So You Hate Drupal…Now What? by

“I hatred Drupal!”

That’s what I heard from a selling manager astatine the Unbounce league I attended earlier this summer. I enactment Drupal connected my nametag and posted a fewer Drupal-related times to the league app and that started rather a fewer conversations.

This mediocre pistillate was fed up with her Drupal website and was acceptable to marque immoderate changes. She finds it hard to make caller contented and it’s getting costly to update and support her site. And hide astir trying to find a Drupal developer who didn’t complaint outrageous rates to get thing basal done.

She wasn’t the lone 1 with complaints. I talked with different institution who was already successful the process of migrating from Drupal to WordPress. More than once, I heard idiosyncratic archer maine that they utilized to usage Drupal 5 oregon 6 but hated it: it was conscionable excessively hard to support oregon edit.

Maybe you are stuck successful the aforesaid situation: you person a Drupal tract and you hatred it. It’s excessively analyzable and excessively costly to maintain. These are morganatic complaints astir Drupal, but I would similar to connection reasons wherefore you mightiness privation to instrumentality different look astatine Drupal. Perhaps you volition adjacent larn to emotion it.
Can Drupal 8 Earn Your Love?

By now, you’ve astir apt heard a batch astir Drupal 8. In fact, you’ve astir apt heard astir it for years and wondered if it was vaporware. Now that Drupal 8 has been released, tested and implemented, it’s imaginable to observe if it tin lick each of your complaints with your Drupal website.

If you work the hoopla astir the Drupal 8 release, it mightiness dependable arsenic though this mentation tin lick the occupation of hunger, beforehand satellite bid and locomotion connected water. Now we each cognize Drupal 8 can’t bash each of that, but determination is simply a batch to emotion astir the latest release. Is Drupal 8 perfect? No. Will it resoluteness each of your issues? No again. But Drupal has changed a batch and it is amended than erstwhile Drupal versions.

Let’s look astatine the reasons marketers mightiness hatred Drupal present but could emotion Drupal 8.

Complaint # 1. It’s Much Too Hard to Create New Content

The fig 1 ailment that I perceive is that Drupal has a steep learning curve. Check retired a reappraisal website similar G2Crowd and you’ll spot comments like: “Getting started tin beryllium daunting,” “Intimidating learning curve,” and “Just not intuitive.”

It’s true. Drupal tin beryllium intimidating. Drupal’s spot has ever been its powerfulness and flexibility. It has blase method capabilities, but each of that functionality makes the CMS complex. It’s precise powerfulness has resulted successful a strategy that requires method expertise to use.

A Drupal website tin beryllium hard for contented managers to use. Up done Drupal 7, the administrative sheet is not precise intuitive. If the idiosyncratic doesn’t person a basal knowing of HTML, they whitethorn not beryllium capable to marque the tract bash what they privation without the assistance of a developer. Drupal needed a amended idiosyncratic interface and it got that with Drupal 8.

Drupal 8 has a front-end that is marketing-friendly. The administrative sheet interface is overmuch much intuitive. And it’s present mobile. You tin show oregon edit your website and selling campaigns easy whether it’s connected your desktop oregon connected your mobile device.  Now users tin negociate themes and make websites without coding knowledge.

You tin resistance and driblet leafage elements into spot and person the flexibility to alteration representation size, signifier and alignment. You tin rapidly make caller contented utilizing the built-in WYSIWYG editor. With this substance editor, you tin edit contented straight connected the page.

The learning curve for contented instauration successful Drupal 8 has been lowered dramatically.

Complaint #2: Why Do I Need So Many Add-Ons to Make Things Work?

Another contented that marketers person with Drupal is the fig of modules that are required to get the functionality you want. This is an added lawsuit wherever a spot of Drupal tin crook into a liability. Drupal is open-source codification and it has thousands of developers providing functionality. Out of the 30,000+ modules disposable for Drupal, you tin often find what you need.

Over time, the occupation that arose is that Drupal didn’t germinate enough. To marque a elemental website with newer functionality (like responsive plan oregon Views), you needed add-on modules. You couldn’t conscionable unfastened the Drupal “box” and get started. There is simply a wide scope of functionality, but however bash you take betwixt truthful galore modules?

Once you trust connected immoderate of those modules, it puts your website successful a presumption of needing enactment from aggregate sources. You could beryllium connected a module that is abandoned oregon doesn’t get updated erstwhile Drupal versions change. This means you tin support moving connected aging software, wage for idiosyncratic to support it, oregon find and instrumentality a caller module. Does this dependable familiar?

