Magento daily to yearly maintenance checklist
Have you already thought what Magento can be compared to? We’re convinced - to a car. Why not?
Selecting a car you are very attentive to what’s inside “under hood”: specifications, gas mileage, maximum speed etc. Deciding to start online business you with the same diligence check online platforms for your future shop and capabilities it brings.
Today Magento occupies leading positions in e-commerce world and its owners can be compared to those driving some sports car, for example Ferrari (it is also red:)
If you have selected the car, some regular, ongoing investments are needed to keep it working properly, like filling the gas tank (approximately each day), checking the oil (each week or month) and visiting mechanic/ car service for tune-ups if needed (yearly).
Now think about your online store. It also should be maintained thoroughly in order to be up and running perfectly. If you leave your store without the attention it would result in the same as you if you buy a car, drive it home and never fuel it again.
How long do you think that car will be running? If you don’t want your e-business to stall out or break down, you need to take charge of the situation and start performing regular check-ups daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.
Daily Checklist
- Check your inbox for customer inquiries and important store-related messages
- Make quick visual inspection to see if everything looks right
- Look for new trends, read ecommerce-related news
- Process orders, track shipments
Weekly Checklist
- Backup your all files and database
- Add novelties that have just appeared at the market
- Keep your store content updated with actual stock level and relevant descriptions
- Check for 404 (Page not found) errors, fix links or set up redirect
- See if all of your products are categorized are available in the search
- Advertise your goods via social media and blog posts
Monthly Checklist
- Check your store security
- Speed up your site if it goes slow
- Make sure that all the products have images
- Check your stats in details, creating various reports on the basis of your store data
- Test your contact forms - make sure everything works
- Plan promotions, offer seasonal discounts
- Reminder clients who have abandoned products in the cart
- Refresh your cross and up-sell lists
Yearly Checklist
- Sum up your returnings, keeping accounting under control
- Remove things you do not need any more - extensions, unused images, goods you do not sell any more etc
- Run Store Diagnostics
- Disable access for people not involved in your store management tasks any more
- Think about update/upgrade of your Magento
- Review your overall web strategy: pricing, assortment
- Plan for future: automate repetitive tasks, integrate with additional sales channels, ease shipping
- Get to know your competitors and surpass them
A well maintained website is a healthy website. Pay close attention to it in order to catch things before they cause any loss.
What other tasks you would add to the Magento owner’s Daily to Yearly checklists to keep website running smoothly? Share your opinion in the comments below.