Tips for Speed Optimization of Magento

One of the most difficult things to accomplish with a Magento site is to make it load faster. You find that it will take 3-4 seconds for a standard category page to load due to the complex nature of how the Magento system works, even if you have a low graphics home page theme. If you choose to load your theme up with heavy graphics usage, the load time can even increase up to 5-10 seconds. Here are a few helpful tips we recommend to help speed optimization of Magento for your online store.

Speed Optimization of Magento

Choose the Right Magento Web Host

Getting the most out of your website will require an investment in a dedicated web hosting package unless you anticipate only 5-10 orders per day.

If you are expecting to have a decent amount of traffic visiting your site on a daily basis, you need to invest in a hosting package that is prepared for this.

Use a Content Delivery Network

A Content Delivery Network, also known as a CDN Network, will allow you to host javascript, css and image files on your behalf.

Therefore, you do not have to absorb the bandwidth costs to host the files. This is also one of the ways to reduce load time for your website.

Optimize and Properly Label Images

If you choose to load images in your navigation menu, then you are going to be calling these files with every page view. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure that you optimize these images designed for peak performance, otherwise your website will suffer in load time.

The following are a few tips with images that appear on every page (such as on the footer or navigation menus and headers):

Do Not Scale Images

Scaling an image means if you have an image that loads at 150 x 150, for example, make sure the image you are using is actually 150 x 150 in size, instead of taking a much larger file and scaling it down via html. If you are using an image that is 79 KB with a measurement of 450 x 450, and use the html code to scale it, such as ‘height=150 width=150’, for instance, you are still serving the large 79 KB file.

It is ideal to change the size of the image to 150 x 150 and use that for your image, instead of scaling larger images. This is because the size of the file will be smaller and will greatly reduce your bandwidth and load time. Repeat this process for each image and you will be able to see a significant difference in load time.

Properly Assign Height and Width Attribute

Another tip that often appears in ‘website speed analyzers’ is the reminder to specify the height and width of an image.

Make sure to use the html width and height tags for each image you serve.

Consider “Smushing” Images

You still need to see if you have made the image as small as possible while converting quality, even if you have an image that needs to serve with 150 x 150 dimensions, and you made sure the image is that size.

Why Speed Optimization of Magento Websites is Necessary

Websites that take their own time to load can be an eyesore. They can ruin the user’s experience no matter how high-profile and rich the content/service is.

This is especially true for a Magento eCommerce store, as the slow page loading speed can alter the purchase decision of the buyer thus leading to possible cart abandonment. This is why it is essential for websites to ensure speed optimization to have their page loaded in three seconds or less.

 

Moreover, for search engine crawling and higher ranking it is crucial that the website has blazing increase loading speeds (ideally under 3 seconds). Websites rank higher in the Google search results only if the websites’ loads are less than 3 seconds.

With Centennial Arts we ensure your websites’ loads are under 200 milliseconds. These are just a few helpful tips for speed optimization of Magento. Centennial Arts offers Magento support for all of our clients. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact our team here at Centennial Arts with the link below!