Optimizing Magento for Best Performance

Speed and performance can make or break your online store. Now that Google officially announced they will be considering site’s speed on ranking websites and our eager and impatient customers just can’t wait to spend their money on our online store.
There are several sides to look at when optimizing Magento or any other content management systems. The hardware, softwares and ofcourse the network which where data travels to.
While methods to increase site speed range from Magento’s backend setting, the theme & modules used to the server or hosting the Magento’s system is on. This post will cover purely Magento’s installation. So here are some few ways to greatly increase Magento’s speed.

Theme Development Procedure

A well developed theme results in faster loading times. Too much bloat and bounce rates will be sky high.

Never ever hack the core files, ever!

I’ve seen this too many times and it’s something really unpleasant. Lots of developers don’t follow the Magento’s standard development procedure and hack the code, which can be quicker but dirty way to work. Update will surely break your store and can result in errors which will slow down the site.

All other coded files belong to either /local/ folder which contains your files and /community/ folder which contains third-party modules.

Unoptimized Images Are Often The Culprit

Product images should be saved for web as PNG or JPEG to lessen the file size. This tools can help optimize the image’s file size:
TinyPNG
Yahoo SmushIt

CSS Sprite The Theme’s Images

CSS Sprite is a method of combining the image into a single one and then calling them one by one through CSS. This method will greatly reduce the HTTP request which in turn gives us a faster Magento store. SpriteMe can help us with this task efficiently.

Remove unused codes

Unused codes within the template files will result in uncalled for queries & requests. Removing unused codes will results in faster page loads and easier to maintain codes.

Minify the CSS & JS

Minifying CSS and JS code before going live for our customers is critical as it will greatly reduce the file size needed to be served.

Social media plugins significantly slow down the site

Most social media plugins require too much Javascript, while their function is just to serve a simple button. It is often best to embed social media buttons into the theme instead. This goes for majority of content management systems.

Administrator Settings

This optimizitation are easily accessed via the administrator dashboard menu and can often times be overlooked even on most experienced developers so make sure its on your launch checklist.

Enable cache

Cache is usually turned off while developing or installing something new. So always double check if caching is enabled.

You can enable/disable the cache via the Magento admin then go to System > Cache Management. Select them all then enable it from the dropdown then submit.

Merge CSS and JS file

Magento has tons of JS files and CSS files required for the theme and third-party modules. Merging them into a single file will make the online store speed up as it will lessen the requests made and the size of the files.

Merge them via System > Configuration > Advanced > Developer then hit yes for Merge Javascript files and Merge CSS files.

Enable compilation

Get up to 50% performance boost by enabling compilation by going to System > Tools > Compilation and click enable. What it does is it will compile all the PHP files needed for Magento to run into a single file instead of calling each part one by one in order to create a single request which can significantly improve Magento’s performance.

Just remember to disable this feature anytime you make any code level changes or installing modules and recompile every after changes, and don’t forget that.

Use Flat Catalogs

Flattening the catalog will join the product and category information into a single database table making it faster. Database is similar to a spreadsheet consist of tables and rows which contain the needed information. So often times Magento has to search for multiple tables and rows to provide the user with the requested information which can seriously slow it down.

Flatten it by going to System>Configuration>Catalog>Frontend. Select Yes for both Use Flat Catalog Category and Use Flat Catalog Product

Avoid Layered Navigation When Possible

While a great and critical feature, often times it does’nt really add value to our customers at all such as having few products with no attributes in a category. It’s best if left disabled, this feature is quite resource intensive.

Layered navigation can be turned on or off via Categories then choose the specific category and set the Use Anchor to Yes or No.

Disable Unused Modules

Some modules can safely be left disabled if not needed, instead of consuming those precious loading speed and resources. The Authorize.net module, GoogleCheckout, Tags, Newsletter, Wishlist, Phoenixs module to name some but it is critical to review the system’s requirements for a truly optimize experience.

Conclusion

This tips will surely make each Magento install in top performance. However always remember in terms of totally optimizing Magento there is no single way of doing it as Magento is a highly flexible system and each business is unique and has different needs.