0 - Magento in 3 months
Discussion
There have been a few "how do I upgrade/build a website" posts recently, so this is a little different as I've just upgraded my own site and thought it might be useful for anyone looking to do similar.
I run an ecommerce site, which was originally launched in 2010 and was built by myself using Zen Cart - a pretty easy ecommerce system to install and use, but even then it was showing its age. As I learnt more about running an ecommerce site, I realised it had some several major limitations, and towards the end of last year I decided to upgrade.
I looked at various options, and decided to go with Magento CE as it is modern, used by a large number of other sites and ticked all the main boxes for functionality I wanted. I decided to do the work myself, as I couldn't justify the cost of hiring a pro, and I also wanted to have full control of how it looked and worked.
It didn't take too long to get to grips with Magento, and there is a lot of information and help available online. I bought a template which was similar to the design I wanted, then dived in to the css and PHP files to make all the changes I wanted. With the Magento platform, there are a number of extensions available which provide extra functionality which are usually simple to install, but some did need a bit of tweaking to get them working as I wanted - nothing too difficult though, and often the developers are willing to make changes to customise them to suit your requirements.
There's still a little bit of work to do - e.g., improving the content for SEO purposes, but overall I'm very happy with the results. It took about 3 months from installing Magento for the first time, to launching the new site last night although a lot of that time was spent migrating product descriptions across from the old site, and re-doing all the product image photos.
If you're interested in taking a look, the link to my site is in my profile.
I run an ecommerce site, which was originally launched in 2010 and was built by myself using Zen Cart - a pretty easy ecommerce system to install and use, but even then it was showing its age. As I learnt more about running an ecommerce site, I realised it had some several major limitations, and towards the end of last year I decided to upgrade.
I looked at various options, and decided to go with Magento CE as it is modern, used by a large number of other sites and ticked all the main boxes for functionality I wanted. I decided to do the work myself, as I couldn't justify the cost of hiring a pro, and I also wanted to have full control of how it looked and worked.
It didn't take too long to get to grips with Magento, and there is a lot of information and help available online. I bought a template which was similar to the design I wanted, then dived in to the css and PHP files to make all the changes I wanted. With the Magento platform, there are a number of extensions available which provide extra functionality which are usually simple to install, but some did need a bit of tweaking to get them working as I wanted - nothing too difficult though, and often the developers are willing to make changes to customise them to suit your requirements.
There's still a little bit of work to do - e.g., improving the content for SEO purposes, but overall I'm very happy with the results. It took about 3 months from installing Magento for the first time, to launching the new site last night although a lot of that time was spent migrating product descriptions across from the old site, and re-doing all the product image photos.
If you're interested in taking a look, the link to my site is in my profile.
Looks good!
Did you have much SEO weight with the old site? If so you might want to look at what links the search engines have indexed for your website, and ensure they all still work with the new site. If not then put redirections in place.
A couple of minor changes I'd personally make:
1) Change the red in the delivery box on the front page, it's one of the first things that grabs your attention and thus detracts from everything else.
2) Get some products on your front page.
3) Take some reviews from Trustpilot and put them on your front page.
Did you have much SEO weight with the old site? If so you might want to look at what links the search engines have indexed for your website, and ensure they all still work with the new site. If not then put redirections in place.
A couple of minor changes I'd personally make:
1) Change the red in the delivery box on the front page, it's one of the first things that grabs your attention and thus detracts from everything else.
2) Get some products on your front page.
3) Take some reviews from Trustpilot and put them on your front page.
Frimley111R said:
Nice, clean and simple. I like it.
It might help to add some other content so that you have more menu options, as much as anything because currently such limited menus make you look a little small (just IMO of course).
Thanks It might help to add some other content so that you have more menu options, as much as anything because currently such limited menus make you look a little small (just IMO of course).
I decided to go for a simple menu structure as this was more intuitive when using the site on a tablet, plus feedback I had from the previous site was that there were too many menu options. A few more categories will be added as there are still some products that haven't been listed yet, but I will try to keep it simple.
jammy_basturd said:
Looks good!
Did you have much SEO weight with the old site? If so you might want to look at what links the search engines have indexed for your website, and ensure they all still work with the new site. If not then put redirections in place.
I've added redirects for the top 20 visited pages from google, so this should cover most search traffic. I've also tried to make the 404 page a bit more user-friendly as I'm sure there will be some visitors who end up there!Did you have much SEO weight with the old site? If so you might want to look at what links the search engines have indexed for your website, and ensure they all still work with the new site. If not then put redirections in place.
