Speed up Magento

[Tech4Homes]

My site doesn't feel massively slow, but GTMetrixs is saying 10.8s with an average of 6.8s load times. We're putting a lot of effort into SEO and Adwords and my adwords mentor (a local company I know) have told me high bounce rate could relate to page speed so this is an important element to rectify.

It's mentioning these as the main issues;

Defer parsing of javascript - score = 0

Specify image dimensions - score = 0 (not sure why though as the modules do have dims to the
images)

Leverage browser caching - score = 2

Optimize Images - score = 40

Everything else is scored 85+

Any ideas on modules or methods to improve this?

The site is currently on shared hosting. I'd like to improve it as much as I can by modules/settings before moving to a virtual server.

 

[Toni Anicic]

It is unlikely that you'll improve the speed of a Magento site by adding a module. By removing some, maybe.

There could be a 100 different reasons why your Magento is slow. Without doing a detailed technical assessment it's hard to say.

 

[ldjames]

Magento is by nature slow but there are things that can be done to speed it up. You need to consider the server specs, traffic pattern, server configuration and many other variables. As Toni said, adding more plugins is unlikely to help.

Tests like GTMetrix need to be taken with a pinch of salt - they are a generalised view and don't represent your particular case - i.e. the software you use and the limitations it has. That said, the problems that it has picked up in your case can be fixed by changing the server configuration and using Pagespeed. Those problems are however unlikely to account for the nearly 7s page load times - that probably has more to do with Magento and other server configuration problems.

Feel free to drop us a line if you'd like us to look at your server and your site. We've done a lot of work speeding up Magento, using new technologies to get excellent performance.

 

[edmondscommerce]

I wrote this a while back

Getting Magento to run fast requires a combination of factors:


1. The code base itself needs to be kept as clean as possible with the minimum amount of extensions. Third party extensions are often the cause of significant performance penalties and need to be reviewed not just on the functionality they bring but also their impact on performance and stability.


2. The hosting needs to be on decent hardware with a well optimised software stack. With hosting you need to also remember that it's not just about pure hardware or software but as a package including proper highly available support.


3. Caching. Lots of caching. Magento uses caching internally to cache all kinds of things. A fast cache backend (Redis) is important to ensure these systems work as quickly as possible. The next thing to do is ensure that as much as can be is being cached. Then we need to ensure that caches are being invalidated as little as possible and with the minimum of impact. A cache warming strategy can be used to ensure that when caches are invalidated, they are quickly and comprehensively rebuilt.


4. Full page caching using Varnish. Whilst ostensibly under the heading of caching, its worth clarifying that this is in addition to Magento's built in caching functionality. Varnish provides a cache layer that can serve pages about as fast as physically possible - single digit time to first byte and often full page downloads in less than half a second.


5. Javascript. A lot of sites bundle in a wide variety of widgets and integrations that really impact the perceived performance of a site. Even if all the HTML is served up in milliseconds, the page can take 5 seconds to hit document ready due to a variety of assets and Javascript things slowing things down. Again this is often caused by third party extensions that have been installed. Care needs to be taken to ensure that Javascript is as efficient as possible.

I actually just wrote this in an email to a prospective client but I thought it was quite a nice summary so decided to share with you all...

 

[dx3webs]

At the risk of pointing out the obvious... simply switch to a magento specialist host who will optimizer the site for you and who's servers are set up just to run magento.

We are certainly happy to copy your site so you can see the difference before committing to anything

 

[Amasty]

Here is a good how-to post on speeding up Magento https://www.keycdn.com/blog/speed-up-magento/

 

[apricot]

I had the same issue on my website. I've tried number of things to speed up the website but only these two show good impact.

1- Installing gzip (i got help from my hosting company to install this)
2- Optimized images.

 

[a1anm]

We found this full page cache extension to be really helpful:
http://fishpig.co.uk/magento/extensions/full-page-cache/

 

[dx3webs]

full page caches should only be added once you have optimized everything else. this will still leave your add to cart / checkout process painfully slow.
Fix the problem 1st and dont mask it with fpc

 

[dx3webs]

duplicate post removed

 

[alex loggan]

Magento, due to its backend PHP Zend framework, is able to provide its merchant users with greater flexibility and help them to take their business to the next level.

You should not just put sole responsibility of slow speed on Magento. If you are using a web hosting service which is hosting numerous websites on a single web server, then you should not expect Magento to function smoothly, especially if it’s working on its default configuration. There are number of settings available on Magento through which you can increase the speed of your Magento website. This article is going to help you to speed up your Magento store by making some small changes in the configurations of your webstore.

 

[webhostuk]

Shared hosting will cause website loading issue for Magento website..as magento is a bit heavy script. Much recommended would be SSD VPS hosting that should improve the speed for you.

 

[dx3webs]

there are plenty of magento shared hosting specialists out there who will deliver a lightening fast site. A default magento install with sample content takes half a second to load on correctly configured hosting.. shared or other wise.

 

[evanphan]

I've tried these to speed up my page loading time:

1. Clean Database Log
2. Speed up by configuringCaching engine
3. Optimizes Magento Server Configuration
4. Use The MySQL Server Optimization

 

[Tech4Homes]

I have moved my site to DX3 Webs, they did it all for me, no aggro at all.

The exact same site with no work done is now considerably faster, both in use and in GTMetrix tests. Adding items to cart and then proceeding to checkout is considerably faster, the back end is faster as well when adding products etc.

As of yet they say they haven't optimised the site/hosting fully as I'm adding/doing a few bits so with some more optimisation it'll get faster still.

And of course I'm looking to improve some other items like image optimisation etc which should also make a good impact on the speed.

Overall very happy and very impressed. Thanks to DX3 Webs team.

 

[Deleted member 106254]

Enabling Gzip and browser caching will help massively.
Up the memory allocation in your .htaccess file too.
Merge CSS and JS files.

 

[Tech4Homes]

Been a week or so on the new server with DX3 Webs, it's still consistently faster, best thing (for us anyway) is the back end is a lot quicker so adding and editing products is a lot quicker.

 

[bharris]

We moved to DX3 Webs quite a few months ago now. Very happy. Site speed wasn't a massive issue but it is now faster and we are also happy with there customer service. I would recommend anyone using Magento to have a good look at them.

 

[Don]

Just to add, have you had a look at the Google Pagespeed insights tool?

I use this and sometimes the free Pingdom tool. Might give you a more balanced view of website performance

 

[goivvy]

I am glad your site speed has been improved by DX3

you could use the free tool webpagetest org (google for webpagetest)

it scans your site and provides you with time to first byte, start render time and fully loaded times.

see what your time to first byte (TTFB) is - good TTFB should be around 500ms

if you are running magento CE make sure you use one of the full page cache extensions available.