As eCommerce continues to evolve, so does the competitive landscape, with new applications and better integrations creating more opportunities to interact with your customers, with unique themes to enhance the online shopping experience. To stand out it is imperative to have a unique and reliable eCommerce platform.
Today, Magento is claiming that position effortlessly with the explosion of new online stores and the fast paced growth of existing businesses. However, this rapid growth can be difficult to manage for organizations. There are Magento tips and tricks that can be utilized to effectively navigate the online shopping experience and stand out in the crowded sea. Magento has everything to make you successful – from storage spaces, agnostic extensions, SEO compatibility, and countless other learning opportunities for users.
However, with everything Magento has to offer and its level of customization, many companies still require help. If you are still struggling with how to install or upgrade, re-index, speed up and/or backup your eCommerce platform, contact the Helix Solutions team today.
Who Uses Magento
Magento serves only 1.2 percent of internet businesses. It is still growing though, being acquired by Adobe in 2018, it presents endless opportunities to create one of a kind shopping experiences No matter the size of your online store, it can be designed using Magento software. Additionally, it allows users and website developers to create an impeccably customized version that promotes your eCommerce store and online brand, with its open-source PHP coding. Powering 250,000+ online stores, its robust features and ability to manage massive inventory are just a couple reasons companies use the platform. Some major brands that rely heavily on Magento to succeed are Coca-Cola, Nestle Nespresso, Nike, Louboutin (French shoe designer), Olympus, and Vizio among others. It is reliable, powerful, flexible and compatible with different systems and situations. However, to truly get the best from Magento, you need a professional web developer to ensure you are connected to the best Magento has to offer.
Why should you choose Magento for your website?
Today many eCommerce store owners have several stores, on multiple channels. It can be tedious to keep your eyes on the performance, revenue, and customer information. Not only does Magento enable you to monitor all your stores, but it also allows you to manage inventory, orders, and delivery in a seamless manner from one dashboard. It is also considered one of the most reliable Content Management Systems available for an eCommerce stack. If speed is an issue, Magento reduces page load time and lag. It is also easier to rank higher on search engines because the platform is packed with SEO features, making your web page visible and notable by Google bots.
As an open-source platform, Magento allows developers and users of its software to see, modify, analyze, and distribute it within its jurisdiction. For any website or online store to survive, it must adequately cater to mobile phone users. Magento HTMLS enhances the mobile user’s shopping experience and automatically adjusts the size and content of the website for mobile compatibility. This is just one of the add-ons for performance.
With so many third-party applications, users can integrate countless external services to boost performance. There is no limit to what you can add from payment gateways, order tracking, dropshipping, inventory, and performance tools like Google Analytics.
The Magento community is an organized group helping one another and updating the group with the newest trends in the industry. As one of the largest online communities, made up of over 270,000 merchants and 200,000 developers, according to Magento IT, it will enable you to attract, convert, sell and retain more customers. This community consists of developers, programmers, IT specialists, and many more analyzing and improving the Magento software to tackle the next big issue online.
Of course, if the Magento Community or in-house developers are not able to properly set up and maintain your Magento platform, a trusted Managed Services Provider can help! Magento website development, hosting, maintenance, and usage are easy with Helix Solutions.
MAGENTO TIPS AND TRICKS
The weakest point for eCommerce stores is traffic – there is never enough traffic. We want more – more leads, more conversion, more retention, and more profits.
How to install a Magento Theme on your website?
Themes play a central role in developing eCommerce stores. Your website must reflect what you sell, but also appeal to the customers to stay in the store. A good theme boosts sales, converts customers, and retains loyal ones. Magento 2 themes are free, and you can start by choosing the ones you want.
If you have not downloaded the Magento app, now is the best time to do this with Helix Solutions. They have the professional expertise to ensure that Magento is installed on your system.
Now that the Magento 2 app is installed, you can download the theme next.
Step 1: choosing the theme
Thanks to the extensive community, there is an ideal Magento solution for every design you have in mind. Download the theme relevant to your products or services in a zipped folder or buy from the Magento marketplace app.