Thanks for the other suggestions - I was trying to get more attention on the delivery details, so it's good to see that works
ehasler said:
I decided to go for a simple menu structure as this was more intuitive when using the site on a tablet, plus feedback I had from the previous site was that there were too many menu options. A few more categories will be added as there are still some products that haven't been listed yet, but I will try to keep it simple.
You'll probably find that on most tablets and phones, people won't be able to use the dropdown menus because as soon as they tap/click on either 'Dog Products' or 'Cat Products' they'll be directed to those categories before they've had a chance to choose a sub-menu option. There is no 'hover' on a mobile device.ehasler said:
Thanks for the other suggestions - I was trying to get more attention on the delivery details, so it's good to see that works
For me, the delivery details took my attention before I was able to work out what you sold. Personally I would have thought that getting across what you sell, along with other details such as special offers, great products, etc should come ahead of whether or not you can send them to me?sumo69 said:
By the way, I am still waiting for your response to my e-mail??
David
I'm sure I replied to your last mail - I'll double check when I get home this evening.David
jammy_basturd said:
You'll probably find that on most tablets and phones, people won't be able to use the dropdown menus because as soon as they tap/click on either 'Dog Products' or 'Cat Products' they'll be directed to those categories before they've had a chance to choose a sub-menu option. There is no 'hover' on a mobile device.
The design of the site changes depending on the screen width, so you get a more touch-screen friendly menu structure on a tablet, although it was still easier to use with less complicated menus.jammy_basturd said:
For me, the delivery details took my attention before I was able to work out what you sold. Personally I would have thought that getting across what you sell, along with other details such as special offers, great products, etc should come ahead of whether or not you can send them to me?
That's a fair point, although the majority of traffic comes from people searching for a specific item, and I'm trying to see if highlighting the free postage option generates more higher-value orders. It's something I'll look at though - thanks.Can I ask a new question about Magento.
We have been advised that two websites are needed, one in wordpress for the noisy search and wordy stuff. And a second in Magento that remains as the shop only as this is not very google friendly, with both seamlessly linking between each other.
We are also attempting to use for our internal order processing and communication to customers, with links to CRM and accounts software, and the ability for sales reps to process orders on the road for account holders.
Has anyone had much luck with using Magento as the main system for the entire business?
Thanks.
We have been advised that two websites are needed, one in wordpress for the noisy search and wordy stuff. And a second in Magento that remains as the shop only as this is not very google friendly, with both seamlessly linking between each other.
We are also attempting to use for our internal order processing and communication to customers, with links to CRM and accounts software, and the ability for sales reps to process orders on the road for account holders.
Has anyone had much luck with using Magento as the main system for the entire business?
Thanks.
BGARK said:
Can I ask a new question about Magento.
We have been advised that two websites are needed, one in wordpress for the noisy search and wordy stuff. And a second in Magento that remains as the shop only as this is not very google friendly, with both seamlessly linking between each other.
Thanks.
Advised by whom ? (My BS radar has gone off!) We have been advised that two websites are needed, one in wordpress for the noisy search and wordy stuff. And a second in Magento that remains as the shop only as this is not very google friendly, with both seamlessly linking between each other.
Thanks.
It's not unusual to have Magento running the store side of your site, and Wordpress installed alongside to power the blog. So for example www.yourdomain.com would point to the Magento store, and www.yourdomain.com/blog would have all your blog content.
Getting them to run alongside each other is easy, but there would be some work involved to get the design of both to be the same, so you have consistent menu structures across the whole site for example.
Magento itself isn't bad for SEO, but isn't designed for creating regular wordy content - which is where Wordpress comes in. So there are advantages for running both together.
I've noticed a few visits to my site from this thread, so just for anyone who's interested - the Magento site I started this thread about no longer exists, but the site in my profile is custom written by myself, with Wordpress running everything under /blog.
Getting them to run alongside each other is easy, but there would be some work involved to get the design of both to be the same, so you have consistent menu structures across the whole site for example.
Magento itself isn't bad for SEO, but isn't designed for creating regular wordy content - which is where Wordpress comes in. So there are advantages for running both together.
BGARK said:
In addition can you have several "white label" sites, each selling unique products with individual URL's, again I was told this is not possible or google might bin the results?
Magento does let you do this, but there is no reason Google would penalise it unless you used the same content on each site.I've noticed a few visits to my site from this thread, so just for anyone who's interested - the Magento site I started this thread about no longer exists, but the site in my profile is custom written by myself, with Wordpress running everything under /blog.
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