Forem: Daniel

Getting rid of duplicate content in Magento

Daniel — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 15:13:13 +0000

Before we start getting rid of duplicate content, we should outline its general nature.

In accordance with Google, duplicate content is:

identical headings,
title tags,
similar content on two or more web pages,
copy-pasted meta tags (e.g. meta description and alt tags for images).

The most important thing to understand about duplicates is that you can't get rid of them completely, so it's OK to have some in your Magento store.

If you don't misuse duplicate content, you don't have to worry about Google penalizing you in search results - it will just decide which of two similar pages the user will see, and make the other one invisible.

That being said, let's see how duplicates appear in Magento 1 & 2 and how you can minimize their quantity. Actionable tips with code examples are included.

Why Duplicates Appear and How to Combat Them

It will be convenient if we split duplicates into user- and machine-generated ones.

User-generated duplicates appear when vendors either don't want to or simply cannot write unique descriptions for each item they sell.

In this case, it's a good idea to motivate users to leave reviews of your products, let them fill your website with original content for you. It would be awesome if they could attach pictures of received goods to their reviews.

What is more, new customers will see the reviews, and this way you will gain their trust. Websites with high customer trust level are ranked higher in Google search, so more users are naturally attracted to such stores.

Now let's move on to machine-generated duplicates and see how you can avoid them.

1. Magento Multistore

It's awesome you sell and ship goods internationally, it's cool you decided to go for regional targeting. In this case make sure you deliver unique content for each region, especially for the ones that speak the same language.

Also, use language metadata to help Google indicate that identical content targets different types of users.

2. Long and short product descriptions in Magento

This one is nice and easy. Just make sure short and long descriptions of each item on your store are different. This move will improve both SEO ranking and customers engagement.

3. Indexing Methods

If you do not use 301 redirects, your Magento store will be available both at www.name.com and name.com. It's not a secret these two domains will be different websites for Google, so you want to let it know that www.name.com and name.com should be treated as one website.

Go to Google Search Console and add BOTH websites to it. Do not forget about such an important detail as the protocol. It's absolutely necessary to add addresses either with http:// or https:// appellation.

A piece of advice: use name.com as the preferred address and make certain 301 redirect points to it.

So, how to create the above mentioned 301 redirects?

For Apache, it's better to edit .htaccess or httpd.conf file. Go to your root directory, open .htaccess, and add a new line on the top of the others (if there are any of course) so it looks like this:

RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^{www.yourstore.com} [NC] RewriteRule ^.*$ http://yourstore.com/$1 [L,R=301,NC]

This function is applicable both to Magento 1 and 2.

For Nginx edit server.rewrites so it looks like this:

if ($http_host ~* "^?!www\).*$") { return 301 https://www.$http_host$request_uri; }

This function is applicable to Magento 1 and 2 as well.

For Varnish put this code to public.rewrites to prevent the caching issue.

Let's get back to the protocols again, shall we?

You want to use rel=canonical to prioritize pages, piece together HTTP and HTTPS pages and get rid of duplicates. So here's a quick & simple guide to making rel=canonical pages in Magento.

For Magento 1 go to System > Configuration > Catalog > Search Engine Optimization. In the fields "Use Canonical Link Meta Tag for Categories" and "Use Canonical Link Meta Tag for Products" choose "yes".

For Magento 2 stores go to Stores > Configuration > Catalog > Search Engine Optimization and choose "yes" for the same field

4. Trailing slashes in URLs

In accordance with web server setup, your Magento store will either default to name.com/link/ or to name.com/link URL.

The difference is hardly noticeable for people but both URLs look different to Google.

The most valuable recommendation here is to not make any changes to core Magento files.

Here we should work with 301 redirects again.

For Apache open .htaccess file which can be found in root Magento directory and make sure it looks like this:

RewriteCond %{request_method} ^GET$ RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^{/downloader.*$} RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^.+/$ RewriteRule ^.+$ %1 [L,R=301]

The fix for Nginx would be altering server rules. Add this piece of code to nginx.conf:

if ($request_method != POST) { set $rew "A"; } if ($http_x_requested_with != XMLHttpRequest) { set $rew "${rew}B"; } if ($rew = "AB") { rewrite ^/(.*)/$ $scheme://$http_host/$1 permanent; }

5. The Same Product Is in Two or More Categories

It's obvious that this issue results in lots of duplicates. The most simple solution most Magento experts recommend is to use only one category for one product. If for any reason you can't avoid using multiple categories for one item, have a look at these instructions.

Magento 1 users should make sure catalog comparisons and categories are disallowed from appearing in Google search index:

Disallow: /catalog/product_compare/ Disallow: /catalog/category/view/

Magento 2 users want to go to Content > Design > Global Design Configuration and add new lines to your robots.txt:

Disallow: /catalog/product_compare/ Disallow: /catalog/category/view/

6. Robots.txt

Implement the given trick with robots.txt on your Magento store to eliminate duplicates.