Step 2:
Unzipped the Magento theme folder to reveal the two directories app and pub
Step 3:
Upload the theme from the app and pub root directories using FileZilla
Step 4:
Establish a secure connection with your store to the Magento server
Using the PHP bin/magento setup: upgrade command line upgrade the setup
Generate a static content using the PHP bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy
Step 5:
Apply the theme by click content on the admin panel and go to the configuration
Click edit
Apply theme and save the configuration
If you are not knowledgeable in computer language or coding, it is best to get professional help from the right source now. During the installation process there are many steps that must be done to the letter, so if this seems confusing please connect to Helix Solutions to get professional support.
Now that you are all set up, have chosen a theme, and understand the power and need for traffic, we are halfway there. Traffic, whether organic or otherwise, cannot happen without the right SEO tools.
If you are online, SEO is all that matters. It does not matter if you have the best marketing strategy or not, if SEO is not the front and center of it, you need help. Contact experienced Magento developers to turn things around, or follow these Magento SEO tips and transform your digital life.
Why is SEO important?
Asides from visibility and searchability, SEO increases website value, authority, improves customer experience, usability, and relationship. These all help in driving traffic to your page and boost sales.
SEO ensures that all your content is well-dressed appropriately to search engine standards.
Google is the largest search engine on the internet policing content that is posted online for readers. Content that meets the requirements are those that obey the SEO rules, including keywords and keyword placement.
SEO exposes the value of your content to the world. It also helps to determine the demographic loving your products and how to cater to them. So SEO is not just for search engines to find you but about who your appropriate customers are.
Now that you understand the importance of SEO, how can Magento help you cover the lapses and do so well with your eCommerce?
Magento came to life in 2009 but has since upgraded to Magento 2, launched in 2015. This improved version is specially fortified with SEO tools meeting the specifications of search engines and developers.
After years of assisting clients to develop the best Magento-based eCommerce platform and working in the community, we have gathered our Magento SEO tips for everyone interested in using this platform.
TIP 1: GET UPDATED
Why Migrating to Magento 2 is Advantageous?
Chances are you are finding Magento hard and confusing because you are still stuck with the old version. This is not to say it will not function as desired, but it will limit you and the needs you expect from a broad platform like this. So to get you started on the right foot, get updated.
But I do not know the Magento version I am on. What do I do?
There are many ways to find out which version you are using, but this is the simplest one.
Login to your Magneto admin dashboard
At the bottom right corner of the page is the version boldly imprinted.
Upgrading your Magento version gives you absolute rights and access to the latest updates from the community and supported features. Asides from getting updates, the Magento version 2.0 is jam-packed with SEO tools, enhancement and performance tactics, security, bug fixing, and the capabilities of Magento.
TIP 2: BOOST CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
You cannot deny it – without excellent customer relationships, your ecommerce dream is a fallacy. While Magento has plenty of tools to boost this single task, it is composed of several factors. In this section, we will list them out.
OPTIMIZE SITE SPEED
Maybe you have not noticed Magento is not the fastest eCommerce platform on the net, and with Google’s 2 to 3 seconds load time, this is bound to send customers away right from the home page. Additionally, when site speed is slow, traffic is slower, and many people shut off before making a purchase or an inquiry.
But do not worry; there are several Magento extensions to improve the performance of your store. You will need higher permission to access the Magento admin developer option, but you can hire a qualified team to enable it on your behalf.
CONDUCT HOMEPAGE PROMOTION
This is a tip to increase traffic to your page. The internet is full of ways to boost traffic to your website, but we have one for you. By showcasing products on your homepage, you know what customers love and how to stand out in the crowd. Additionally, you can change the products on your homepage to appeal to a greater audience.
MAKE CHECKOUTS SIMPLE
Abandon carts is another area where eCommerce operators suffer hugely, but this can be eliminated with the Magento checkout process. Magento checkout system eliminates long waiting & queue for orders to be cleared or shipping to take effect.
The Magento extension to use is the One Step Checkout extension by Mageplaza. It reduces cart abandonment by 66 percent, checkout time by 80 percent, and has a 33 percent conversion rate.
Do not forget to use the Magento shipping extension to simplify the shipping process to enable seamless order checkout and delivery on the Magento platform.
