Magento is an e-commerce website platform owned by Adobe, with over 260,000 merchants currently on board. With an expansive feature set and complete customization options, Magento is optimal for merchants who are comfortable developing their website on their own. We are here to highlight some of the common issues within the Magento platform and the desired solutions for the same.
Problem 1: Configuring Magento With A New Domain
Let’s assume that your Magento is configured with www.yourdomain.com and you want to change the domain to www.anotherdomain.com. This may result from using a temporary domain as a way to redirect traffic or if you’re a wholesaler who operates multiple retail domains.
There are two ways to configure your Magento store with a new domain:
- First, go to MySQL Manager (for many, it is PHPMyAdmin). Select your Database and find the table called core_config_data and click on it.
- In the core_config_data table, you can seeweb/unsecure/base_url and web/secure/base_url entries.
- Change your old domain name with your new domain and click the Go button to save the changes.
Another option is to clear your Magento cache. The cache folder is located in your Magento root directory /var/cache. To clear the cache, just delete the folder and go to your Magento admin System > Cache Management and clear all Cache.
Magento is a robust platform that runs on stored cache and tries to display as much as possible. It is within best practices to periodically clear your cache to see any sort of implemented changes within the platform, such as the addition of new extensions, data updates, or content changes.
Problem 2: Magento 2 Reset Admin Password
If you don’t remember your admin password or want a quick way to update it, then we have the solution for you. Just go to your phpMyAdmin or MySQL Manager, select your Magento database and find the admin_user table. Replace your old password with your new password. Make sure you insert the password in MD5 function – and write it down somewhere secure if you’re in the habit of forgetting your passwords!
Problem 3: Enable Search Engine Friendly URLs in Magento
Search engine friendly URLs show links that are short, but full of keywords. These URLs can help your store site rank higher in search engines, which drives more traffic and builds higher trust. Besides that, visitors find it easier to remember and navigate with a short and concise URL. Hence, enabling search engine friendly URLs is a crucial step to ensuring your e-commerce store is SEO optimized.
Enabling Search Engine friendly URLs in Magento is easy. You just have to login into your Magento admin and go to System > Configuration click on Web in the left panel, as demonstrated below:
Click on Search Engines Optimization and turn on the Use Web Server Rewrites (mark as Yes). Click on the Save Config button and your Magento SEF URLs will be enabled.
Your store’s URL is the first thing Google and visitors will see when they visit your website. URLs that are friendly, easy-to-read, and contain keywords describing the content of your website will help users remember your website address easily, and of course, it helps your website rank higher on the SERP.
Problem 4: Speed Up Magento
Website speed optimization can lead to a boost in on-site conversions and SEO because faster sites are more appealing to both users and search engines. Users expect a webpage to load quickly and, if it doesn’t, many will abandon the site.
To speed up your Magento store, it is recommended to enable Magento Compilation function. The performance increase is between 25% – 50% on page loads. You can enable Magento Compilation from your Magento admin just go to System > Tools > Compilation. And click on Run Compilation Process.
You should also remember that your Magento 2 hosting solution provider plays a substantial part in deciding the speed of your store. You should choose a provider which is optimized to run a Magento store with seamless performance. Consider a solution provider like Cloudways, which is not only built to withstand the toughest of hosting problems but can also be relied upon in times of sudden traffic increases as it gives you the option to scale your Magento server whenever you feel the need.
Problem 5: Redirect Magento to Open Through www
For SEO and usability purposes you need to redirect your visitor to open your Magento store only through www (http://www.yourdomain.com).
A rewrite can manage miscellaneous redirects, such as redirecting a page from your store to an external website. For example, you might have two e-commerce websites, each with their own domain. You can use a custom redirect to reroute requests for a product, category, or page to the other website.
This is easy to do in Magento. Open your .htaccess file located in your Magento root. In this file search theRewriteEngine and right after this add following code:
After this save your .htaccess file and log in to your Magento admin and go to System > Configuration > Web:
Click on the Unsecure tab and change the Base URL option from http://yourdomain.com to http://www.yourdomain.com. After this click on Save Config button and your Magento store will start working through www.yourdomain.com.
Problem 6: Solve Access Denied issue
To solve the error of access denied or Magento Admin not opening, you should log out from your admin panel and log in again, and reset the Magento admin privileges.
After logging in, just go to System > Permissions > Roles > Administrators.
Click on the Role Resources options shown on the left to make sure that Resource Access is set to All. Click on the Save Role button and your Magento permissions will be reset.
Conclusion
Optimal performance is key for any successful e-commerce store. Page speed has a direct and measurable impact on the conversion rate of your website, so having an optimized Magento installation is crucial to the success of your shop and brand. Magento is a resource-heavy e-commerce platform that requires the right set of resources and configurations for optimum performance. By solving some of these common Magento problems, you can help your e-commerce site run at its best and fully engage your customers.
