Online Store Speed Optimization

Website speed is a crucial aspect of managing an online store.

Speed is one of the fundamental aspects of the customer experience that can significantly impact the conversion rate of an online store. In recent years, due to investments from providers in this field, user expectations have also changed significantly. Customers do not wait: speed affects conversion, search rankings and advertising costs. Today it is measured with Core Web Vitals, measures of real user experience (assessed at the 75th percentile of visits): LCP (the largest content loads in 2.5 seconds or less), INP (the page responds: up to 200 milliseconds) and CLS (the layout does not shift: up to 0.1).

Do you know how fast your online store is?

If you need more ideas for optimizing your website's performance, we recommend using PageSpeed Insights, an excellent free resource for performance or website speed-related queries (it also shows real-user data, if there is enough of it). Also look at the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console and measure mainly the mobile version: that is where the problems are greatest. Check: https://pagespeed.web.dev/

By now, you probably realize that the faster your store appears to a visitor, the greater the likelihood that the visitor will become your customer. Once a functional online store is established, there are several ways to improve its speed, and some of them will be presented in more detail.

Some key basics for improving the speed of an online store:

Enable full-page caching (FPC) or website content caching, which will allow users to load or access your page faster on their next visit. FPC significantly speeds up page loading time, influences sales conversion, and contributes to successful revenue generation.
Optimize front-end elements. Ensure that images, fonts, JavaScript, or CSS files are optimized for speed. Lazy-load images below the fold, load the main image with priority and give images a width and height so the layout does not shift. Organize CSS and optimize JavaScript.
Compress your images. Large images contribute to longer website loading times, so optimize image file sizes using tools like TinyPNG or TinyJPEG without compromising their quality. Use modern formats (WebP, AVIF) and the right image dimensions.
Remove unnecessary elements and extensions. Go through all extensions on your website and remove unused ones. Be especially careful with third-party scripts (chat, analytics, advertising tags): they are often the biggest culprit for slowness, so load them deferred or after consent.
Optimize server settings or hosting to achieve the most optimal speed. Use a supported PHP version (older ones no longer receive security patches), HTTP/2 or HTTP/3, and suitable hosting. Time to first byte (TTFB) should be low.
Fonts: use as few variants as possible and host them on your own server.
Choice of theme or platform: some solutions are fast out of the box, others need a lot of optimization.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN), a service for faster page display to users from different parts of the world. With CDN, there is a network of servers in numerous data centers worldwide, with the primary purpose of displaying the website's content to an individual from the nearest server. This makes the website appear faster to the visitor as the server delivering the content responds more quickly.

Speed degrades gradually, so measure it after every major change (a new module, a new theme, a new tag). Why not consider implementing this and other advice to improve your online store and its business?

Frequently asked questions

Check your speed for free at PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) and in the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console. Measure mainly the mobile version. Targets: LCP up to 2.5 seconds, INP up to 200 milliseconds, CLS up to 0.1.

Speed is affected by image size and optimization, hosting quality, the amount of JavaScript and CSS files, caching, and database size and optimization. Each factor contributes to overall load time.

The improvement is greatest for poorly optimized stores. Measure before and after the changes, mainly on mobile: with PageSpeed Insights and the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console. New stores we build on Magento 2 with the Hyva theme are designed for good Core Web Vitals results. Similar improvements are possible on WordPress and other platforms.

Partly - Core Web Vitals are one of the signals Google takes into account in ranking, but the relevance of content matters more. A faster site is above all friendlier to buyers and often improves conversion.

Basic optimization covers images, caching and minification, deeper optimization covers code and infrastructure analysis. We agree the scope and timeline after reviewing your inquiry. We measure results before and after optimization.

AuthorAnže Voh

My name is Anže, I am a certified Magento solution expert and the maker of several award-winning online stores. I am the architect of all Degriz projects.

Write to me →

Cookie name	Cookie purpose
PHPSESSID	Preserves the visitor's session state across page requests.
magelan_geo	Remembers that the visitor closed the suggestion of the other language version of the store, so it is not shown again.
form_key	Protects visitor's data from Cross-Site Request Forgery Attacks.
guest-view	Stores the Order ID that guest shoppers use to retrieve their order status. Used in “Orders and Returns” widgets.
login_redirect	Preserves the destination page the customer was loading before being directed to log in.
mage-banners-cache-storage	Stores banner content locally to improve performance.
mage-cache-sessid	The value of this cookie triggers the cleanup of local cache storage.
mage-cache-storage	Local storage of visitor-specific content that enables ecommerce functions.
mage-cache-storage-section-invalidation	Forces local storage of specific content sections that should be invalidated.
mage-messages	Tracks error messages and other notifications that are shown to the user, such as the cookie consent message, and various error messages. The message is deleted from the cookie after it is shown to the shopper.
private_content_version	Appends a random, unique number and time to pages with customer content to prevent them from being cached on the server.
section_data_ids	Stores customer-specific information related to shopper-initiated actions such as display wish list, checkout information, etc.
user_allowed_save_cookie, cookie_consent	Stores the user's cookie consent state for the current domain.
X-Magento-Vary	Configuration setting that improves performance when using Varnish static content caching.

Cookie name	Cookie purpose
product_data_storage	Stores configuration for product data related to Recently Viewed / Compared Products.
recently_compared_product	Stores product IDs of recently compared products.
recently_compared_product_previous	Stores product IDs of previously compared products for easy navigation.
recently_viewed_product	Stores product IDs of recently viewed products for easy navigation.
recently_viewed_product_previous	Stores product IDs of recently previously viewed products for easy navigation.
_fbp	This cookie is installed by Facebook to store and track visits across websites.

Cookie name	Cookie purpose
dc_gtm_*	Throttles request rate when Google Analytics is deployed with Google Tag Manager.
_ga, _gat, _gid, _ga_, _gat_	This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. They are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the website. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone.