Magento is a widely popular platform that provides various businesses with a chance to sell online. One of the main aims of choosing this platform is to reach more customers, but a low site speed comes your way. In this situation, Magento 2 speed optimization is the solution to end this loading time war and reclaim your conversions.
However, if you are thinking optimization is too technical or costly, you are not wrong. But don’t panic, cause that is not the case with a plugin about which we will be talking throughout. You can easily implement its basic yet impactful performance settings on your Magento store. It is easy, effective, and puts just the perfect speed jump your website needs.
You will get to know its name in the upcoming sections. Till then, let’s begin the blog by learning why speed is crucial for your online store.
Why Magento Page Speed Optimization Is Important?
Every Magento store deals with speed issues that can lower sales, reduce traffic, and shake customer confidence. But when you improve your store’s speed, you fix these problems head-on. It boosts your income and helps your store grow stronger. Here is more on why it matters the most:
- Breaks Trust
When someone visits your Magento store, they expect things to load fast. But if your page keeps spinning, people lose trust in your store. They do not know you yet, and slow loading tells them you are not ready or might be a fraud. You could have the best products, but poor speed can turn people away before they even see what you offer. So, if you want people to feel confident, your store speed must speak first.
- Search Engines Notice
Magento performance optimization is not only for people. Search engines like Google also watch how fast your store runs. If it loads slowly, your site may drop in rankings. That means fewer people can find you online. You work hard on your content, your store, and your marketing, but if speed is missing, all that effort gets buried. So, the key to staying visible is in making your site faster.
- Push Buyers to Take Action
People shop with their emotions. A smooth, fast Magento store makes the experience feel right and keeps energy high. When things load in a flash, buyers stay focused. They are more likely to click, explore, and buy. Yes, speed generates a rhythm, which pushes activity. So, if you want people to feel excited and ready, your store’s performance matters more than you think.
- Saves You Money
A slow site does not just lose sales, it also eats up more resources. You spend more on ads, support, fixes, and even abandoned cart recovery. But with Magento store performance best practices in place, your store runs clean and smoothly. That means fewer issues, less waste, and more value from every dollar you spend.
As you see, loading time matters, and we recommend that you regularly check it through standard tools available in the market. PageSpeed Insights, Chrome DevTools, or Lighthouse, whichever you choose, will surely help you identify room for improvement.
17 Magento Performance Optimization Techniques to Score 90+ on PSI
One of the best ways to improve website speed is to use a powerful extension that handles all your work and delivers instant results. One such is the W3speedster (yes, I was talking about this earlier), which will never disappoint you; it comes with super impactful performance settings even in its free version.
Okay, we will not make you wait anymore. Here is a detailed guide on how to make Magento store faster using the ultimate tool built solely for this.
But first, you need to download the free version of W3Speedster (follow the link and complete the checkout process). You can find the installation link in your inbox. Now, follow the steps below:
- Unzip the Magento extension.
- Upload the folder to /root/app/code using FileZilla.
- Open the terminal in your Magento root folder.
- Run these commands one by one:
- php bin/magento setup:upgrade
- php bin/magento setup:di:compile
- php bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -f
- php bin/magento cache:clean
- php bin/magento cache:flush
That’s it! Your W3Speedster extension is now ready to use. Now learn how to set it up for your site:
General Settings:
To reach this option in W3Speedster, you need to first find the W3Speedster extension itself. And for this, log in to your Magento admin panel > Stores > Configuration. Now, drop down on the extension, select the ‘General Settings’ option.
Here, you will see a new page popping up on your right side. Head over to that.
Skip the license key if you are on the free plan, or if you have purchased the paid one, then put your license key and hit the “Activate Key” button.
As of now, setting up of Magento page speed optimization extension is completed. Therefore, let’s start by addressing the poor Magento website speed.
1. Turn ON optimization:
To fully activate our tool, make sure this switch is turned ON. This will enable all optimization features, including CSS/JS minification, lazy loading, and advanced performance tweaks, everything it offers to speed up your Magento website.
If you decide to keep this setting OFF, none of the optimization settings will be applied, no matter what you have configured inside the extension.
2. Optimize pages with Query parameters
If someone opens a special link with extra stuff like ?nocache=1, they will normally see the old, slow version of your page.
But when you turn this setting ON, W3Speedster makes sure even those links show the fast, optimized version
So, that was it for this section. However, make sure to click on ‘Save Config’ (find it on the top right corner), otherwise all your good deeds will go to vain.
Image optimization Settings:
It is time to head over to one of the most important Magento performance optimization techniques. Images are usually the heaviest part of your site. If you do not optimize them, they slow everything down.
(Find it under the general settings and see the full page dedicated to Magento image optimization popping up.)
Now, use the below settings to make your pages load faster and boost your Core Web Vitals in no time.
3. Optimize JPG/PNG Images
Enable this to compress and clean up your JPG and PNG files. As you know, big images take longer to load; that is where optimizing them makes them smaller and faster without affecting how they look.
4. Enable JPG WebP Support
WebP images are much lighter than JPGs and load faster. So, it is advisable to toggle this setting and convert JPGs into the WebP format automatically. This Magento speed optimization technique helps you keep quality high while cutting load time.
5. Enable PNG WebP Support
You might have used PNGs for website logos, icons, and images with transparency, but do you know they are bulky? Don’t worry, WebP will handle them better with faster-loading, high-quality images. So, turn this ON to convert PNGs into WebP format.
