Magento Hyvä Blog: Install, Create and Manage

Since Hyvä theme doesn't include a blog out of the box, managing a blog on Hyvä requires a compatible Magefan Blog Extension for Magento.

This guide describes how to install a Hyvä compatible blog module, how it works on both Hyvä Theme and Hyvä Commerce, and how to set your first blog posts on Hyvä.

What Is a Hyvä Blog Extension?

A Hyvä blog extension is an add-on that allows merchants to run a blog on Magento stores using Hyvä. Since traditional blogs on Magento use standard Luma layouts, they may not work with Hyvä out of the box. Therefore, you'll need a Hyvä-compatible blog, like Magefan's  Magento 2 Blog extension, that includes all needed templates and Hyvä integrations to display your blog content properly on both Hyvä Theme and Hyvä Commerce storefronts.

Why Add a Blog to Your Hyvä Store?

Adding a blog to a Hyvä store helps you improve your SEO, bring in organic traffic, and build customer trust while keeping your frontend fast and optimized. Beyond that, pairing speed with useful SEO-friendly content gives you even more benefits.

• More traffic for free: A blog allows you to appear in search results for questions and topics related to the products you sell. This is how your website can naturally attract more visitors without paid ads.
• Better SEO: The more pages you add to your website, the more keywords you target. This signals to Google, and according to the latest blogging statistics, can increase your chances of ranking higher in search by 434%.
• Product promotion: A blog gives you a natural chance to promote your products. By sharing product guides, comparison articles, and tutorials, you can introduce your products and help readers make purchasing decisions.
• Marketing support: A blog can support your marketing strategies. You can share articles on social media, include them in newsletters, and use them in email campaigns to bring customers back to your store.
• Niche authority and trust: By publishing valuable content, answering common questions, and sharing practical advice, you can establish your store as a reliable source of information in your field.
• Customer engagement and community: A blog gives customers a place to learn and share their opinions. Over time, this can help you build stronger relationships with your audience.

How to Install Magento Hyvä Blog?

You can install Hyvä Blog either via Composer or using an archive and FTP. But before installing it on Magento, make sure you have a compatible version of the Magefan Blog extension, since the Hyvä compatibility package is available only in the Magento 2 Blog Plus and Extra plans.

Composer Installation (recommended)

To install Hyvä Blog on Magento via Composer, open the command line and navigate to your Magento 2 root directory using the "cd" command.

Then run the following CLI commands to require the Hyvä compatibility package for your Blog edition:

composer require magefan/hyva-theme-NAME
# replace NAME with:
# blog-plus - if you use Blog Plus
# blog-extra - if you use Blog Extra
# Get your Magento Marketplace authentication keys or use these: 
# Username: 7c018006799466c681ad507e27904677
# Password: 289077c86e811661a8f7751828485d3a
php bin/magento setup:upgrade
php bin/magento setup:di:compile
php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy 

Archive/ FTP Installation

First, download the Hyvä Blog ZIP archive in your account and extract the files. Then simply copy the app folder from the archive into your Magento 2 folder.

Finally, navigate to your Magento 2 root directory using the "cd" command in the command line and run the following CLI commands:

php bin/magento setup:upgrade
php bin/magento setup:di:compile
php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy

Now, the blog extension is installed and Hyvä-ready. The next step is to understand how it actually works with Hyvä Theme and Hyvä Commerce.

Magefan Blog on Hyvä Theme vs. Hyvä Commerce

The main difference isn't in the blog extension itself, but in the platform it runs on. Hyvä Theme is a free, open-source frontend, whereas Hyvä Commerce is a paid, extended edition. Nevertheless, Magefan's Blog Plus and Extra plans are fully compatible with both. You get the same core blogging features regardless of the platform.

The practical difference, though, is specified in the table below.

Now let's get to more details.

Blog on Hyvä Theme

If you are using the Hyvä Theme, you can manage Hyvä Blog posts right from the Magento admin panel. The blog backend menu looks exactly the same as in the standard blog on Magento. No separate dashboard. No extra logins.

