Let's talk to Miljan! He's an SEO Evangelist and Digital Marketer turned Growth Strategist from Montenegro. An old-school SEO pro with a knack for building sites from scratch and making data-driven decisions.
Joomla in Faces. Miljan Vujosevic (SEO evangelist)
Joomla in Faces. Miljan Vujosevic (SEO evangelist)
Published: 03 October 2025
Last modified: 16 October 2025
Miljan
Eugene
Let's talk to Miljan! He's an SEO Evangelist and Digital Marketer turned Growth Strategist from Montenegro. An old-school SEO pro with a knack for building sites from scratch and making data-driven decisions (his chair is basically an analytics command center! We sat down with him to unpack his strategies—get ready for some serious insights!
1. Tell us a few words about yourself
I work in SEO and digital marketing and have been doing it for more than two decades. My background is a mix of web development, content strategy, and search optimisation. I like building things that work - clean websites, clear structures, and strategies that actually bring results. Most of my work today is focused on growth, content marketing, digital PR, and good old SEO.
2. Your first encounter with Joomla: how did it happen?
I was just getting into Mambo when everything around it changed and Joomla was born. I joined in early, started experimenting, and got involved with the community not long after. I even remember when the name "Joomla" was first announced, and who had already bought a domain with that name before joomla.org was registered.
3. Have you worked with other Content Management Systems besides Joomla?
Yes, quite a few over the years. I worked with Magento, Drupal, Laravel, Typo3, and the blog tool WordPress called a "CMS", plus a few custom systems. These days I mostly use ProcessWire because it’s more programmer-oriented.
4. Do you contribute to the Joomla community?
For about ten years I was active as a moderator, translator, contributor, tester, and author for the Joomla Magazine. I spent a lot of time helping users solve problems, writing about SEO and site structure, and testing new versions. I stayed in touch with people from the community and still help when I can.
5. Why do you do this / what motivates you / what do you get out of it?
Mostly because of people and good software. I’ve always believed that what you give freely tends to come back in some form, though never the way you expect. I’ve met lovely people through Joomla, and after 20 years I still have friends like you, Eugene, and others from all over Europe, North and South America. Joomla helped me find a job, the company where I’ve been for 16 years, and friends I’m genuinely proud of.
On photo: Miljan Vujosevic
6. What are the Joomla communities in Montenegro and neighbouring Serbia like?
They’re smaller now than they used to be but still active in smaller groups. Most developers in Montenegro and Serbia work with international clients, so their focus is often global rather than purely local. Still, there’s a solid base of people who know Joomla well and quietly keep it alive in the region.
7. What advice could you give to people who are at the beginning of their journey with SEO and Joomla?
Learn the basics of HTML, CSS, and PHP first. Understand how search works, test a lot, and don’t be afraid to experiment. Joomla is a fantastic system if you know how to handle its content structure, URLs, and metadata. Don’t rely on plugins to fix things you don’t understand - learn what happens behind them. And don’t automate anything until you’re 100% sure what you’re doing.
8. What is the state of the e-commerce market in Montenegro, and which online payment systems are the most popular?
E-commerce is growing but still in an early stage. Most online stores rely on card payments processed directly by local banks, while cash on delivery remains the most common option. PayPal doesn’t work in Montenegro, and almost no one uses Stripe. Online payments are improving slowly as people gain more trust in them.
9. International trade and work with external markets are always key to success. Which languages does a local person usually need to know to work at a Montenegrin web agency?
You’re right, the local market is small, so most web agencies here work with clients from abroad. English is a must, and depending on the type of projects, Russian or Ukrainian can be very useful. It’s common for people here to speak several languages, which makes collaboration with European and US clients much easier.
10. There is a unique situation in your region where both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets are officially in use. What is the status of Joomla translations?
The Montenegrin translation hasn’t existed for a long time. Most people use the Croatian or Serbian version instead, depending on what fits better. The Cyrillic version is used very rarely, and most sites are in Latin. With today’s AI tools, it’s easy to adjust or localize it properly if needed.
11. In your opinion, is there a chance for Joomla to be used for government and administrative sites in Montenegro?
Let’s escape the corruption part and say - technically, yes. Joomla could easily handle it. In practice, though, most government projects are decided through tenders where the choice of platform depends more on the contractor than on what actually works best. The local market is small, and most agencies focus on private or international clients. Our new government swears by open source, but in the end, money talks.
12. What key advantages of Joomla would you highlight?
Honestly, I could write a 7000-word article just about the good sides of Joomla. It’s structured, logical, and gives real control without adding useless layers. The multilingual system, access control, and especially custom fields were years ahead of most other CMS platforms. Its MVC structure is still one of the cleanest and most flexible out there, making it easy to extend or override without breaking anything. It’s stable, predictable, excellent for SEO, and once you understand how it’s built, you can do almost anything with it.
13. What would you like to see improved in the Joomla ecosystem?
From the beginning I said we would lose the battle because of SEO - and we did. A simple blog tool like WordPress, with basic SEO and clean URLs, won the mass market. Joomla is technically way stronger and a proper CMS, but still lacks consistent marketing, clear communication, and plenty of practical How-To videos showing what it can really do.
14. Joomla turns 20. What are your thoughts on this milestone?
Wow — an open source project turning 20 is something rare. Joomla went through a lot and is still here, active and relevant. That says a lot about the people behind it and the strength of the community. It shaped how many of us think about building websites and sharing knowledge.
I am proud to have been part of it in its early years and glad to see it still moving forward. Happy Joomling!