6. Enable Image Lazy Load
You should enable this option to delay image loading until the user scrolls near them. Because unnecessarily loading everything at once increases server load, which ultimately slows down your website.
When lazy loading is turned on, you skip loading things that are not visible until needed. This Magento page speed optimization practice will make your page feel faster and more responsive, especially on mobile.
7. Enable Iframe Lazy Load
Now that you know what lazy loading does, switch this ON to delay loading of embedded iframes (like YouTube videos or maps). Yes, Iframes are heavy and slow down first paint times. But with this setting, your page will load faster upfront, and the iframe loads only when needed.
8. Enable Video Lazy Load
Videos consume a lot of resources from the start. So, enable this option to delay loading videos until someone scrolls near them and keep your page light and quick while still supporting video content.
9. Enable Audio Lazy Load
Now, turn this setting ON to delay loading of audio files until the user actually scrolls to them or clicks play. This Magento performance optimization technique helps reduce the initial page load time, lightens server load, and delivers a faster, smoother browsing experience.
10. Responsive Images
Mobile devices do not need giant images meant for desktops. So, enable this to serve different image sizes depending on the user’s device (desktop, tablet, mobile). With this Magento site speed optimization step, visitors get the exact size they actually need, which means super-fast load times and lower data usage.
11. Start Image Optimization
This is where the real speed-up begins—existing images will get optimized based on your above settings. Click this button to begin a full image optimization and go one step closer to being Google-friendly.
Attention: Click ‘Save Config’ at the top-right. If you miss it, none of your settings will stick, and it will be like nothing ever happened.
CSS Optimization Settings:
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) controls how your website looks, things like fonts, colors, layout, and design.
These files can sometimes become big and slow down your website. That is where optimizing these files reduces their size and makes the site load faster.
You can easily find this option under the image one. Now, let’s start Magento 2 speed optimization:
12. Enable CSS Optimization
Turn it ON, as if you don’t, other features like reducing the size of CSS files or prioritizing important content won’t work.
13. Combine Google fonts
If your site uses several Google Fonts, it has to make multiple requests to Google’s servers to load each font, which can slow things down. Combining all fonts into one request and lazy loading (prioritise what is essential for the initial view and delay the rest until it is required) reduces the time it takes for your page to appear.
So, turn this option to merge all your fonts into a single request, Lazy load, and make your website load faster.
14. Load Critical CSS
Critical CSS is the CSS that is needed to display the top part of your website, or I say, the part that the user will view immediately (above-the-fold).
Normally, the browser has to wait for all CSS files to load before it can display anything.
However, by enabling this setting, you can load only the critical CSS (like headers, navigation, and other key elements), which is actually important. This Magento speed optimization practice can make your website show up faster on the user’s end.
15. Load Critical CSS in Style Tag
The <style> tag is a piece of HTML code that allows you to directly write CSS to style your website.
Normally, CSS files need to be loaded from external sources, which can slow things down. By putting the critical styles directly in the <style> tag, your browser can apply these styles instantly. This helps avoid any delay in showing your website.
So, enable this option to enjoy its speedy benefits.
However, for large pages, loading critical CSS in a style tag may slow down rendering and hurt performance. So, it is recommended not to use this setting.
16. Start Generating Critical CSS
Do you want to start developing crucial CSS right now? Then, in W3Speedster, select the button with the same label.
As a free user, you will be able to apply this only to the homepage. But there is a pro version, which will generate it for your entire site.
Note: Make sure that the image optimization is 100% completed before generating critical css.
(You can even see the status of how many pages are crawled)
Do not forget to click ‘Save Config’, as if skipped, your changes won’t be saved.
JavaScript Optimization Settings:
JavaScript makes your website interactive with buttons, pop-ups, forms, and sliders. But if too much JavaScript loads at once, it can slow down your website badly.
However, here is the good news: W3Speedster can clean things up automatically and make your site load faster.
(You can find it under the CSS settings in the Magento admin panel.) Now, all you have to do for Magento page speed optimization is to turn on the following options:
17. Enable JavaScript Optimization
This is the master switch. When you turn this ON, W3Speedster will start optimizing your JavaScript files.
It will remove all extra spaces and junk from the code (I mean, minify your code), shrink the size of JavaScript files to make the website load scripts faster.
Because lighter and cleaner files = faster load = better user experience.
18. Lazy Load JavaScript
Let me repeat, lazy loading means you only load what is important right away, and delay the rest until it is really needed.
It will make your page load faster on the first visit, improve Core Web Vitals (especially First Input Delay), give a smooth user experience, and help your SEO rankings. So, don’t wait and turn this feature on.
After making these changes, hit the ‘Save Config’ button in the top-right. If you don’t, your settings won’t apply, and everything will stay the same.
So, that was the detail on how to make a Magento store faster. We hope that the above information meets your expectations and proves helpful. If so, then do not forget to read the end of the blog; it will be beneficial, too.
Final Words
Once you apply all these settings in W3Speedster, you will see how much you have fixed your slow Magento website speed that even for free. Our Magento performance optimization extension does not solely make things faster but also makes you the in-charge of this process.
W3Speedster lets you fine-tune exactly what you want to optimize and what you don’t. So, if you are serious about growing your store, this extension is more than worth it. Try W3Speedster today without paying a single dollar, and experience the real power of Magento 2 speed optimization instantly.
Or if you want to unlock more features, there is a plan for that, too. You can purchase it right away and enjoy an instant speed boost.