So if you know how to manage a Magento blog, you already know how to manage it on the Hyvä Theme. 

Hyvä Blog backend on Hyvä Theme

The frontend experience doesn't change a lot. Being fully compatible with Hyvä Theme, the blog posts, categories, tags, and other blog elements look almost the same as on the standard Magento 2 Blog. Yet, you get a faster and more lightweight blog.

Blog frontend on Hyvä Theme

Blog on Hyvä Commerce

If you're using Hyvä Commerce, you can still manage your Hyvä blog through the Magento admin panel, just as you would with Hyvä Theme. One unusual thing is that Hyvä Commerce comes with its own admin theme — a visual reskin of the Magento admin panel. Yet, it's purely cosmetic rather than functional.

Hyvä Blog backend on Hyvä Commerce

However, if you like, you can always go back to the default admin panel. Just go to Content > Design > Configuration, press the Edit button next to the relevant scope, and change the admin theme to Luma in the corresponding field.

Switching to the default Magento admin panel theme in Hyvä Commerce

On the storefront, Magefan Blog uses the same Hyvä-compatible technology. This means your blog will look exactly the same as on Hyvä Theme, while still matching the speed and design of your Hyvä Commerce store. 

Blog with Hyvä CMS

Hyvä Commerce offers more than just a Hyvä-powered storefront. It also includes Hyvä CMS — an advanced replacement for Magento Page Builder and default WYSIWYG, which Magefan blog extension is fully compatible with.

Editing a blog post with Hyvä CMS

Now, let's check how to create and manage posts in the Magento Hyvä blog.

How to Create a Blog on Hyvä?

To create a Hyvä storefront blog, install the compatible Magefan Blog version, that is, Plus or Extra, and follow these simple steps:

1. Create a blog category

Go to Content > Blog > Categories and press the Add New Category button to group related posts in a new category.

Creating a Hyvä blog category

Specify the category name, content, URL key, SEO metadata (in the Search Engine Optimization section), enable the category, and click Save.

Creating a new Hyvä blog category

2. Create a blog post 

To create a post in the Hyvä-compatible blog, go to Content > Blog > Posts and hit the Add New button.

Hyvä blog posts grid in the admin

Add a title, content, featured image, metadata, specify the post's category, enable the post, and save it.

Creating a new blog post in Hyvä Commere backend

3. Create an author

Authors can have their own profile page in the Hyvä blog. To add a new author, go to Content > Blog > Authors and press the Add New Author button.

Adding a new author to Hyvä Blog

Here you can specify the author's name, email, image, and other available profile information.

Adding a new author to Hyvä Blog

4. Configure comments

If you want readers to interact with your content, the Hyvä blog allows you to enable Magento blog comments. Just go to Stores > Configuration > Magefan Extensions > Blog > Post Page (Post View) and find the Comments section.

Here you can pick one type of comments from the three available options: Magefan, Facebook, or Disqus blog comments. Each type provides different features to configure.

Configuring Hyvä Blog comments

How to Manage Hyvä Blog?

Managing a Hyvä blog is as simple as its creation, since everything happens inside the Magento admin panel you already know, under Content.

Edit posts and categories

If you need to make any changes to an existing post, head to Content > Blog > Posts, click on the post you need, update it, and save the changes.

The same goes for categories. Go to Content > Blog > Categories, select the one you want to change, and update the details.

Delete posts and categories

To delete a post, navigate to Content > Blog > Posts, tick the post you want to delete, and press the Delete option in the Actions dropdown menu.

Deleting a Hyvä Blog post

Alternatively, you can open the post and press the Delete button in the header. With categories, the procedure is the same.

Organize content with tags

Tags allow you to group posts by topic and make it easier for readers to find relevant content. To create tags, go to Content > Blog > Tags and press the Add New Tag button or edit existing tags listed in the grid.

Creating tags in Hyvä Blog

When the tag is ready, you can specify it in the Tags field on your blog-editing page.

