Magento Website Development Guide: Step by Step Instructions for Beginners

So, let’s start our Magento website development journey and take a close look at the facts that can help you get to your destination.

See also: Google My Business and Its importance to the business.

Steps to Follow to Develop Websites with Magento

Step 1: Familiarize yourself with website development with Magento 

For some, learning new technologies can be overwhelming. And when you’re dealing with Magento, it’s no joke. However, once you enter the Magento arena, trust me, it will be a breeze (assuming you have a basic knowledge of technology). You will be to see that it scales well and is loaded with other useful features. Magento is a fairly secure, reliable, and highly customizable e-commerce platform. However, various other important e-commerce platforms are available to get you started. But why is Magento the best choice? What is Magento? How effective is this technology for your business?

So many questions and one-word answers. Powerful. Although Magento is a bit of a complex piece of software that requires a steep learning curve. And you need to be a coding expert to get your e-commerce site up and running flawlessly. However, once you get into the details, you will be amazed to see just how versatile this platform is. Supplied in two versions:

• Magento open source (formerly known as Magento Community Edition)
• Magento Commerce (previously it was Magento Enterprise Edition)

Choose the version that you think is best for your project and get to work.

Step 2. Choose a Magento Hosting Platform

The performance, efficiency, speed, and availability of your Magento website are directly related to the hosting platform. Therefore, carefully analyze every prospect factor involved in developing an eCommerce website and then decide which hosting platform can better suit your needs. That being said, all host providers serve different purposes and need to be doubly sure of their choice before finalizing it.

You can choose from the following types of hosting i.e.

1. Shared Web Hosting: As the name suggests, you will be sharing web space with other websites. There will be several more sites on the same server, just like you. Generally, it is not suitable for e-commerce websites at all, especially for Magento websites.

2. VPS (Virtual Private Server) Web Hosting: This is a type of web hosting where the web server is divided into small parts and each part belongs to different websites and that particular part of the server or space on the server acts as a complete virtual a server dedicated to only one website. This is the perfect choice if you are in the beginning stages of your e-commerce business or are on a tight budget.

3. Dedicated Web Hosting: This means renting an entire server solely for your website. There will be no other site on the server other than yours. This is useful for sites with high traffic. This is the best choice if you know or can estimate your daily traffic.

4. Cloud Web Hosting or Network Hosting: It’s like using multiple servers together as one. It is also known as Grid hosting, which means that it handles a lot of traffic very easily. This is the best choice if you are not sure about daily traffic. In other words, when your daily traffic fluctuates and your website needs a lot of processing power, cloud web hosting comes to the rescue.

Step 3. Develop your website with Magento

Now, with the hosting plan and provider finalized, it’s time to open a new chapter in the Magento website development process. Well, I’m talking about the process of setting up your eCommerce store. Right from how to install Magento to how to create a Magento theme and finally add plugins to improve functionality, everything should be done just at this stage.

If you think that creating a Magento theme is a difficult task, then I’m sure you haven’t used this powerful Magento theme maker software yet. Well, this software allows you to create a beautiful Magento theme with just a few clicks. And if you’re still unsure about doing it yourself, consider using these Magento themes for your next project. TemplateToaster has a huge repository of free themes and templates.

Step 4: Test Your Website

Now that you’re ready to create your Magento website, let’s check it for errors. Of course, we don’t want any error to occur, but “to err is human.” Thus, it is always a good idea to test your project locally before putting it online. And in our case, Magento website testing is really important. Having a successful eCommerce website is a big deal. So make sure you test it well.

You may need to test your website for cross-browser compatibility, resolution, page load, scalability, stress testing, integration testing, performance, security, functionality, cookies, and database testing.

According to research, the more time you spend testing, the better the results will be. But remember: “Too much is bad.” Thus, manage the development time of your Magento site well. And when you use an open-source CMS, it’s very important to fully test it.

Bonus: Other Shaping Factors to Consider When Designing Websites with Magento

We have covered the main sections of Magento website development. However, there are a couple more areas to pay attention to. These are the areas that will help you build a successful eCommerce website with ease. Let’s dive in.

(i) Simple site search

Simply put, site search is simple site navigation. Or let’s say whatever the user is looking for, he/she should be able to find exact matching results. Therefore, a perfect site search will increase user engagement.

(ii) SEO optimization

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is a really important factor for the growth of your website. A beautiful website can go to waste if it’s not optimized for search engines. Thus, learn about SEO strategies like on-page SEO, off-page SEO, etc. Talk to the experts for some SEO tips to increase sales and conversions so you never lose a potential customer visiting your site.

(iii) Security

Security is important for any website, whereas if you are running an e-commerce website, this should be your top priority. Use SSL – Secure Sockets Layer on your website. This is a standard security protocol used to establish a secure connection between a server and a browser. You can easily set up SSL for free using a Let’s Encrypt security certificate. Also, make sure that the server you are using complies with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). However, knowing how to redirect HTTP to HTTPS will increase your security.

(iv) Speed ​​optimization

Speed ​​decides how your site will perform. If your site takes too long to load, I’m afraid you’ll have to leave the site. According to research, a visitor leaves a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Do not panic! Speed ​​control is easy. Do you know which version of Magento can affect your website speed? Yes! The latest version is always helpful. So, check your Magento version too, and keep a list of website speed-testing tools handy to optimize your speed. These tools will help you take care of website optimization.

(v) Payment Method

For obvious reasons, payment methods need to be fast and secure. A standard e-commerce website should include convenient payment options such as cash on delivery, internet banking, payment wallets, and credit or debit card payments. This way you can increase user engagement.

(vi) Sales, coupons, and offers

Sale, coupon, offer – these are the three magic words that look and sound really tempting. I personally like to shop on websites where I see more deals, sales, or coupons. I think all of us. So, use this tactic (aesthetically) to grab the user’s attention and generate some revenue.

(vii) Promote your Magento website

To ignite the fire of Magento website development, use some effective digital marketing strategies. No matter what approach you take for inbound or outbound marketing, it should generate leads. That’s all. In fact, having some plans ahead of time would be a great idea. Initially, you must promote your brand in order for your company to grow into a dynamic and prosperous business.

Magento Website Development: Finishing Everything

This brings us to the end of our Magento website development guide. And by now you must have got a clear idea of ​​the approach to follow. However, setting up an eCommerce website is a bit of a chore, especially when you’re working with technologies like Magento. But I’ve tried my best to make the process easy for you. Along with powerful standalone website builder software to help you get your top-notch Magento website up and running in no time. So, use the software to your advantage and let me know how it worked out for you in the comments below.