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You’ve built your Magento website and it’s now live and open for business. Congratulations! Even though your website is up and running, there’s still work to be done to ensure that it continues to function properly and efficiently. This article shows how to create a monthly checklist for maintaining your Magento website.

Why Magento Maintenance is Important

No matter what kind of website you have, it’s important to keep up with maintenance. This is especially true for eCommerce websites. If your website is down, customers can’t purchase your products or services. In addition, search engines may flag your website as having poor uptime, which can pull down your ranking and visibility on the Internet.

That’s why we recommend creating a monthly checklist for Magento website maintenance. By following this simple list, you can ensure that your website is always up and running smoothly.

What to Do Every Month

1. Check For Updates

One of the most important things you can do for your Magento website is to keep it up-to-date. Magento releases regular features, security, and bugfix updates. So, it is critical to check the release notes to see if any of the issues addressed affect your site, then apply the updates as soon as possible. It is mandatorily needed to improve the website’s performance and fix bugs. You must check for updates to the Magento software and the extensions or plugins that you are using every month. You can usually do this from the backend of your site.

It’s also an advised practice to check your server environment on a monthly basis. This includes making sure that your server is running the latest version of PHP and that all security patches have been installed.

If you’re not sure how to update your Magento website or server environment, you can always contact a Magento development company for help.

2. Back up Your Site

Backing up your Magento website on a regular basis is essential because in case something goes wrong, you can always restore your website to a previous working state. There are several ways to back up your site, so talk to your hosting provider, Magento development company, or Magento assistance to find the best solution for you. Then, schedule regular backup.

There are two types of backups you should perform, database backups and file backups. Database backups contain all of the information from your website’s database, including products, orders, customers, and settings. File backups contain all the files that make up your website, including images, CSS files, and PHP files.

You should perform a database backup at least once a month, and a file backup at least once a week. To make things easier, you can schedule automatic backups.

3. Test your Backups

It’s important to regularly test your backups to make sure they are working properly. This way you’ll be prepared in case you need to restore your site from a backup.

4. Review your Logs

Magento keeps a track of the activity on your site in log files. These can be useful for identifying potential problems, such as hacking attempts or broken links.

5. Clean up Old files and Unused Images

Over time, every website accumulates old files and unused images that take up space and slow down your site. Regularly deleting these files keeps your site fast and smooth.

6. Check your Store’s Performance

Use Magento’s built-in performance tools to check how fast your pages are loading and identify any potential bottlenecks. Check for broken links on your website and fix them. Broken links can frustrate visitors and hurt your search engine ranking. On a regular basis, test the forms and the checkout process to make sure they are working properly. Forms that don’t work can lose you sales and customer trust. Make sure your contact information is up-to-date and easy to find on your site. 

7. Keep a Tab on Site Analytics

Several visitors who may not have made a purchase still would have engaged with your website. Pay attention to their footprints on your store. Review your site analytics to see how visitors are interacting with your site, which product or service categories they are visiting more, whether they add items to cart or not, etc. This information forms the base for devising improvement strategies..

8. Review Security Settings

It’s important to keep your Magento website secure. Security of a website is by virtue of many factors. The first check is for the version of Magento. As shared above, regularly updating the website for the latest versions of Magento keeps the security patches up-to-date is critical. You must review the website’s security settings, including passwords and file permissions, regularly. 

In addition to keeping the security patches latest, it is critical to scan your website for malware and remove any infected files on a regular basis.

With eCommerce comes the responsibility of securing every transaction on the website. You can do so by ensuring that your SSL certificate is up to date and valid at all times.

9. Update Content and Products

It’s important to keep your Magento website up-to-date with the latest content and products. Here is a checklist you must follow to make sure your website is fresh and current:

  • Update your home page banner. 
  • Add new products to your online store.
  • Write a blog post or add a new article to your blog.
  • Update your product descriptions.
  • Add new photos or videos to your product pages.
  • Optimize the images for web for faster loading times.
  • Change the prices of your products.
  • Remove out-of-stock items from your website.
  • Add or remove payment methods.
  • Update your shipping methods.

10. Hiring a Magento Developers or Magento Consulting Services

With a long checklist of maintenance and the criticality of every checkpoint, it is a safe bet to hire Magento developers or Magento consulting services. A Magento developer can help keep your website running smoothly and make sure that it is updated with the latest security patches.

There are a few things to keep in mind when hiring a Magento developer. First, make sure that the developer is well experienced in Magento. Second, ask for references from past clients. Finally, be sure to get a contract in place before work begins. This will protect both you and the developer in case of any problems.

 Conclusion

As a business owner, it’s important to keep your website up-to-date and running smoothly. Luckily, Magento makes it easy to do with their monthly checklist. By following this simple guide, you can rest assured that your website is in good hands. And if you ever run into any trouble, the Magento community is always there to help.



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