Once the frontend design of the Magento store is done, the developers generally feel that they are completely done with the development of the website. Little do they know that there are a few more little things that need their attention before they can actually call it ‘done’. Yes, these things are really subtle but still play an extremely significant role in the overall performance of the website. So, with these things checked and put in place, need to be accomplished by pre-launch.

We will assume that all the relevant steps related to the performance of the front end part of the Magento store development are taken care of. These may include Magento installation, Custom creation, theme installation, color and logo branding, various features like newsletter box, visual requests by clients, index slider and social media icons; product data entry.

The above mentioned features are the typical features that any person would look for in a completely developed Magento website. Then, the concentration shifts to the backend files which will help in the safe launching of the website.

1. First things first. You will have to remove the images and sample banners that are a constant and regular feature with every fresh installation of Magento. There are images present on the sidebars. They need to be either removed or replaced with the relevant ones. There are images too which can be replaced easily with the cross-sell products which will work towards the advantage of the website.
2. Second thing, you will have to edit several pages that come along with the sample content with the Magento setup upon installation. These pages include the Privacy Policy, About Us and Customer Service pages. Only the About Us column may be updated and the others do not have to be updated from time to time. You should also concentrate on the contact page, return and refund policy, and terms of use. Majority of the merchant service consider these things mandatory so that you get accepted as a valid merchant.
3. Thirdly, you will have to look into the aspects like Contacts, Default Notifications through emails, and Store Information. In the contact from you will have to provide the email address to which your customers can correspond with you. You will have to provide your business location under store information. Such information is highly essential and will also establish your credibility in the minds of the prospective clients. All these factors come under the general section and there are quite a number of other settings too which need to be addressed. However, the nature of the website will decide the areas of concern.
4. You will have to choose the location origin setup and the shipping method. You will have to provide all the relevant information to your customer regarding from where the product is going to be shipped. This will help in calculation of the actual price while checking out. However, this step may be skipped when the products on the site are virtual products.
5. Another very important thing is to set up a perfect payment method. Magento comes in with a default Credit Card payment method or the Money Order method. The ones which come in up Magento are PayPal and Authorize.net.
6. Email templates are yet another crucial factor that needs to be looked into before the website goes live. There are a gamut range of these templates which can be customized based upon the necessity. These templates can be used to send out at pertinent times like getting shipment notification, registering to the website, or when making a purchase.
7. SSL certificates are considered as yet another important factor that you need to look into before taking your website live. Having an SSL certificate will act as a shield and will protect you from falling prey to web attacks.
8. Have a custom Meta title, custom favicon, Meta keywords and description. Magento comes in with a default favicon and Meta data.
9. Finally, once the Magento website is ready, you will have to enable the cache as well as the Magento compilation. This has to be disabled while the development is in progress.

This is not all but there may be numerous things that will help in the optimization and enhancement of your Magento website which when done right from the start, will offer supreme performance.