TIP 3: MAGENTO SEO IMAGE OPTIMIZATION
A picture tells a thousand words, but images are also heavy and can consume space, making site speed slow, taking up ample loading time.
Furthermore, the more the images, the slower the site and this is not a good concept that customers want to understand or care about.
At this point, it is best to state that neither Magento 1 nor Magneto 2 provide image optimization capability.
So what do you do?
Well, luckily, Magento 2 has the option of adding alt attributes to images for better optimization.
For many of us, images are stored as the devices used to snap them and tag them. While this is not bad when used on the internet, search engines cannot recognize or accurately read them. This limits your chances of visibility and relegates your post to the back.
For example, imagine you have the image of a black long sleeve polka dot shirt for men on your device. However, it is stored as IMG0034. When you add this image to your page, the image URL bears the IMG0034, which is difficult for search engines to place as it cannot view your image and now cannot read the text.
If the image is appropriately named as the black long sleeve polka dot shirt for men, it is immediately ranked in the right position. This improves visibility, increasing traffic, and converting visitors to paying customers.
The alt text is the easiest way for your images to make it past the search engine rule. Still, on image optimization, you must think about the size and use of keywords. In the product description black long sleeve polka dot shirt for men, the keyword is “shirt for men”, when people click or search for these words, your product will be listed among the search results. If they add anything else like a long sleeve or polka dot, it will most likely narrow it down to you.
Finally, the size of the image is everything. Images are saved in PNG, JPG, or GIF.
It is relevant to know that visitors can only wait at most 3 seconds before abandoning a page, so your image must be at the 3 seconds mark. The best image format is JPG; they load better, faster, and have excellent color quality.
Are you looking for the best Magento image optimizer extension to add to your page? Try the Apptrian Image Optimizer! It will reduce the size; retain the quality without affecting the speed of your website.
TIP 4: MAGENTO RICH SNIPPETS
We all know what snippets are but if you do not, here goes. Snippets are structured information that describes exactly what a product or service is.
By default, Google is in charge of showing snippets on your page site, but if they are rich and well-structured, you can be sure to rank higher in a search. The ability to create rich snippets is the most alluring feature added to Magento version-2 and a great way to add specifics to your page so that search engines can understand what you offer. Using Magento rich snippet, it is easier to rank higher on Google. It also enables the system to highlight information and content for better understanding.
Why you need a rich snippet?
For the obvious reason of staying SEO compliant to search engines, rules, and regulation but other reasons include:
- Increased store visibility and organic traffic
- Allows Google and other search engines to understand your text better and enables better distribution
- Increases the page search results and click-through rates
- Enables searchers to find accurate information about your website or products
Magento provides countless extensions to structure your microdata. The Magento 2 rich snippets are an incredible example of one you can add to your page. It has a free version allowing you to test the capacity. However, you could opt for the pro option and gain absolute control over content that leaves your page.
Magento also has Google-enabled rich snippets that work equally as well on the platform.
TIP 5: KEYWORDS & META TAGS
Meta Tags Optimization – 6 brilliant tips
Keywords and Meta tags are crucial and impact your SEO ranking tremendously. They ensure that your snippets are rich enough and within the guidelines set by Google. Whether you are choosing to optimize it or learn to utilize it to your advantage, never abandon the use of keywords and Meta tags.
With Magento, there is a default setting for product titles and descriptions, but it is easily edited to boost and attain SEO standards. When creating Meta titles and descriptions, some factors must be considered. For example, the keyword must appear in the title for easier search recognition and fall between 50 to 60 characters in length.
Meta descriptions must also spot the keywords (the main keyword and secondary keyword to hit the target). Additionally, the description texts must be between 50 to 160 characters in length. It is a short, engaging paragraph with 2 or 3 sentences embedded with the keywords.
Magento SEO Tips: Keyword must be utilized in the content and appear in the image’s alt description too. Your website will not rank higher with keywords, Meta tags, or alt tags, so use it wisely.
Remember that your Magento tags are like ads and take up 30% of your ranking percentage. Therefore, getting it right from the beginning is crucial. Finally, keywords should appear natural within the content so that Google does not flag your content as fake.
