The pace of life has become much quicker. We move fast. We accomplish much. And we expect website performance to keep up with us. Performance is a key factor in many areas of our lives, and Magento’s performance is no exception. Improving Magento speed & performance is one of the most vital things that we have to focus on.
The speed of a website affects every user experience. From first landing on the site, to searching for various products and services, to selecting and purchasing items. If a website does not deliver results quickly, users will find an alternative to purchase what they need. Read more to learn how to improve your Magento performance with a free tool.Check out our article if you want to improve Magento 2 performance with AWS CloudFront.
Typical Magento 2 Performance Problems
Magento 2, while a robust and feature-rich e-commerce platform, can sometimes face performance issues that can affect the overall user experience. Identifying these common problems is the first step towards optimizing Magento 2 stores for better performance. Here are some typical performance issues encountered in Magento 2:
- Slow Loading Times: One of the most common issues is slow page loading, which can be caused by unoptimized images, excessive use of JavaScript and CSS, or heavy customizations that add to the page weight.
- Database Overload: Magento 2 stores with a large number of products, orders, and customer data can experience database overload. This can lead to slower query responses and, consequently, slower website performance.
- Inefficient Caching: Inadequate caching strategies can significantly impact performance. Full-page caching and other Magento caching mechanisms need to be correctly configured to optimize load times.
- Third-Party Extensions and Modules: While extensions add functionality, they can also introduce performance issues. Poorly coded or incompatible extensions can slow down the site and cause conflicts with other components.
- Server and Hosting Issues: Magento 2 requires a properly configured server environment. Issues like insufficient server resources, improper PHP settings, or shared hosting environments can limit Magento’s performance.
- Checkout Process Delays: The checkout process can be slowed down by complex calculations, third-party Magento payment gateway integrations, or inadequate server resources, leading to a poor user experience and potential loss of sales.
- Outdated Magento Version: Running an outdated version of Magento can lead to performance issues, as newer versions often include optimizations and fixes that enhance speed and efficiency.
- Poorly Optimized Code: Custom themes or modules with inefficient code can significantly affect site performance. Code needs to be optimized and regularly refactored to ensure it doesn’t become a bottleneck.
- Inadequate Search Indexing: Magento’s search functionality can become slow if the indexing is not properly configured or if the store has a large catalog without efficient indexing strategies.
- JavaScript Bundling Issues: Improper bundling or loading of JavaScript files can lead to delays in page rendering and interactive readiness.
To effectively address these Magento 2 performance issues and optimize your site for peak efficiency, consider exploring Atwix’s specialized Magento Performance Audit services here.
Top 14 Tips to Improve Your Magento Performance
In this article, we will review the most important areas of a Magento website that affect its performance;
1. Platform version
Ensure your website is upgraded to the latest Magento version. Each new version introduces many fixes and optimizations to the platform’s core code. It’s important to upgrade your Magento on a regular basis for improving Magento site performance
2. Deployment mode
A “developer” type of deployment mode (if enabled) for a production environment can significantly slow down a website’s performance. Make sure that you have the deployment mode switched to “production” in order to utilize all performance benefits from it. In the “production” mode the system creates precompiled versions of all necessary PHP classes and static assets during the deployment process and speeds up the runtime operations in that way.
3. CDN and HTTP protocol
CDN (Content Delivery Network) that supports HTTP/2.0 can significantly speed up the delivery of images, fonts, styles, JavaScript files, and other static content. The CDN service distributes static content among different nodes across the globe, allowing each end-user to connect to the closest physical location.
4. Time to first byte
Time to first byte is the time required for the server to process information and send results to the end-user. This metric is all about the Magento backend optimization. The closer you can get to 0.0 sec., the better the website’s performance.
5. First meaningful paint
Similar to time to first byte, is a measurement known as, “first meaningful paint”. This measures when the primary content of a page becomes visible to the user. Think of it as the time it takes for the system to render the basic interactive elements visible to users on the website.
6. Gzip compression
Gzip compression speeds up the textual content delivery by compressing it on the server side and decompressing it on the browser side. In this way, the physical size of the textual content is reduced during delivery.
7. Expiration headers
Expiration headers determine how long different content will be cached in your browser. An incorrect expiration date for headers may result in inefficient caching.
8. Render-blocking content
Heavy styles and JavaScript files may block page rendering for some time especially on slow mobile networks. As a result of heavy files, the end-user is left waiting until the content of the page becomes visible. Splitting heavy files into smaller chunks usually resolves the render-blocking issue.
9. CSS minification
CSS minification reduces the physical size of web page styles. The smaller the size of the style, the greater the reduction in data download required by the end-user. It results in an increased speed of page loading.
10. JS minification
JS minification works in a similar way as the CSS minification. The system reduces the size of the JavaScript files and optimizes site loading – from performance and downloadable data size perspective.
This significantly improves JavaScript performance, making your website faster and more responsive.
11. HTML minification
For some pages like the checkout page, the system needs to download additional HTML templates during the page components rendering process. HTML minification reduces the waiting time for user interface components processing.
12. Optimized images
As a general rule, optimized images are much lighter from the data transfer perspective. Images optimization is the first and very important step in ensuring website pages load faster for downloading.
13. Oversized images and images aspect ratio
Consider maintaining the image resolution and aspect ratio consistent with the original size of the image. If image size is reduced only by applying size adjustment styles on the webpage, unnecessary data will need to be downloaded by the end-user.
14. Next-gen formats for images
WebP, JPEG2000, and similar formats are the new generation of storing and delivering digital images. They are smaller in size than previous generations. By delivering images using next-gen formats you will speed up your Magento store.
We decided to simplify the Magento performance testing by developing a Performance Check Tool that displays a performance score and offers recommended improvements. It is similar to Google PageSpeed Insights, but our performance check tool is developed specifically for the Magento platform. And if you don’t trust the tools, contact us at Atwix for professional Magento performance audit services.
Google PageSpeed Insights is a universal tool that is oriented for generic platform reviews. Some performance improvements advised by this tool might not be easily achievable with the standard Magento setup. The Performance Check Tool provides Magento specific performance recommendations, which are relatively easy to implement for the Magento platform.
The Performance Check Tool score you receive for your website reflects how your website adheres to Magento best practices from a performance perspective. Any non-optimal scores come with recommendations, including suggestions on what should be optimized.
Read also: Magento 1 to Magento Commerce 2
Atwix As Your Magento Performance Audit Partner
In the case of Magnanni, a luxury shoe brand, Atwix played a pivotal role in enhancing their Magento platform’s performance. The project involved a comprehensive technical audit of Magnanni’s multi-store Magento installation. Atwix’s expertise not only increased performance efficiency by a significant margin but also addressed specific business challenges. This included creating custom logic for backorder management and solving caching problems for a better customer experience. As your Magento Advanced Performance Audit Partner, Atwix brings this same level of dedication and technical acumen to your business, ensuring an optimized, efficient, and user-friendly eCommerce platform.
For more details on how Atwix helped Magnanni, you can view the complete case study
In the end, keeping your eCommerce website optimized for performance will lead to better, faster user experiences and ultimately better conversion rates. If you want to further discuss website performance or learn more about our website performance audits, please reach out.
FAQ
- How do I know if my Magento site needs performance optimization in 2024?
- How can I prioritize which performance improvements to implement first?
- Can I implement these tips without technical expertise or development knowledge?