In this blog post, we will cover some of the best Magento 2 speed optimization tips for improving the performance and speed of your Magento store.

What is Magento Speed Optimization?

Magento 2 speed optimization is one of the most important steps every Magento 2 store owner should take when the website traffic drops, or no increase in conversion rates and bounce rates increase. And all this is because the performance of the website plays a vital role in influencing the Magento SEO and traffic, as well as purchasing decisions too.

How Do You Speed Up Your Magento 2 Store?

There are thousands of ways to optimize the performance of a Magento 2 website. This list includes Image optimization, updating the website to the latest version, Leveraging the Content delivery network, cleaning up the Magento database and logs, utilizing caching, Browser caching, Enabling Varnish Cache, and many more. We have tried to explain a few of them below, and all of them highly influence your store speed and performance.

11 Best Magento 2 Speed Optimization Tips To Improve Your Website Performance

1. Use Varnish Cache

Varnish Cache is one of the most reliable caching solutions in Magento which is used for a fast-loading website. Varnish Cache is an efficient solution to increase server performance and website speed, both. With Varnish, there is no requirement for Magento to assign separate times for duplicate requests. This helps to significantly save loading time, improves server response time, and boosts the user experience of the store. Set up Varnish Cache for Magento 2 and help your website load faster. However, it gets tricky with the Magento 2 varnish configuration. So, make sure to set it up properly in a correct way, or you can also consult professionals about it.

2. Choose Lightweight Magento Themes*

Using lightweight themes will make your website faster and easier to navigate for both bigger and smaller users alike. Lightweight themes will speed up your browsing experience by at least 50%. Choosing lightweight Magento themes like Hyvä themes is a great way to improve your shopper’s experience while saving money on bandwidth and processing time. By improving page speed and decreasing bandwidth usage, you can attract more shoppers who are searching for an easy checkout process and responsive design.

Check our Magento Hyvä theme development services to improve the speed and performance of your Magento store.

3. Update the Magento Version

When it comes to Magento 2 Speed Optimization Tips, the most simple tip that you cannot forget is to upgrade your Magento website to the latest version of it. Currently, the latest version is Magento 2.4.6. So if you are still running your store on Magento 1 or any older version, then it’s a high time you should think about Magento upgrade service. With every update or a new version release, there is always an improvement in the performance along with the other tweaks. Therefore, it is highly recommended to migrate to Magento 2 as soon as possible if you wish to improve the speed of your Magento website.

You can also hire our certified Magento 2 developers for update the latest Magento version to maintain your website without data loss.

4. Go with Memcached or Redis

Out of several caching tools for the Magento store backend panel, Redis and Memcached are recommended to use. These two are the distributed memory caches or data storage that speed up Magento 2 large-scale websites with dynamic databases. They deliver cached data if an external data request allows it, and reduce the load of database requests on servers. This helps to reduce the response time and increase the number of performed operations. Opting for either Memcached or Redis integrates a high-speed backend cache with full cache tag support, resulting in excellent and stable website performance.

Here is the Magento 2 Redis configuration guide on MageAnts.

5. Move To Production Mode

Another great technique to be added to the list of the best Magento 2 performance optimization is to turn on the production mode. Magento has 3 operation modes:

• Magento 2 Default Mode
• Magento 2 Developer Mode
• Magento 2 Production Mode

Production mode is the fastest one out of all 3 operation modes. Developer and default modes are used while developing and debugging purposes, which is why they should not be used for the live site. You need SSH (Secure Shell) access to turn on the production mode.

Follow the below step:

• Login to SSH after getting the access details from your hosting provider and find out what mode your website is running now.
• Type the command: php bin/magento deploy:mode:show
• To turn on production mode, type the command: php bin/magento deploy:mode:set production

6. Optimize Server & System Requirements

The two most important factors that can help Magento 2 store owners to increase the speed of the website are to optimize the System and Server requirements.

Server Requirement:

As we know that the server is the core part, so instead of shared hosting for the Magento, you should host your website on a dedicated server. Additionally, make sure that the particular server is working smoothly for better website performance and speed.

System Requirement:

Make sure that your server meets the system requirements of the Magento 2 latest version.

• The two most important criteria of Magento 2 are 2 GB of RAM at a minimum and a Solid State Disk (SSD).
• Updated Operating Servers, Web Servers, Composer, Database, Elasticsearch, PHP versions, SSL, PHP settings, Required PHP Extensions, Mail Server, Cache System Requirements, etc. You can get all the up-to-date information and latest updates on all these requirements on the official Magento documentation page.

7. Optimize your Images & Media Files

Website speed and performance will definitely get affected because of tons of product images and other media files on your Magento store. These media files and images can take quite a long time to load, so it is better to optimize them properly for better performance.

Key points to optimize images & media files:

• Compress the uploaded images, but image quality must be maintained properly.
• The suggested format for product images is JPEG format.
• It will be more beneficial if the layout and logo will be in PNG or SVG format.

8. Don’t use the JS Bundling

One of the special features offered by Magento 2 is JS bundling, which is a grouping of JavaScript files to reduce the number of HTTP requests required to load the webpage. Activating JS bundling will create a large file with all the JavaScript code, which is not good for your website performance, as larger files will impact the page load time. Turn off the JS bundling option from the backend by following this path, Stores → Configuration → Advanced → Developer.

9. Examine Every 3rd Party Extension Installed

The 3rd party extension you buy and install to your website to expand the website functionalities and add more advanced features can impact website performance and speed sometimes. So, we suggest you inspect and examine each of the 3rd party extensions installed on your website. You should also perform the extension audit for better results. You can also identify the extensions that affect your website speed by turning off and on the extension to check whether the website becomes faster or not. Make sure that all the 3rd party extensions installed to your Magento website are updated versions.

10. Content Delivery Network

Leveraging the CDN (Content Delivery Network) is one of the great Magento 2 Speed Optimization Tips which helps to decrease the web page loading time and boost the speed of your website. CDN is a kind of network of computers that works together to deliver the content. The closer the CDN to a user, the quicker the content will be delivered to them. This ensures that product images, CSS, and JS load faster for your website user. So, using a CDN will help to optimize the page speed by reducing the page load time.

11. Magento Core Web Vitals

Based on the recent announcement by Google, a set of new metrics used to measure web performance is known as Core Web Vital. The three important metrics of Core Web Vitals are:

• Largest Contentful Paint, LCP for Loading: LCP is simply the metric to measure how fast the content appears on the screen? Measure the time taken to display the largest piece of web page content on the screen. The webpage should be loaded within 2.5 seconds.
• First Input Delay, FID for Interactivity: FID measures how much time the web page reacts to user interaction? Measure the time taken by your website to respond to any of the user interactions like tapping, clicking, or hovering while the website is still loading. FID should be 100 milliseconds or less.
• Cumulative Layout Shift, CLS for Visual Stability: CLS measures how content moves around on the screen while your site is loading? It helps to measure the unexpected layout shifts like the movement of text, buttons, or links during the website loading. The optimal CLS score for a page is .1 or less.

Also Read:- Important eCommerce Metrics

Wrapping Up

Speed is the most important factor in the success of an ecommerce store. A fast-loading website responds quickly, boosts performance, converts better, and engages more visitors, which automatically leads to an increase in sales and revenues.

On the other hand, a slow-loading website would frustrate customers, resulting in loss of sales and might affect the brand's reputation. This is why, refer to the above tips of Magento 2 Speed Optimization and improve your website performance. In case of any professional help, you can contact us and our Magento experts will help you with the best possible solutions.