Drupal is a highly customizable and extensible content management system that powers many popular websites. It offers out-of-the-box functionality for basic sites, a huge library of customizable modules, mobile responsiveness, advanced user permissions, speed optimizations, and strong security features. Drupal also benefits from an active global community that provides extensive documentation and support.
2. Introduction
In this presentation, I will discuss Drupal, a
very popular CMS created by Dries Buytaert. It
powers, popular websites such as The White
House, Grammys, Lamborghini etc.
In the following Slides are the main reasons
why Drupal should power your next project:
3. 1) Out-of-the-box functionality
Drupal offers a powerful out-of-the-box
solution because a number of useful user-
created features have been packaged into the
core distribution of the CMS. This means that
all the basic functionality is available right
after you finish installing Drupal. In practical
terms, this allows users to create a blogging or
news website without additional modules.
4. 2) Extreme Customization
Drupal is one of the most, if not the most
customizable CMS available today. In fact, Drupal
is often referred to as a Content Management
Framework rather than a Content Management
System because of its extensive customizability. A
skilled Drupal developer could tweak every
component and aspect of the CMS and add
custom functionalities such as custom content
types, custom nodes, and fields. The layout of a
Drupal website could be completely customized
and extended through the addition of custom
blocks.
5. 3) Huge Module Repository
Ok, so we’ve established that Drupal has almost
everything you need out-of-the-box. But more
often than not, you need a functionality that is
not a part of the Drupal core yet.To fulfill that
need, you need modules. Modules are packages
of code that can add or extend the functionality
of Drupal websites. There are loads and loads of
modules available for Drupal. Installing these
modules is a breeze, and the extendability they
offer is often the very thing your website needs.
6. 4) Mobile Ready
Gone are the days when a monitor on a desk was your
only gateway to the digital world. Today people use
screens and devices of all descriptions to access the
internet. This poses a problem for web developers
since the websites designed just a decade ago were
only required to run on screens with minimum
variations in size. The great thing about Drupal is that
web developers don’t have to worry about this issue
since Drupal is fully responsive and thus mobile ready,
right out of the box. Drupal powered websites
automatically scale beautifully for every screen type
automatically.
7. 5) Advanced Administrator Controls
As your website grows, you will inevitably
involve more people in the administration
activities. When you have a team of people
working on your site, you wouldn’t want to
give everyone the complete control of your
site. To solve this problem, Drupal offers an
excellent administrator controls system. You
can add and customize permissions for each
individual user independently without
worrying about security issues.
8. 6) Speed
In keeping with the need for speed I
mentioned in the introduction of this blog,
Drupal has evolved to be one of the fastest
CMS out there. A fast website offers a lot of
advantages including happy visitors and high
rankings in SERP. To further increase the speed
of your Drupal website, check out this blog
post 10 Tips To Speed Up Your Drupal Website
9. 7) Streamlined Organization of
Content
So you’ve got a huge website with millions of
visitors every month. Your website has loads of
content now and that is great!
But wait, what if you want to find a particular
blog you posted 2 years, 4 months and 28 days
ago? Fortunately, Drupal offers several ways of
organizing content such as URL, tags, taxonomy
and custom lists. In addition, you can also
integrate various search engines such as
Elasticsearch quite easily in your Drupal site to
find content readily.
10. 8) Ironclad Security
Security the area where Drupal trumps all
other CMS. Unlike other CMS, security is built
into the core distribution of the CMS. This is
why Drupal is the number one choice for
government websites around the world such
as The White House, Boston’s official website,
see this comprehensive list of Drupal powered
government websites. Here are the security
measures that further fortify your Drupal
website’s security.
11. 9) SEO Friendly
In this very competitive world, the position in
Google’s SERP determines the profitability of the
business. Drupal ensures that your websites have
a very fair chance of ranking high in search
engines. In particular, the clean URL structure,
fast speed and a host of under-the-hood features
ensure that all search engines give preference to
Drupal powered websites. To further improve the
SEO of your Drupal website see my blog post
on Drupal 8 SEO Tips For Optimizing Your
Website’s Reach And Traffic.
12. 10) Easily Modifiable Clean Code
The beauty of Drupal is that it caters to all
types of users. So, if you are a developer and
do not a particular feature of your Drupal
website, you could dive into the core code and
tweak it to your satisfaction. Clean and well-
organized code lies at the heart of Drupal so
that anyone can tinker with it and modify the
platform to their particular needs.
13. 11) Open Source
Being open source is perhaps the strongest
point of Drupal. Since everyone could see and
change the code of an open source software,
the software could be easily modified to fit
the particular user requirements. Anyone
from anywhere in the world can become a
contributor for Drupal and fix any bug.
Similarly, anyone can code a patch for Drupal
and help make Drupal better.
14. 12) Friendly Community
Another great aspect of Drupal is the vibrant
community around it. Whenever you get stuck
during Drupal development, just ask the excellent
Drupal community about it and you will get
several solutions. There are hundreds of meetups
around the world centered around Drupal, with
thousands of attendees and tens of thousand of
ideas. As the Drupal community grows, so does
Drupal and every new member, regardless of the
skill level, receives an equal treatment!
15. 13) Support
Drupal has an excellent documentation at its
official site. Most of the times, any problem
you come across can be easily solved by going
through this documentation. In addition,
there are a very helpful tutorial and blogs that
cover all aspects of Drupal development.
16. Finally Conclusion
With so many great points, it is easy to see
why people all over the world opt for Drupal
for their web projects. Drupal does have a
steeper learning curve than other CMSs but
the fruits of your labor are so much sweeter.
For the Drupal community, it is not just a CMS,
it is a lifestyle ;). And you are welcome to join
this lifestyle anytime you wish.