template edit you need to make, and no matter the reason for it, we have the experienced team who can help you implement your Joomla template changes and change the way your Joomla website looks.

Are you seeing error messages displayed in the pages of your Joomla website?

You've done your best to project an air of professionalism with your online presence. You have invested a lot of time and money into your Joomla website but find that on certain pages you have errors visible in the page.

• Perhaps you see the word 'Notice: ' or 'Warning:' followed by a long string of technical mumbo jumbo in your page.  You need to get to the bottom of the issue but you don't know where to begin.
• You may have posted a message in some online help forums - but you really can't wait a week for the backwards and forwards guessing of well meaning people who don't have the right experience or who simply don't have all of the facts.
• You might have been told that you need to change the error reporting level in something called php.ini - but heck, you don't know what that is, where to find it or what you would need to change it to.
• You may have a boss who is all over you telling you 'get this sorted'. 

What you need is some professional help.  Call us now for a no obligation discussion of your requirements.

We will clear the errors from view, help you get to the bottom of what caused them, and help you implement a permanent fix.

File and folder permissions on a Unix web server can be one of the most confusing issues for new Joomla web site administrators.  Not only is the system very different from experience you may (or may not) have dealing with permissions on other systems, there are many variables that can change the 'standard' advice.

This means that many Joomla websites operators run into difficulties. 

Joomla and Unix File Permissions

Typical issues that folder permissions can cause for Joomla websites include:

• Problems during Joomla installation
• Problems immediately after moving an existing Joomla site to a new server
• Alert messages - such as warning, notice, and error messages visible in your html
• Images failing to load and giving either 404 not found, or 403 permission denied errors.
• Blank or 'white' pages - these are error messages but with the error suppressed due to server configuration

Help with Unix Web Server File Permissions

Joomla's forums provide a fantastic resource for general principles and advice, people answering cannot see the issues first hand. They can't be aware of all of the circumstances of your web server's settings and the way the server operator has chosen to configure and operate the server.

We can help you set things up so that your website 'just works'.  Not only will we solve your initial issues - we will do our best to explain the solution so that you are equipped to handle any similar issues in the future.

At Dean Marshall Consultancy we have a great deal of experience of speeding up Joomla powered websites that run too slow.

There is absolutely no reason for Joomla websites to be slower than other websites - but like all websites, a number of factors can impact on the speed of a Joomla website making the website load too slowly.

Our experienced team of Joomla experts can make changes to:

• your site
• to your server
• or offer you advice on your usage of your Joomla site

We have a proven track record of helping speed up Joomla sites like your, usually with very significant speed improvements.

We use our experience and expertise to look at such things as

• the number of images on a page
•     (graphics within Joomla templates,
•     within your article(s)
•     and within Joomla modules such as image rotators.
• the file size of images
• the size and number of separate CSS style sheets within your Joomla template
• the size and number of separate JS Javascript files within your Joomla template

Web Server Settings Affecting Joomla Speed

Some servers and web hosting packages are pre-configured better than others in terms of how well they signal to web browsers which files can be cached and for how long.

• Database server load - cheaper hosting packages are often 'over sold' - more sites are hosted than the server can reasonably be expected to manage.
• Also some sites add too much burden installing too many gizmos and gadgets and publishing too many on one page.
• gzip compression - Joomla has an option (off by default) to compress the html it outputs, sending it to the web browser up-to ten times smaller and therefore ten time quicker. While this can help somewhat, it is better to get your web server to compress all of its text output - including Javascript, css and html. Where available this will produce a much greater speed increase.

Joomla has a number of levels of caching available, as well as third party add-ons that can add further layers of caching. These cache options can significantly speed up a Joomla website - but each has its own caveats and can introduce further issues for the unwary. We can guide you through the options available to you and ensure you don't get bitten by these issues.

If you need help speeding up your Joomla site then contact us today for a friendly discussion about your requirements.

We know what it is like - every now and then you build yourself a website and you don't login for a number of months, or worse still, someone within your web development team (whether within your organisation or an external consultant) changes the main 'admin' password and subsequently leaves the team.

No matter how it happens - you are left unable to log-in with high enough privileges to make high level changes to the way your website runs.

We even get contacted by site owners who have been entirely locked out of their own website by their former web developers - sometimes the site is disabled (set to offline).

Whatever the reason - if you need to reset the Super Administrator password on your Joomla website we can help.

If you are technically minded and have access to the correct tools this isn't a difficult process.  As ever our intention in offering these services isn't to withold information and make money out of people who just don't know what to do. We are quite prepared to spread our knowledge and provide guidance on how to reset the password.

Our paid Joomla password reset service is aimed more at people who can't make this change themselves.

• Perhaps you simply don't have the time to start learning how to use new tools
• Perhaps your boss has told you to 'just get it fixed - now'

Whatever the reason that you want or need help resetting the Joomla admin password - we are here to help. Call us now for a no obligation discussion of your requirements.

So you've launched your Joomla website and within a few weeks you find that you are getting a steady stream of sign-ups on your website. Joomla handily sends you an email telling you the 'good' news.

Unfortunately when you look more closely you see that the newly registered 'user' on your website is just a spammer using either a false email address, or addresses that are for loans, casinos or pharmaceuticals, etc.

Why do spammers register for Joomla web sites?

Most of these sign-ups are carried out by robots - computer programmes sent out to fill in any and all web forms in the hope of getting their text (and web links) into your webpages.  The spam bot thinks your sign-up form is a comment box or a forum's post form and that their submission will appear at the bottom of your page.

How to stop spammers registering on a Joomla website

We can harden your Joomla website security, helping to stop spammers signing up.  We will work with you to:

• analyse whether you even need to be allowing site sign-ups at all
• decide whether that particular Joomla feature can be turned off
• decide whether it is better to install a Joomla add-on to eliminate (or at least slow down) the spam registration submissions.

Contact us to discus your requirements.

"As a non-profit making small charity, The Penhale Society Ltd needs all the help it can get to ensure that the public know about us!

Dean Marshall totally upgraded our website & hosting, making it simple and easy for everyone to use. Since the new website became operational we have received a number of enquiries via email, which means that a big "Thank You" is due to Dean and his team in getting us noticed in the local community."

Alison Robson
Administrator – Penhale Society

When we were looking for experts for our new website, we wanted to work with a company who matched our ideals – totally customer focused, professional, innovative and helpful.

Dean Marshall Consultancy met all these criteria and coupled with the wealth of knowledge and expertise, delivered a product we are very proud of.

Expanding Vision have benefited greatly from the project and would have no hesitation in recommending Dean Marshall Consultancy to others.

Noel Vernon
Director

Human Performance Improvements Ltd (HPi) are a UK based company with clients all over the world. Having re located our Head Office to Lancaster, the time was right to replace our website with one that reflected our forward thinking dynamic approach.

It soon became very clear that Dean Marshall Consultancy were best placed to deliver our objectives, always willing to offer measured advice and 'go the extra mile' for their client. The project was completed within budget and time scale required and since completion we have found that back up support and advice is second to none.

David Koller
Managing Director

I am delighted with the major website re-design that Dean and his colleagues have provided.

Their whole attitude, professionalism and continuous support from my initial phone call through to completion has been superb.

I benefited substantially from Dean's substantial knowledge and personal approach during our discussions. This helped translate what I had described in non-technical language into a product that I am delighted to use.

Dean's advice and ideas were very sound, well-structured and timely to help create a much better designed and effective website.

Their assistance has significantly boosted my confidence to help me promote and develop my business faster and more profitably.

I strongly recommend everyone who wants a better website to talk with Dean as their no. 1 choice.