Once you take the first step into eCommerce and decide to move your business online you have to be ready for a lot of challenges. Creating an eCommerce website is not only about choosing a fancy domain name, reliable hosting provider, and attractive theme.
The biggest challenge is to outrun the competition that is just hovering over your positions in Google. And that is something you have to be ready for from the very start.
So, in this article, we've gathered the must-have Magento 2 extensions you need as you step into the eCommerce world.
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Over the last few years, there appeared an abundance of extensions for Magento 2 that serve different purposes. But does it make a choice any easier for you? Unlikely.
It is important to choose the right solutions from the very beginning, so the results pay off in a longer perspective.
For that, you need to focus on 3 important things: acquiring a relevant audience, improving website speed and customer experience.
Must-Have Extensions for a New Magento 2 Store
Extension Name | Price | Category | Rating |
Magento 2 SEO Extension | $99.00 |
SEO |
5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 43 reviews |
Magento 2 Blog Extension | Free | Marketing |
5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 304 reviews |
Magento 2 WebP Images Extension | $159.00 |
Speed Optimization
|
5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 46 reviews |
Magneto 2 Auto Related Products Extension | Free |
Sales |
5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 11 reviews |
Better Magento 2 Checkout Extension | $149.00 |
Sales |
5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 reviews |
Magento 2 Admin Order Grid | $119.00 |
Management |
5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 7 reviews
|
Now that we have it all summed up, let's get into more detail about what these extensions really give you and how you benefit.
1. Magento 2 SEO
SEO or search engine optimization is a term used by plenty of marketers and experts at every "corner". But it is especially important when you just start your way in Magento.
SEO is all about details where each small optimization drives you towards a better ranking and conversions. Although Magento already uses some of the best SEO practices, it is not enough to beat the competition.
You need Magento 2 SEO Extension to cover the most important SEO-related features. It is a bundle of 7 separate extensions each responsible for a different branch of the SEO configuration. Such structure of the extension allows you easily navigate and manage each setting with no SEO skills.
SEO Extension configuration sections
It helps you to cover everything from rich snippets, canonical tags, meta tags templates, and meta tags robots to hreflang tags, OG tags, HTML and XML sitemaps, and more.
This SEO module doesn't only help you to increase the visibility of your store in search and drive targeted traffic, but improves internal linking and indexing.
Cross linking configuration
The extensive extension documentation allows you to go through each setting steps-by-step and configure your store SEO easily. This is one of the most vital extensions for every Magento 2 store.
2. Magento 2 Blog
Content is king no matter how often you may hear that it's not valid anymore. The more quality and useful your content is the more likely Google will pull it out in search. Not speaking about the value you'll provide to your website visitors.
While you may spend a great deal of time optimizing your product pages, you still need more content to attract a new audience. The blog is the best marketing opportunity you could ask for. You create content relevant to your audience, increase your website authority and promote your products.
Magento blog post page
Magento 2 Blog is the best and most used blog extension due to the variety of features it offers. This blog goes with SEO-friendly features, responsive design, and a multitude of other features like related products, multi-language, and multi-website support.
However, that's not it.
There is an even more advanced option of Blog Extra that allows you to manage authors, advanced permalinks, 22+ blog templates, and more.
Example of blog template on category page
3. Magento 2 WebP Images
Except for traffic and online visibility, you have to make sure people can get to your website fast. The average waiting time is 3 seconds and if your website loads longer than that we have bad news.
As a new-built store, you won't have many speed issues. However, as you keep on adding new products, designs, and pages the weight of these pages and website will increase. Even if you follow the best practices to speed up Magento you need to optimize it continuously.
We recommend paying attention to images. WebP is the modern file format that is smaller in size and faster to load. But since Magento doesn't support these files, you can't upload them to Magento admin.
Difference between WebP and other image formats
Correspondingly, Magento 2 WebP Images Extension will cover this for you. It helps you to convert all of your website images to WebP format automatically or manually. Besides, it displays your regular png and jpg images for people from non-WebP browsers so they don't see them broken.
Then you also need the Magento 2 Lazy Load extension to load images gradually to improve loading. The module does everything automatically as well. You only need to specify the blocks which you need to lazy load.
4. Magento 2 Auto Related Products
Product pages are the main source of traffic and conversions in your store. When you start your Magento 2 store you work on their optimization a lot. Titles, descriptions, images, and the loading speed are important.
But what if customers landing on your product page don't find exactly what they are looking for?
You need a backup so you don't lose those customers. You have to offer them some alternative in a form of related products.
If you add related products to your product page you increase the likelihood of a purchase and make sure customers don't leave, not before browsing through some other products first.
Cross-sell products block on product page
Since Magento allows you to add related products manually, it might be tedious to add them for all products. Far more effective would be to add related products with Magento 2 Auto Related Products extension.
It enables you to add related products, cross-sells, and upsells not only to product pages but categories, shopping cart, CMS pages, and blocks automatically. It works based on multiple rules you create to ensure more effective product recommendations.
Related products on Magento category page
This is definitely a must-have extension for a new store if you want to increase your conversions and keep your customers engaged.
5. Magento 2 Better Checkout
If you work on your SEO and speed, people will be coming to your website. However, for the conversion rates to increase you have to make sure their journey in your store is straightforward and simple.
Imagine potential customers land on your website, browse through your catalog, find products they're interested in and add them to the shopping cart. But when they go to checkout you ask them to fill out a lot of forms on a cluttered checkout page. The likeliness of the purchase fades.
Checkout is one of a few things that could spoil the whole customer journey. So you have to keep it "clean", quick, and simple. Here's when Better Magento 2 Checkout Extension comes into play.
Better checkout payment page
This extension allows you to maintain a better checkout experience with a straightforward checkout process. You can add icons to payment methods, choose a default payment and shipping method, and enable order comments.
Order comment section on checkout page
It facilitates the checking out process and doesn't confuse your potential buyers. Better checkout is your chance to make buying from you easier. Keep that in mind when you start off.
6. Magento 2 Admin Order Grid
The extension we've listed above are all related to the storefront and customer experience in your store. However, frontend extensions are not the only thing you'll need in your new store. Backend management is also important if you want to manage your store effectively.
That being said, the first thing you have to streamline in backend is order management. As you start getting orders you need to be able to process and manage them accordingly.
Magento does the biggest part, but there still some vital features missing. So, we suggest you use the Magento 2 Admin Order Grid module to improve that.
Different order status colors in order grid
It allows you to change order statuses, delete orders, set order status colors, add purchased product information to the order grid and customize order grid columns. So you could find relevant orders faster and see which ones require your assistance.
Ordered product information on the order grid
Why do you need that?
As the stream of orders increases, you will be getting more customer requests regarding their orders. To assist customers effectively, you'll need to find and filter through your orders fast. Admin Order Grid Extension helps you take order management to the next level.
The first question you might have at this point is whether you really need all these extensions or could you get along without any extensions at all. You could, actually. Magento is created with all features important for an online store. You can create products, and manage orders and sales. But will it be effective?
Competition is tough. You'll feel a lot while starting your online store. But with the help of the right tools, you can make it to the top SERP positions that ensure more traffic and sales.