These lines will help you to limit search results (which are not so much of a trouble yet they lead to duplicates too), use them for Magento 1.

Disallow: /catalogsearch/result/ Disallow: /sendfriend/

These lines will remove filters and reviews from search results:

Disallow: /review/ Disallow: /?category= Disallow: /&category= Disallow: /?price= Disallow: /&price= Disallow: /?mode= Disallow: /&product_list_mode=

To restrict search results for a Magento 2 store you should prevent them from indexing, and the best practice is to go to Content > Design > Global Design Configuration.

And these lines will help you fix duplicate content in search results:

Disallow: /catalogsearch/ Disallow: /catalog/product_compare/ Disallow: /catalog/category/view/ Disallow: /catalog/product/view/

Also, the second version of Magento generates links to tags and reviews that lead to - we know the answer - more duplicate content.

Here is what you add to robots.txt to fix it:

Disallow: /tag/ Disallow: /review/ Disallow: /?dir Disallow: /?dir=desc Disallow: /?dir=asc Disallow: /?limit=all Disallow: /?mode*

Long Story Short

Duplicate content is inevitable, do not be afraid of having some in your Magento store in a fair amount. Just do your best in minimizing it and enjoy high conversion rates with these simple steps.

5 Main Areas of Expertise for Vetting Magento Developers

Daniel — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 05:32:42 +0000

If you have a Magento-powered store, you want it to perform flawlessly and deliver an excellent customer experience that would further on lead to sales.
The performance of the online store depends on the developers behind it. Their skills and knowledge serve as the base for the success of the business.

So the question is: where to find professional and reliable Magento developers?

Our brief guide will help you out in both finding a Magento developer and checking their expertise.

Magento developers: where to find one?

The process of hiring a Magento developer depends on your project and its size.

For small or temporary projects you can hire an independent developer from Upwork. It is a freelance website that has a wide range of Magento developers to choose from. As well, you can post your vacancy on such websites as GitHub, Craiglist, or even Twitter. Search for the developers by #Magento hashtag.

If you have a big and long-term project, it would be better to address a Magento development company. Such companies provide an array of services, from development to UX design and even marketing assistance.

The overall expenses would also be cheaper in comparison to hiring a bunch of separate professionals.

You can search for the best Magento development companies online. Pay attention to the reviews (check out Clutch), reach out for the clients from the company’s portfolio and don’t hesitate to ask any kind of questions that you feel like.
Now, make sure that the Magento developer that you are going to work with is professional enough. Here is a quick checklist of what to look for in your candidate.

What to look for in a Magento developer

The checklist below will help you determine whether the candidate is the right fit for your project.

Work experience

It is preferable for the developers to have at least 2-3 years of experience with Magento. Some companies pay attention to work experience specifically and not the results from the last place of work.

This is justified by the fact that a person should know about Magento by the time they come to a new workplace. Even if the developer did not achieve outstanding results in the past, his experience will still count and serve as a base for further self-development.

Knowledge of caching

Caching is used to store static content. An example of such content can be a static menu on top of the online store homepage. This menu will remain in the same state and at the same place when loading homepage, category page, and similar pages.

By caching the content, a developer increases the page load speed since the content is ready to be used. As a result, Magento performance improves.

Knowledge of databases

Data from the store is stored in the database, thus, the store and the database are in a state of constant interaction. A skilled developer can write a clear and easy architecture of this interaction that will also contribute to the page load speed.

Experience with PHP

PHP is the main programming language of Magento, so obviously, you want to look for a person who is experienced in it.

It is also recommended not to hire developers that have worked with other language and decided to switch to PHP. Better look for a person who is aware of all PHP-
related aspects and is willing to continue learning.

Certification

Magento provides a certification program that carefully tests the level of knowledge of the developers and certifies them in accordance with their skills.

Such a certification serves as a guarantee of the developer’s knowledge and is expected from any qualified Magento developer.

What else?

One more important thing is: look at the personality. Magento is a complex platform with big amounts of code so Magento developers tend to be sharp, independent, creative, and determined.

And of course, make sure that the person will be a good fit for your team. A lot of things depend on smooth teamwork so it’s important that nobody falls behind.

The Optimal Number of Steps for the E-commerce Checkout Process

Daniel — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 15:48:25 +0000

As a Magento developer I get a lot of orders for shopping cart design. Consequently, whenever people mess with online stores' shopping carts, problems arise. Shopping cart abandonment is one of the most frequent problems.

This post might help some fellow eCommerce devs (and marketers!) tackle the issue.

The top reasons for the customers leaving their carts are:

High extra costs - taxes, shipping, etc.
Complicated checkout process
Need to create an account

Therefore, the checkout process has to be as simple and short as possible in order for the customer to successfully complete the purchase. Thus, a question arises: what is the optimal number of steps for the checkout?