Adding tags to a Hyvä Blog post

Here is how tags look on the storefront:

Manage comments

If you have enabled comments, you can moderate them to avoid spam or inappropriate content by going to Content > Blog > Comments. Here, you can approve, reject, or delete comments before they go live.

Managing Hyvä Blog comments in the admin panel

When approved, this is how comments will display to your readers on the Hyvä storefront:

Schedule posts

Instead of publishing a post the moment it's ready, you can configure it to go live at a specific date in the future. This way, you can plan your content in advance. The post will be hidden from visitors until the scheduled date comes.

To configure it, open the post, scroll down to the Publish Date field, and set the time. Moreover, you can specify the End Date of the post to remove it from public view.

Scheduling a Hyvä Blog post

Add related posts and products

If you want to link your blog post with other related posts or products and show them at the bottom of the article, find the Related Posts and Products section on the post-editing page and manually specify them.

Adding related posts and products to a Hyvä Blog post

This is how it appears on the storefront post page:

Yet, if you want the system to prepare the list of related products and posts automatically, the Magefan Hyvä Blog extension allows you to do that.

Go to Stores > Configurations > Magefan extensions > Blog > Post Page (Post View) > Related Posts or Related Products accordingly and enable the Enable Auto Related Posts or Products option in the config.

Enabling automatic related posts for a Hyvä Blog post

Restrict customer group

The Hyvä blog allows you to control who can see your blog posts, based on the customer group they belong to. You can configure customer group restrictions in the Visible For Customer Group field on the post-editing page.

Enabling customer-group restriction for a Hyvä Blog post

Edit blog posts with Hyvä CMS

If you run a blog on Hyvä Commerce, you are not limited to using the standard WYSIWYG and Page Builder when writing posts or category descriptions. The blog extension is compatible with Hyvä CMS. This is the native Hyvä content editor.

You can start editing content using Hyvä CMS by enabling the Enable Hyvä Editor button on the post-editing page.

Enabling the Hyvä CMS editor on the Hyvä Blog post editing page

As you ca see, running a blog on Hyvä isn't complicated at all, especially with the Blog extension by Magefan. You can add valuable SEO-friendly content to your online store from the Magento admin panel while keeping your Hyvä storefront fast and lightweight. 

Yet, if you need something more tailored, you can also develop a custom solution with one of our partners, Advanced Logic, who have extensive experience with Hyvä and can help your business implement the right solution for your needs. 

Give blogging on Hyvä a try — check out the Hyvä Blog Demo and see how it works for yourself.

FAQs

Can I migrate existing blog posts from a Luma-based Magento store to Hyvä without losing SEO rankings/URLs?

Your blog posts, categories, and metadata stay intact in the database regardless of which frontend theme renders them. Since Hyvä (and the Magefan blog's Hyvä compatibility package) simply changes the templates, not the underlying blog entities, your existing post data doesn't need to be re-created. As long as your post URL keys, category URL keys, and canonical tags stay the same after switching from Luma to Hyvä, search engines see no change, and rankings should carry over.

Does the Hyvä blog extension support multi-store or multi-language Magento setups?

Magefan Blog includes multi-website compatibility and multi-language support as core features, which work regardless of the theme you're running — Hyvä Theme or Hyvä Commerce. The multi-store logic lives in the extension, not the frontend theme.

How do I set up blog redirects properly when switching from default Magento Luma to Hyvä to avoid 404s and preserve backlinks?

Switching a theme from Luma to Hyvä alone does not change URLs since theme changes only affect rendering, not the routing/URL layer. So you typically don't need redirects purely for a theme switch. If URLs do change, set up 301 redirects (via Magento URL Rewrite management in the admin, or a redirects extension) mapping every old post/category URL to its new equivalent.

Do I need to install the additional compatibility packages to install Hyvä Blog on Magento?

For Hyvä compatibility, you will need to install the Hyvä compatibility package, which you can find in your Magefan account under the downloads section.

Is Magefan Blog extension for Magento compatible with Hyvä CMS

Magefan's Magento 2 Blog extension is fully compatible with Hyvä CMS. This compatibility was added in v2.14.0 and is available in both the Blog Plus and Extra plans.