This is different concern that has improved with Drupal 8. There is inactive a immense array of optional modules for Drupal 8, but the astir fashionable modules from the past respective years are present built into Drupal core. These important halfway modules see Views, RDF, and Context.

Built-in halfway modules with Drupal 8 are maintained truthful gathering a tract utilizing thing but halfway is simply a dependable investment. It’s little enactment and much rewarding than ever before.

Complaint #3: Drupal is simply a Mess! It’s Hard to Update and Maintain

When your website codification becomes excessively analyzable oregon customized, updates and attraction tin get cumbersome and pricey. Your website is an important portion of your selling strategy, but you don’t privation it to instrumentality your full budget.

Drupal is an enterprise-level CMS. It has a large acceptable of capabilities and scales good to conscionable aboriginal needs. As 1 idiosyncratic commented astatine G2Crowd, “I liken Drupal to a Lego kit. At the outset each you person is simply a heap of pieces. But fixed clip and know-how you tin physique beauteous overmuch thing with it. So, it’s a large instrumentality for creating customized solutions for circumstantial needs.” The downside of the large flexibility that Drupal provides is that it tin beryllium hard to negociate and update.

Another contented that faces Drupal users is that the mentation upgrades are a large change. Going from mentation 6 to mentation 7 required a website rebuild and moving to Drupal mentation 8 whitethorn necessitate the same. While the caller versions connection large caller features and hole known problems, erstwhile migration requires a rebuild, it makes consciousness to see each of your CMS options.

The Drupal assemblage recognized this contented and has included the Migrate module with Drupal 8. Although inactive considered beta, this module provides a acceptable of tools to assistance a developer representation contented from Drupal versions 6 oregon 7 to Drupal 8. With this tool, migrations and updates should beryllium a smoother process.

On a related note, with each of the autarkic Drupal modules, each clip determination is simply a large upgrade, the modules request to beryllium updated arsenic well. Not each of these are acceptable to spell from time 1 of the release. Many of them instrumentality arsenic overmuch arsenic a twelvemonth to beryllium tested and acceptable to use. With our acquisition successful Drupal SEO, we are watching the SEO modules intimately to find the champion attack for Drupal 8 upgrades. We’ll beryllium releasing a Drupal 8 SEO Checklist soon which volition way these for you. You tin follow our advancement here.

Complaint #4: I Can’t Find Drupal Developers

At immoderate constituent successful the improvement of your Drupal website, you astir apt volition request immoderate method help. It’s nary concealed that it tin beryllium hard to find knowledgeable Drupal developers. The champion and astir experienced programmers tin beryllium costly and typically similar ample projects. Drupal has its ain terminology that tin marque it hard to understand. We telephone it “Drupalism.” If your developer doesn’t recognize Drupalism, it volition instrumentality clip to get up to speed.

Drupal 8 eases immoderate of the request for programming altogether by being easier for a non-technical idiosyncratic to make web pages. It besides resolves immoderate of these issues by being much compliant with manufacture standards specified arsenic utilizing the much communal Symfony2 model and object-oriented programming. That means it is easier to find developers who are acquainted with these standards.

Drupal 8: Will You Love It?

With each of the changes successful Drupal 8, you conscionable mightiness emotion it. It has evolved to a powerful, flexible CMS with an intuitive interface.

It’s inactive just to accidental that Drupal 8 isn’t the champion prime for each project. It’s important to take the champion instrumentality for your context. Drupal whitethorn beryllium overkill for tiny projects with conscionable a fewer pages and a blog. If you are connected a abbreviated timeline and person a debased budget, it whitethorn not beryllium the CMS for your project. However, if you person a tiny task that volition grow into much oregon if you request flexibility, Drupal 8 could beryllium your champion option.

There are a batch of radical who emotion Drupal. When you look astatine reviews, users and developers complaint Drupal highly. And astir them are thrilled with the changes successful Drupal 8. Marketers person a batch to emotion successful Drupal 8. We talked astir each of the large changes successful our caller blog, “8 Ways Drupal 8 Can Improve Your Website and Generate More Leads.”

If you deliberation you mightiness emotion Drupal 8, we tin assistance you marque your Drupal selling much effective. Volacci is your root for Drupal Marketing IntelligenceTM and Drupal SEO expertise. Check retired the resources connected our website oregon preorder our book, Drupal 8 SEO.

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