The 3 steps of the checkout process

If we break down the customer’s purchasing path, we can identify the following steps:

Choosing the product
Confirming the choice
Completing the purchase

Thus, the general number of steps would be three. However, each of these stages includes a number of actions a customer takes in order to proceed to the next one.

Choosing the product

The first step in any purchase process is choosing the product. Though seemingly easy, this step contains several traps that better be avoided, if you want to provide a user-friendly and smooth shopping experience.

Optimize your catalog

It has been proved by a famous “jam study” that the bigger the choice is, the less likely the customer will complete the purchase. People want easy choices and buy better when they are presented with fewer options. Thus, optimize your product catalog to help the customer choose the product instead of scrolling down and leaving in disappointment.

Incorporate search bar

Obvious as it may sound, a search bar is a must for any online store. If a customer knows what he wants and does not see it right away, he will be able to immediately search for the necessary item. But if your store does not have such an option and there are too many products displayed, the customer may simply leave.

Offer a gift or incentive

People love unexpected gifts – so offer them something extra as soon as they add an item to the cart. You will be using the reciprocity method: in other words, giving people something for free to make them feel they need to give something back. I.e. you offer a discount and receive a completed purchase as a feedback from grateful and delightful customers.

Your gift may be a coupon, a sample of a product or a discount for the further purchase – whatever you think will be suitable and useful for the customer.

Speed up website loading

Slow page loading is one of the main reasons behind low conversion rates. To fix the issue, you can order third-party Magento site speed services and request an analysis of the page performance. You may be surprised by how the most minor things influence the loading speed, i.e. images, extensions, etc.

Confirming the purchase

This stage is not necessarily an independent step in the purchasing process but it includes a few important things that should not be overlooked.

Upselling

The upselling technique is incredibly popular among e-commerce store owners and it has proved to increase revenue and bring in more sales. Upselling can be introduced during the purchase confirmation stage when the customer has not yet proceeded to check out.

You can incorporate “suggested” or “you may be interested” products to the item’s page, that would appear once the item is added to the cart.

Get their email

Email is the bitcoin of the sales world. Once you get it, you expand your opportunities for promotion and can use the email as a powerful marketing tool for customer attraction and retain rate.

You can ask for an email as soon as the customer wants to proceed to the checkout or you can do it during the checkout process directly. Also, keep in mind the option of a guest checkout. In this case, the email is a must-have as the customer will receive a purchase confirmation on it.

Make the cart visible

In order for the customer to quickly and effortlessly proceed to the checkout, make sure the cart and its content are visible. You can place the cart and the number of items at the top of the page in form of a header or incorporate it as a sidebar.

Completing the purchase

The most important stage of the purchase process is the payment confirmation. There are certain issues that have to be taken into consideration during this step, otherwise, you will lose the customer.

Include a progress indicator

The customer needs to be aware of how many steps he has to take, so make sure to provide him with this information. The most common method is the incorporation of a progress indicator into the page, that shows at which stage exactly the customer is at the moment and what steps are left.

The progress indicator, first of all, appeals to one’s sense of consistency, meaning: once you started doing something, you will have the urge to finish it. Secondly, the indicator helps the customer feel more confident and knowledgeable about the whole process and gives him a sense of control.

Guest checkout

We have talked about it in the beginning and shall repeat once again: guest checkout is a must-have if you want to retain the customers.

Majority of the users will leave if presented with an option to register an account and fill in a certain amount of fields. Think of it in the following manner: if a customer enters a brick-and-mortar store and, once at the counter, is asked to fill in dozens of blanks before the payment, guess, whether he leaves straight away or stays?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sk7cOqB9Dk

Be honest about the cost

Another big reason for cart abandonment is unexpected costs that pop out right before the payment confirmation. This is a big mistake that many business owners do: they do not display the full cost until the last moment.
To decrease cart abandonment rate, be honest with the customer from the start. Display the price for shipping and taxes in the cart next to the item and always indicate the total price, that would include the item cost, shipping, taxes, etc.

Add security

With numerous cases of cybersecurity breaches, customers are becoming more suspicious of any financial transactions happening online – so help them feel confident.

Add security seals (i.e. Norton, Google Security, TRUSTe) and put them in a visible place, so the customer feels secure during the whole purchase process.

Offer different payment methods

Convenience is a key to customer’s satisfaction. Therefore, make sure to include different payment options to your online store.

In addition to credit cards (of different types, obviously), integrate PayPal or offer an option of paying with cash upon order delivery.

An extra piece of advice

There is no definite answer to the question about the number of steps in the checkout process. It depends on the store, the offers that you are willing to make and other factors. However, for all online stores the checkout process must be:

Linear - with no processes inside other processes
Clear and understandable
Fast and easy

Another crucial point: make the checkout process mobile friendly. With 62% of the users buying online from their mobile devices as per Datorama, it makes sense to optimize your store and checkout process to be convenient and easy for the mobile.

To sum up, put yourself in the shoes of your customer and answer honestly: would you have the patience to buy from your own store? If there is even slight hesitation, you may want to refine the process a bit.