How can I speed-up my Magento website?

Speed optimisation is crucial for a Magento website as it directly impacts user experience, conversions, and search engine rankings.

You should prepare your server so it is set-up to use compression and caching functionality including a CDN (Content Delivery Network) and Gzip compression. Ensure your images are served using next generation formats. Make sure Magento is set-up to use full-page caching and your CSS and JavaScript files are properly minified. Keep the number of extensions installed to a minimum and continually monitor your website for performance and updates.

Optimise hosting

Ensure you have a reliable and high-performance hosting provider that specialises in Magento hosting. Choose a hosting plan that meets your website’s requirements in terms of storage, bandwidth, and server resources.

Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to deliver your website’s static content, such as images, CSS, and JavaScript files, from servers located closer to your visitors. This reduces the distance data needs to travel, improving load times.

Enable PHP opcode caching and implement PHP opcode caching using tools like APC (Alternative PHP Cache) or OPcache. This caches the compiled PHP code, reducing the processing time for subsequent requests.

Enable Gzip compression on your server to compress your website’s files before sending them to the visitor’s browser. This significantly reduces the file size, resulting in faster page load times. Expires headers will the browser know whether to serve a cached version of the page.

How do I speed-up my Magento website?

Magento heavily relies on its database, so optimizing its performance can have a significant impact on website speed. Regularly clean up unnecessary data, optimise database tables, and ensure indexes are properly set up.

How do I optimise images in Magento?

Compress and optimise your images to reduce their file size without compromising quality. Use image compression tools or extensions to automatically optimise images on your Magento website. Additionally, consider lazy loading techniques to only load images when they are visible on the screen.

There are many image optimisation plugins available for Magento 2 which can help to serve your images quickly in next generation image formats.

Magento Optimisation

Enable full-page caching in Magento to reduce the load on your server and improve page load times. Magento has built-in caching options that store the fully rendered HTML of your pages, allowing them to be served quickly to subsequent visitors.

Minify your CSS and JavaScript files to remove unnecessary whitespace, comments, and code, reducing their file size. This reduces the time it takes for the browser to download and process these files.

Enable performance-related Magento settings. Within the Magento admin panel, enable options like merging JavaScript and CSS files, enabling flat catalog categories and products, and enabling the use of the Magento Varnish Cache if applicable.

Reduce the number of extensions. Review and disable any unnecessary extensions or modules that may be slowing down your website. Each extension adds additional code and functionality, which can impact performance.

Monitoring & Updates

How do I monitor Magento?

Monitor and optimise your website on an ongoing basis. Continuously monitor your website’s speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom. These tools provide insights and recommendations to further optimise your website’s performance.

Should I keep Magento up-to-date?

Regularly update your Magento installation to the latest version. Newer versions often include performance improvements and bug fixes, which can enhance speed and security.

Implementing these speed optimisation techniques can significantly improve your Magento website’s load times, leading to better user experience, increased conversions, and improved search engine rankings.