Since we are discussing the text and how to use SEO to our advantage, let’s talk product descriptions.
TIP 6: SEO APPROVED PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS & CONTENT DUPLICATION
While the snippets, Meta titles, and descriptions will lure the customer to the page, an enticing product description should tie the content and translate their action into a buy. Writing a product description is the fastest way to build a better SEO ranking for your website, and it needs to be unique, beautifully composed, and narrate the product to the viewer. Most times, product description is a challenge for e-commerce players. They only buy these products or see them only without any physical connection with them.
In this regard, many product descriptions are similar or duplicated, causing Google to ban the site.
They either copy from other sites or retain the original descriptions that came with the products. Google will only accept content that adds value to the viewers, and duplicated content is not one of them. If you want your products and store to rank higher in SERP and attract customers, you must learn to create elegant content that sells or hire a professional to do the job.
Speaking of content duplication, Magento 2 has a setting that solves this problem and keeps you on Google’s good list for long.
Magento 2 solves content duplication problems by employing canonical tag/URL or links. These HTML-coded snippets tell Google that the content has an original source thereby preventing a repetition of it.
These tags also stop more than one website from copying, and Google knows which one to index if such happens.
To activate the canonical tag on our page, visit the store, click the category, and catalog the SEO.
Yes, you can. This will ensure your titles and texts are unique, original, and well-optimized in all aspects. Finally, canonical tags are powerful tools. When used inappropriately, it will cause Google to ignore a website or some pages on the sites. This is a disaster for e-commerce owners because the owner might not know why traffic is slow despite having a strong content description.
TIP 7: INDEXING ROBOTS.TXT
This is actually a trick that everyone must utilize to protect their website from web crawlers. So if you are wondering why robot.txt is vital to SEO, listen up.
As a web page on the internet, web crawlers have access to every page and check around, but with the Robot.txt, its power is limited.
The Robot.txt is text files to index some pages. They act as the gatekeepers to your website and decide which crawler can access or not access your sitemap or website.
Overall, the Robot.txt allows Google crawlers to find pages within your domain that add value and boost page ranking on Search engines. With the Magento 2 version, e-commerce players and developers can easily modify this text file to help optimize the content you need and forgoing those you want to protect.
With the Magento indexing, your storefront is enhanced as product or category data is re-indexed or updated to improve its performance on SERP. Re-indexing Magento 2 is not an effortless process if you are not computer code literate, but it can be done professionally.
TIP 8: SEO MOBILE OPTIMIZATION
There are billions of people in this world and a large percentage transacting on their mobile phones. Your Magento e-commerce store can benefit massively if your store is mobile optimized. Although mobile e-commerce is still garnering impact, no online store can survive without one.
Mobile optimization is the success of your e-commerce store and an instrument of measure for SEO. So what are you waiting for? Optimize your website for better viewing on mobile devices.
TIP 9: Understand the Power of Internal Links
The Importance of Internal Links for SEO
Internal links allow search bots to understand our website and rank accordingly, and if you want better search results, you must ensure that your internal links are natural, organic, and not junk links.
Luckily, Magento has many SEO tips to improve your internal links by optimizing low competitive keywords and adding related products, upsell, and cross-sells as the case may be.
TIP 10: SITEMAP CREATION
Sitemaps are one tip you should never overlook, and with a Magento storefront, this is one of Magento SEO tips that must be implemented in your store.
What exactly does a sitemap do for your SEO?
Well, it allows search engines to carefully conduct searches so that significant pages cannot be missed by web crawlers. Although Magento disallows automated generation of sitemap, with the right extension, it will work just fine. We recommend the dynamic HTML sitemap if you are using the Magento 2 platform.
Conclusion
Magento is one of the best eCommerce platforms for a million reasons. Their tips and tricks for eCommerce success are not without flaws though. Mainly the inability of non technical staff being able to easily update their Magento platform. Whether you are searching for how to re-index Magento or upgrade your platform, Helix Solutions can help guide you. We have been developing Magento apps for a decade and have the resources and tools to your site in all areas.