Have you ever found yourself in a situation where website slow speed forces you to close a page and move to another or you just return back to your search results to see if you can view another page due to long wait for a slow loading page to open. These scenarios actually lead to visitor losses and are common when a page is slow and are indeed a bad experience for visitors.

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Page loading speed is an important factor in deciding the success of an online business website. It does not only affects the website user experience but also Google search ranking. Our website gained 14 positions after page speed increased by 25percent. Its Moz Rank also increased by 7percent within the same period. What all these means is that page speed is a key factor in ranking and can be far more important than we have placed it. Page speed is not based on a user’s subjective experience and personal judgement, it can be tested and there are several metrics for doing that. You may want want to use one of them to test your website page speed here

Improving the speed of of your website is not something you get tired of. The faster the speed of your website, the better for your visitor experience. So, the big question is how improve the site loading speed?

In this article, we will be dealing with how to optimize a Joomla website with the aim of improving it’s speed. At the time of this publication, the latest Joomla version is the 3.7.5. It is not expected that there will be major changes in optimization procedure for the expected 4.x release. This article can also be useful for the optimization of every Content Management System (CMS) based website like WordPress, Drupal, Magento, OpenCart, SMF, and any other CMS.

Why is Website Speed So Important?

If you have done some preliminary research on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how best to get top ten ranking in the search engines, you would have severally come across the need for good website speed. No one like slow websites, neither do the search engines. But there are a couple of reasons you should take the speed of your website seriously and here are the most critical elements.

Speed is Good For User Experience

Users love fast websites and Google is very concerned about user experience. When your website impresses users, Google loves it; when is slows down and causes users to turn down your pages, Google does not like it as well.

Speed is a Google Ranking Factor

Google has stated that speed is a ranking factor. So, if you take traffic growth, sales, revenue growth and brand awareness seriously, you need to work on your page speed.

What is a Good Page Speed

Now that we understand the importance of page speed, what should be the target we seek to achieve for Google page speed? As a rule, a good page speed score is a Google Page Speed Insights score on both mobile and desktop is 90 and above. 

Google’s PageSpeed ​​Insights also recommends a score of 2.5 as optimal user experience score for Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). For Interactive to Next Paint (INP), a good score will be 200 milliseconds or lower. A score of 0.1 or less is a good score for Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Key takeaways:

• Mobile Matters Most: According to a Google documentation, mobile speed matters the most.  Google predominantly uses mobile-first indexing and that makes mobile speed readings what you should primarily focus on.
• Don’t be Obsess About Excellent Scores: A 100/100 score would be an excellent score but it does not always mean that websites that score much lower than that, say 70-80 does not rank well. We have seen websites with speed scores of 71 rank at the top for some top and high traffic keywords. So, while a score of 90+ is ideal, scores in the 70–89 range are still very good and acceptable though, it still give room for improvement.
• Prioritize Core Web Vitals: These metrics (LCP, CLS, INP) are the key factors used by Google to assess page experience.

Best and Tested Tips to Increase Joomla Website Loading Speed

Begin with an assessment of your website loading speed. At first, you should check your website load speed by using the following tools:

• Google Page Speed Insights
• Pingdom
• Gtmetrix.com

Keep records of the loading speed so you can also know which one loads faster? There are other testing tools out there. You can search for more available tools if you wish.

Remember, it is always recommended that you to make a backup of your website before changing any section in case of unexpected errors. Keeping a backup will save you from a lot of trouble should there be any unexpected error. Now, let’s return to the recommended tips to optimize and speed-up your Joomla website load time.

1. Use Extensions Cautiously

Use only necessary extensions. You do not need to run every extension simply because it is free, there has to the need for the extension. Some extensions slow down your website and so you have to be careful when using extensions. If you find one that slowdown your website, then you have to source for an alternative. Clear all unnecessary extensions which slow down your site speed by deactivating or uninstalling them. You will also have to manage all installed extensions effectively by updating regularly to make sure you are running their latest versions because the new versions have better improvement than the previous ones.

