Magento. One of the world's leading digital commerce platforms. Used by 13% of the industry, Magento store development provides a flexible framework for maximum control. From the singular dashboard, custom themes and store designs, all the way through the inventory management, the best of the best stops here.

However, using Magento is only half of the equation. The platform you use is irrelevant if it's not properly utilised for customers and increasing overall brand value. As the site owner or developer, it's your responsibility to avoid common mistakes during the Magento store development process. If not designed properly, you run the risk of affecting conversion rates and failing to deliver a premium digital shopping experience for your customers.

Below are six common mistakes that you could unknowingly make when building a website:

Magento Store Development: What to Avoid

1. Using default settings

Understandably it's tempting. If it fits the bill, why bother tweaking something that doesn't need a tweak? However using these settings will damage your search engine rankings and thus your click-through-rate. Avoiding the following areas will minimise this risk:

Default homepage:

Have you ever come across a successful Ecommerce store with 'Home' as the title of the homepage? Maybe back in the old days, but Google's updated algorithm now requires a primary keyword followed by the secondary keyword for the home page title.

Solution: Use the name of your brand as your landing page title.

Default descriptions:

One of the fastest way to kill your customer's experience and search engine rank. Physical store fronts allow products to be personally examined. Digital stores shoppers only rely on photos and information to be convinced that they should make a purchase. The dodgier the description, the less likely a transaction will occur. In addition, you should also avoid using the original manufacturer's description. Google can easily identify duplicates and decrease the search engine rank of your store.

Solution: write a fresh and SEO-friendly content for every product.

Default Magento XML sitemap:

Sitemaps help you increase the ranking of your store on Google, Yahoo and Bing. However most store owners forget to add sitemaps during the Magento web development process, or refresh the setting whilst putting the site on live.

Solution: Create or upload a new site map or use premium Magento Sitemap extensions.

2. Poor theme choice

Magento store development websites offers an extensive theme choice for your online store front. However during the Magento web development process, the following errors need to be avoided:

• Basing their decision on personal choice rather than customer suitability

• Choosing heavy themes that slows down responsiveness of the site after adding new products or extensions.

Solution: Choose simple and user-friendly themes that offers unlimited customization option and doesn't reduce loading speed (20 microseconds).

3.  Layered navigation issues

In this type of navigation, different categories are organised on one page. However due to the design of this, users can face overlapped categories, obscured images and slow loading speed. These obstacles can be enough to immediately leave the site and thus decrease your sales.

Solution: Make use of Ajax navigation for easy product filtering and don't allow search engine crawlers to crawl via your pages.

4. Shared resources and server

Technically Magento powered stores can be shared with other stores and websites on the server, which is something that must be avoided if you don't want to taint your online reputation. It reduces the website loading speed and makes the website vulnerable to hackers, exposing your customer's sensitive information and affecting your Magento store sales.

Solution: Configure your store to another server of your choice. MySQL and PHP5 are highly recommended.

5. Unresponsive Site

The number of people using mobile now outnumbers those on desktops and this gap is only set to increase over the next few years. A responsive website automatically adjusts itself according to screen size without compromising content and accessibility. This is a powerful and necessary feature to have if you don't want to see your sales drop to oceans bottom. Users are quick to exit sites that haven't been optimised for mobile-friendly access - and given the mobile usage rate, that's too many customers you're potentially losing.

Solution: Ensure your website is responsive and scalable to maximize user-friendliness.

6. Underestimating SEO

Many people believe that the era of SEO is just about over and it's not a bad assumption to make. Many online retailers turning to celebrity endorsements or social media influencers to make themselves known to the public and in some ways, it's more effective than how your website ranks on search engines. However it's a poor move if it's the only brand marketing tactic you rely on. If your chosen public figure does not have the right audience mix, you'll find it's ineffective and a waste of money. Instead, focus on who you want to attract and incorporate keyword research in different hot spots of your website. Product titles, descriptions and even blog posts will unlock the door to skyrocketing sales.

Solution: Create various SEO-friendly blog posts and utilise social media sharing for maximum audience reach.

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As you can see, it is not essential to develop your Magento store from scratch to improve sales. A few minor modifications can significantly boost your sales and audience reach to surprising numbers. However as effective as these tips are, it's only the start. It's important to still be updated in the latest audience trends and continuously update your website strategies to improve your online shopping experience and online reach.

Acidgreen is an award winning Magento Australia company with over 15 years of  e-commerce experience. Our certified magento developers and designers are highly qualified to deliver Magento store development results that generate the highest amount of conversions and provide the best ROI. For more information on our Magento ecommerce stores and commerce expertise and how to get started with Acidgreen’s magento design  and development services, contact us today.