Making your site visible and friendly to search engines, is the best thing that you can do for your site. You can have the most beautiful design and all the flash presentations to meet the most vivid imaginations but, does your site perform and are the visitors returning? In this series, I will give you a few tips and secrets that you can use to make your Joomla site, a little more social!

So what does FTP mean anyways?

FTP = File Transfer Protocol. Or in other words, a program that allows you to transfer files back and forth on a server. It also will allow you to create new directories and delete old files you are not using anymore.

If  you have ever wondered how you can upload multiple images to a Joomla! website, this is the way to go. For those of you who have a backup solution installed, such as Akeeba Backup, you will need to use FTP to download a backup copy.

For this tutorial, we are going to use the Open Source FTP Solution- Filezilla. If you do not already have a FTP solution, or would like to get a new one, go here:

http://filezilla-project.org

One of the greatest benefits of Joomla is the ability to install a new template for your front end within a few minutes. There are many sites that you can go to find commercial and free templates that may suit your needs. Here is a list of template providers that we think may have what you are looking for:

Rocketthemes- http://rockettheme.com

Joomlart- http://joomlart.com

YooTheme- http://yootheme.com

JoomlaDesigns- http://joomladesigns.co.uk

Best of Joomla- http://bestofjoomla.com

Once you have selected a template, more than likely you will receive a ZIP file that contains all the files for the template. 9 times out of 10 these providers send them to you ready to go all you will need to do is run through the Installation Manager. Make a backup of your website and then let's get started.

Installation Manager Instructions

Login to your Joomla Administrator Panel and visit the Extensions tab at top navigation bar. On the drop down that will come up select-> Install/Uninstall.

Where it says- Upload Package File click on the Browse button and find the ZIP file you just downloaded. Then, click on the Upload File and Install button, next to the Browse button. Your file should upload and you will then get a message stating- ! Install Template Success.

If you receive an error message, normally this is due to not having an XML file in the package. Sometimes you will download a package file and it will need to be unzipped. Especially if you chose a .tar.gz file. This will require that you unzip the package and find the zip file contained within. Rinse and repeat, and if you still don't get the ! Install Template Success message, proceed to consulting with the template provider for support, or attempt a manual installation.

Manual Installation Instructions

This type of installation will require you have a FTP Connection. If you need to get setup with FTP, please read Working with FTP. Once you are connected to your site, visit your root directory, which is in most cases:

public_html, httpdocs, or html

Now, unzip the folder you received from the template provider. If there are any subdirectories that have been zipped, they will need to be unzipped as well, unless they are extensions specific to the extension, which will more than likely be available for the Joomla Installation Manager. Each provider may do this a little differently and depending on what type of file you downloaded. You will be looking for folders such as this-

rt_kinetic_j15 (Example)

When you just find the template name, be sure to check its subdirectories. Normally there will be a set of subdirectories such as:

admin

css

html

js

If this is the case, all you will need to do is copy the parent director "rt_kinetic_j15" into the /templates folder. If this is not the case and you keep finding subdirectories below it that dont contain css files or javascript files, keep searching the package until you do.

Once you have uploaded the files into the /templates folder you should be able to view it in the Joomla Administrator Panel. You can check this by logging into the Joomla Admin Panel, and visit-

Extensions->Template Manager

If you installed the template successfully, it will appear in this list.

Assigning and Configuring Your Template

Now that you have successfully installed your new template you will need to assign the template as the default and you then can begin to configure and add content to your template. So, lets visit:

Extensions->Template Manager

Select the new template you installed from the list and click on the button to the top right that says-

Default

You now should see a little star next to the template you just assigned as the default. If this is all good and dandy, lets proceed to the module and menu manager to start adding content.

Most template providers will have a page on their demo of the template that will show you all of the available module positions you have for your specific template. You will need this map to layout your content and to assign the menu's where they go.

Now that you have created a good list of functions and basic settings for each, we can begin to pick and choose which extensions we would like to use in the development of your Joomla site.

Bear in mind, you may come up with a good list of extensions you are going to be using, but we need to do some follow up and testing on these extensions. We also need to know what other people are saying about the extension, and what types of support is offered for each...