Magento Optimization
Optimization of Magento-based online store can be a challenging task sometimes. However, you can make your Magento store lightning-fast by applying certain techniques that require professional skillset.
Basic Magento optimization will include the following steps:
1. Leverage browser caching
Modify the .htaccess file to set the expires headers.
2. Use flat mode for catalog
Enable the flat catalog to merge all product and category attributes into one table instead of EAV structure.
3. Compress images
Compressing images will significantly lower the bandwidth and decrease the loading time.
4. Disable unused Magento modules
Keep only those Magento modules that you really need. You can disable modules via the Magento Admin Panel, or by editing XML-files in app/etc/modules.
5. Compress output
In order to save even more bandwidth, enable the PHP-setting zlib.output_compression to compress the output generated by PHP when sent to the browser. You could also use the Apache mod_deflate module to compress non-PHP output (CSS, JavaScript, other plain text-files) as well.
6. Use a PHP accelerator
Opcode caching can seriously improve PHP-execution time and bring great results to your Magento optimization process. APC and ZendOptimizer+ work best with Magento.
7. Combining CSS and JavaScript
Is another must-do task for Magento optimization. When combining all CSS and JavaScript files into a single file, the browser only needs one HTTP-request to fetch this content.
8. Magento Compilation (Magento < 2)
Magento has a compilation feature which reduced filesystem reads by compiling all installation files into a single include directory.
9. PHP7 (Magento < 2)
Magento 1 does not support PHP7 by default, additional extension is required.
10. Caching engines
Use Memcached or Redis to store sessions/block cache/other caches. Use Full page cache (Varnish).
11. Standalone search engines
With the help of Solr, Elasticsearch you can dramatically reduce output time for layered navigation as well as search/quicksearch times
12. Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Use CDN to store your static files. It can significantly reduce your website’s loading time.