12 Tips to give your Magento store a flying start in 2012.
Putting in the groundwork now (or in your seasonal downtime) really does pay dividends for the times when you can't move for orders and don't have the time. So, here it goes...
1. Start using widgets and static blocks.
Once you figure them out you will wonder why you never used them before. They really are genius nuggets of reusable content. Have a look at your current static blocks and then start creating your own in your content and category pages use the content management system to insert a static block using the 'Insert Widget' function. You can also use static blocks in your layout but if you are not familiar with changing the layout of your site, try editing existing ones first, a little by little until you become more confident.
2. Make sure all of your contact details work.
There is nothing worse than loosing a sale because a user wanted to query something before parting with their hard earned cash. It may also be worthwhile checking what automated messages are being sent out, for example Thank you for Contacting us, Thanks for Signing up for offers and your order confirmation emails it's easy to customise these yourself and ensure they are still on message.
3. Get your product descriptions right.
This means give your customers the option of reading the highlights and also reading the long copy satisfy more people and enjoy higher conversations than just using the manufacturers descriptions.
4. Photographs.
If you haven't already, make this the year to a) get some professional shots or b) invest in some decent equipment your customers want strike that expect pictures where they can see everything. Give them angles, give them close ups, give them depth and photograph it next to something standard, e.g if it is a small item give it some context next to a penny if they know what they are getting, you get less returns and it only costs you a penny!
5. Check your abandoned carts.
Information about your customers who were so very close to placing an order is there for the taking...perhaps they had a problem. If you are not ready for auto cart abandonment software perhaps a manual approach will work. Go to Reports -> Shopping Carts -> Abandoned Carts.
6. Get a blog.
Make sure 2012 is the year you start blogging it really is an invaluable resource both for your site to product some nice juicy fresh content but also gives you a voice to your customers. There are some great plugs ins out there for Magento, try aheadworks or fishpig wordpress integration both are free.
7. Start backing up.
Maybe you already do but maybe you don't but now is the time to make sure that in the event of something catastrophic you are covered and have the essential details of how to get back online ASAP. There are some great plugs ins, ones that go to the cloud so your data is extra safe and always available.
8. 2012 the biggest year yet of m-commerce?
Making sure your site loads (and is easy to use) on a mobile device (phones, tablets etc) should be one of your top priorities; again there are some great mobile friendly themes that you can set to show automatically to people visiting your site on a mobile nifty.
9. Take a peek at your analytics.
Ask yourself questions like what can you do to get your bounce rate down? Check out what the top content is and if this is different to what is on your home page, maybe it is time to move that product onto the homepage and give your user what they want instantly.
10. Target a niche.
Have you got products that can shine on their own? Give it a site of its own with a look all of its own too niche websites often out perform general sites and easy to do once you get the basics of how it works.
11. Feed your products.
Google shopping feeds are a great free resource for getting your products infront of the peeled eyes of searchers. By assigning a few extra nuggets of information to each of your products (which you can also do in bulk) you are ready to submit your product feed to Google. It takes a little bit of work to optimise your feeds but if you are time rich and ad-spend poor it could be a good way to go.
12. Create some juicy internal links.
Use tags to create some nice juicy internal links to your product pages - what do you call your products? More importantly what do your users call them? Ensure you pay heed to googleÃs dislike of duplicate content and make sure you follow the bonus tip below ñ you donÃt want your site to flag up as duplicate content
Bonus Tip:
Make sure you take advantage of the canonical function already built into Magento. Find it in your System > Configuration -> Catalogue -> Catalogue (not a typo!) -> Search Engine Optimisations and select 'Yes' for settings for use canonical for Products & Categories and your web pages will tell Google what pages is the master and which can be ignored.
Like what you see?
So, thatÃs our 12 tips for 2012! If you like what you see and want to know how to implement all of the above, it is all covered in our series of 1 day training courses and only touches the surface of what you can learn in our practical instructor led training courses.
Great suggestions, I particularly like ideas 5, 6 and 9.