13 things to know on how to set up a blog in Magento for new [...]
13 things to know on how to set up a blog in Magento for new businesses
📅 - If you have a Magento ecommerce store and want to make your brand seem more “human” and approachable, then running a blog could be the next logical step. Here are a few tips to help you start a blog on your store that will improve your business.
1 – You Will Need a Magento Ecommerce Extension
Magento doesn't support blogs out of the box, so you will need an extension. The free Magento Blog – Community Edition extension is a robust, stable and feature rich choice.
2 – Magento's Out of the Box SEO isn't Great for Blogs
Magento is well SEO-ed from an ecommerce point of view, but the blogging side of things isn't perfect. Make sure that you take a close look at the CMS section and add meta descriptions, use search engine friendly URLs, and have a good SEF theme and stable Magento hosting.
3 – A Blog is Only Useful if You Update it Regularly
If your blog goes un-touched for months it will make your site look abandoned. Save up some posts to schedule, and aim to post at least once a fortnight (if not once a week). Fall back on those scheduled posts if you're running low on ideas.
4 – Your Blog Content Must Be Unique
Never cross-post content you posted elsewhere. Make sure that all the content you post is fresh, unique, and intended to entertain or inform your website visitors. Posting duplicate content could get you an algorithmic penalty from Google, which would undo all of your other hard work.
5 – You'll Need a Sitemap
As your site grows, you will need a sitemap to help the search engines navigate the content you are posting. The XML Map Creator is a good free sitemap creation tool for Magento, which will do the job not just for Google but for other search engines as well.
6 – You Will Also Need Social Tools
Make sure that your content is easy for visitors to share. If you haven't already added share buttons to your online store, make sure that you do it for the blog area.
7 – Choose a Theme That Makes the Blog Readable
Since blogging is not something that Magento supports out of the box, not all themes are designed with blogs in mind. Most Magento themes do look pretty good with a blogging extension, and the themes are responsive, too, so they will look good when viewed on most platforms. But if you favour long-form posts that end up looking odd on an ecommerce-focused theme, you may need to do some additional design work, or look for a better theme.
8 – Use Your Blog to Do More Than Sell
While it can be tempting to use the blog to write about all the products that you have on offer, that's not what will bring visitors in. Try to stay away from pushing products, and instead focus on providing general guides and opinion pieces. Let shoppers make their own decisions as to what products they are interested in.
9 – Consider Using WordPress Instead
If you want to build a thriving blog with extra features such as members-only posts, a large network of content creators, multiple post types, media galleries and great out of the box SEO, consider using WordPress instead; it will be less work. Of course you don't have to abandon Magento; there are Magento-WordPress integration extensions that will allow you to enjoy the best of both worlds.
10 – Use Google Analytics to Track Your Readers
Set up Google Analytics on your Magento site so that you can get a better idea as to how well your blog is performing. You will be able to track visitor behaviour in great depth, and see what posts interest your visitors, where they come from, where they go on your site, and what their main exit points are.
11 – Cross – Promote Your Products
Use your blog to reference products where it makes sense to do so, and cross-reference other posts too. This will help you to keep visitors on your Magento ecommerce website for longer, building brand awareness and hopefully helping you to improve your conversion rate.
12 – Do Keyword Research
If you're stuck for content ideas, use the Google AdWords keyword tool to find out what people are interested in. Use those keywords, and their “long tail” versions to get ideas for blog posts.
13 – Don't Give Up!
Whatever you do, be patient. Keep posting even if you don't see massive returns, and use A/B testing to evaluate what's going on. It can take months to see results on the web.
Running a blog is a great idea for any online store owner, but it will take time to see your investment pay off. Before you start your blog, put together a content plan – and then be sure to stick to it for at least a year. That may seem like a long time, but it will pay off and it is one of the most effective forms of Magento marketing.
1 – You Will Need a Magento Ecommerce Extension
Magento doesn't support blogs out of the box, so you will need an extension. The free Magento Blog – Community Edition extension is a robust, stable and feature rich choice.
2 – Magento's Out of the Box SEO isn't Great for Blogs
Magento is well SEO-ed from an ecommerce point of view, but the blogging side of things isn't perfect. Make sure that you take a close look at the CMS section and add meta descriptions, use search engine friendly URLs, and have a good SEF theme and stable Magento hosting.
3 – A Blog is Only Useful if You Update it Regularly
If your blog goes un-touched for months it will make your site look abandoned. Save up some posts to schedule, and aim to post at least once a fortnight (if not once a week). Fall back on those scheduled posts if you're running low on ideas.
4 – Your Blog Content Must Be Unique
Never cross-post content you posted elsewhere. Make sure that all the content you post is fresh, unique, and intended to entertain or inform your website visitors. Posting duplicate content could get you an algorithmic penalty from Google, which would undo all of your other hard work.
5 – You'll Need a Sitemap
As your site grows, you will need a sitemap to help the search engines navigate the content you are posting. The XML Map Creator is a good free sitemap creation tool for Magento, which will do the job not just for Google but for other search engines as well.
6 – You Will Also Need Social Tools
Make sure that your content is easy for visitors to share. If you haven't already added share buttons to your online store, make sure that you do it for the blog area.
7 – Choose a Theme That Makes the Blog Readable
Since blogging is not something that Magento supports out of the box, not all themes are designed with blogs in mind. Most Magento themes do look pretty good with a blogging extension, and the themes are responsive, too, so they will look good when viewed on most platforms. But if you favour long-form posts that end up looking odd on an ecommerce-focused theme, you may need to do some additional design work, or look for a better theme.
8 – Use Your Blog to Do More Than Sell
While it can be tempting to use the blog to write about all the products that you have on offer, that's not what will bring visitors in. Try to stay away from pushing products, and instead focus on providing general guides and opinion pieces. Let shoppers make their own decisions as to what products they are interested in.
9 – Consider Using WordPress Instead
If you want to build a thriving blog with extra features such as members-only posts, a large network of content creators, multiple post types, media galleries and great out of the box SEO, consider using WordPress instead; it will be less work. Of course you don't have to abandon Magento; there are Magento-WordPress integration extensions that will allow you to enjoy the best of both worlds.
10 – Use Google Analytics to Track Your Readers
Set up Google Analytics on your Magento site so that you can get a better idea as to how well your blog is performing. You will be able to track visitor behaviour in great depth, and see what posts interest your visitors, where they come from, where they go on your site, and what their main exit points are.
11 – Cross – Promote Your Products
Use your blog to reference products where it makes sense to do so, and cross-reference other posts too. This will help you to keep visitors on your Magento ecommerce website for longer, building brand awareness and hopefully helping you to improve your conversion rate.
12 – Do Keyword Research
If you're stuck for content ideas, use the Google AdWords keyword tool to find out what people are interested in. Use those keywords, and their “long tail” versions to get ideas for blog posts.
13 – Don't Give Up!
Whatever you do, be patient. Keep posting even if you don't see massive returns, and use A/B testing to evaluate what's going on. It can take months to see results on the web.
Running a blog is a great idea for any online store owner, but it will take time to see your investment pay off. Before you start your blog, put together a content plan – and then be sure to stick to it for at least a year. That may seem like a long time, but it will pay off and it is one of the most effective forms of Magento marketing.
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