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Magento Configuration
This article will focus on getting the back-end of your Magento(v 1.7.x) ready for your Store's Official launch. This checklist has been put together using various sources. This article assumes a few things: You have 1 store, and it is setup as your default store. Multi store setups will be covered in a future article. Your store is based in the US and you ship to the US only.(Adjust your allowed countries according to your market area.) You have succesfully installed Magento 1.7.x and you are able to login to the admin panel. If not please see "installing Magento"
There are quite a fews small steps to go through so i will try, and be brief about each setting. If a specific option is not listed you should leave the value alone. Lets start by navigating to the general setup page. System--->configuration--->General Default Country ---> Set the default country .... The default country option during account creation and various other tasks. Allow Countries ---> List of countries to allow during checkout/account setup. Postal Code is Optional for the following countries ---> default .... Unless you ship to countries that don't use a postal code. European Union Countries ---> deafult. .....This setting determines what EU countries will need your vat number. Unless you sell or ship to a EU country you can ignore this. State is required for ---> Most people (99%) can leave this default. Display not required State ---> yes Timezone ---> set to the timezone that your SERVER is is in. This can save you from having some "weird" problems. Locale ---> sets your language should have been set correctly during the initial installation First Day of Week ---> start day for your weekly reports Weekend Days ---> weekend days in your weekly reports Store Name---> Friendly name of your store displayed in various places(invoices, header, etc.. ) Store Contact Telephone ---> your phone number Country ---> your physical business location. VAT Number ---> Only applicable to EU store owners. Store Contact Address ---> your mailing address
Now onto the next section. Lets make sure your urls are set correctly. Add Store Code to Urls ---> No ... only usefull when using multiple storefronts The next 2 sub-sections of the Web section are labeled Unsecure, and Secure. the unsecure sub-section should not be changed. You MUST have a valid SSL certificate installed before changing the Secure URL settings Unsecure ---> all set to installed defaults Secure Base URL ---> https://example.com/ or https://www.example.com/ depending on what you want users to see when they visit your store. the secure, and unsecure base URLS should be identical except for http:// vs. https:// . Use Secure URLs in Frontend ---> YES ... Only if you have a valid SSL cetificate. Use Secure URLs in Admin ---> YES ... Only if you have a legitimate SSL certificate. Default Web URL ---> cms ...Designates the page that is loaded for the Home Page Show Breadcrumbs for CMS Pages ---> Yes this makes your site more "people friendly". Kind of like the "you are here" map at the mall. Disallow Voting in a Poll Multiple Times from Same IP-address ---> this is a judgement call ... Everyone in an office building or dorm usually shares an ip. if you set this to yes ony 1 person per ip can vote. i set mine to "NO". Use HTTP Only ---> NO ...You need a valid SSL certificate to set this to no. Cookie Restriction Mode ---> NO ... If you are in the EU set this to yes. Redirect to CMS-page if Cookies are Disabled ---> YES ... People don't know if you don't tell them. Show Notice if JavaScript is Disabled ---> ... People don't know if you don't tell them. Now we will complete the Design section of the configuration. The package and themes sub-sections should be set according to your template/theme setup, whoever designed your site should have these set for you. So lets skip to the HTML HEAD sub-section. System--->configuration--->Design Favicon Icon ---> Make sure you have a custom favicon image ... having a unique icon makes it easier to pick your site out of a bookmark list, or multiple tabs list. Default title ---> usually set to your store name ...Shown in browser title bar if a particular page does not have a title. title pre-fix ---> Unless you know you need it leave it empty. Search engines tend to prefer links without a generic pre-fix. title suffix ---> I usually put store url here minus http:// here. you won't have any penalties from search engines with a suffix, like you do with a prefix. and this wil show up in page titles, bookmark titles, and tab titles. Default description ---> you should know what to put here ...keep it between 125-200 words .... These will only be used if the page being served has no meta data. and that should never happen, becasue you are filling out the meta data sections in all your product pages, and cms pages correct? Default keywords ---> set these keywords to general terms ... these will only be used if the page being served has no meta data. and that should never happen, becasue you are filling out the meta data sections in all your product pages, and cms pages correct? Miscellaneous Scripts ---> great place to insert your site's custom tracking code or any other type of meta data that needs to be on every page .... Try to use it for meta data only. Display Demo Store Notice ---> NO .... Yeah make sure your store does not say demo. this should only be set to yes during developement. Logo Image Alt ---> I usually set this the same as the site title. Welcome text ---> your sites welcome text ...This is a user experience perk, I think it should have an option to be disabled. Copyright ---> add your copyright info here. ... This is also a great place to put your store's slogan. Miscellaneous HTML ---> I tend to shy away from adding anything here except he default that makes sure bugs errors are not displayed. Do not launch your site with known issues. It will ruin your sites reputation quickly.
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