2. Take Advantage of Joomla Caching

Caching is one of the most effective ways of improving the speed of your Joomla website. By enabling the Cache system, the sever does not need to fetch all the information requested from its database (content, plugins, modules, template files…) every time one of your pages is loaded. You need not install anything to get started with caching. Joomla comes with caching extensions pre-installed. You will only need to enable caching in Global Configuration and in the plugin manager. That’s all. We recommend the use of the conservative caching system for all Joomla websites including those with heavy traffic. Remember the following

• Enable in Global Configuration and make sure to select the conservative caching option.
• Remember to enable caching in the plugin manager under extensions > plugins

3. Turn on Gzip Compression

It is a good practice to enable the Gzip compression feature. Gzip compression allows your pages (include CSS and html) to be compressed in a zip file. This package is sent to your computer and uncompressed by the browser (all browsers supported, except old IE versions). It may sounds really complicated but you need not worry about how it works. It will really make your website load much faster.

To enable Gzip compression from your Joomla website backend, go to System > Global Configuration > Server  and set Gzip Compression to “Yes”.

4. Optimize the size of your images

Getting your web images lighter is really one great way to speed up your website load time. This tip is very simple and easy to carry out. When adding images to your web pages,you should take in mind:

        Do not use large images. The bigger an image is, the more time it will take to load.
        Optimize your photos. Use tools such as Photoshop or Fireworks to reduce images’ size without any significant effect on the quality.
        Do no place too many images to a single page. Loading image is slower than loading text. So, be careful with having a lot of image on a single page. Tis has been known to affect news and photography websites.

5. Work with JavaScript and CSS

A website whose content is more of Javascript and CSS will load faster than those built with text and images. Some people will wonder how JavaScript and CSS affect the website load time. The answer is that they stop the page to load while they are executing. Most Joomla templates will have this feature by default allowing to compress your JavaScript and CSS files. It is recommended that you do the following:

        Compress JS and CMS files.
        Use one large CMS file and one large JS file (by merging multiple files into one)
        Use *defer* or *async* attribute in the script.

As mentioned earlier, these settings will usually be found within the template area. You will login to your Joomla admin area and click on Extensions, then navigate to templates and then click on the Styles. You will then click on your default template to be able to access and adjust the template settings. In most modern Joomla templates, from this area, you can change the logo, favicon, adjust the JavaScript and CSS settings. Set Compress CSS to yes and set Compress Javascripts to yes.

6. Ensure That Your Templates are optimized

Fortunately, there are tons of Joomla templates that are well optimized and can help to speed-up load time effectively. Most of these are available on the Joomla template store while some can be sourced on the web. The golden advise is that you check the comments and reviews of other users before you decide to buy, use or not.

7. Optimize Your Website For Mobile Devices

The use of mobile devices for surfing the web is growing and some statistics has put it higher than desktop users. Fortunately, Joomla 3x templates are mostly mobile friendly templates and you will require no extra work to enable your website for mobile devices. However, some modules are not mobile friendly and that could create a problem for mobile users particularly if the module displays very useful content.

8. Take Web Hosting Seriously

Your web host is important because if your web host is slow, there is practically nothing you will do to achieve a good speed. You need to check and be sure that your not running on a web host that overload servers. Your web host must have fast servers to be able to server content speedily to visitors.

A bad web host can may screw up all your efforts. Checking the reviews, forum before making the decision is a good idea. After you finish implementing all these tips, check your website speed again. You will be impressed by the change.

9. Clean up Your Joomla Database

Cleaning up your Joomla database is essential when it creates issues in your Joomla site’s loading speed.  Unlike WordPress, the Joomla system does not have database cleaning-up default options. However, you can easily do it via phpMyAdmin by clicking the “Repair table” or “Optimize table” options.

10. Enable Browser Caching

You can also speed up your Joomla website by enabling browser caching. When you enable browser caching, users can grab the pre-generated data copy from your browser’s cache. Navigate from “Extensions” to “Plugins,” click on the “System—Page Cache” plugin, and save the changes by enabling the “Use Browser Caching” option.

Optimizing With Speed Optimization Extensions

The best way to implement speed optimization on a Joomla website is to use an extension. Here are some Joomla optimization extensions you will find helpful for speed optimization.

1. Speed Cache

The Speed Cache is an easy-to-use extension and only requires its installation and some tweaks to optimize your site.
It creates a new cache layer by sending more static content (HTML) therefore reducing the number of database queries.

Key Features of Speed Cache:

• Cache per user
• The cache can be cleaned automatically on Joomla admin side actions
• AJAX module loading
• Cache Pre-Loading
• Browser cache option
• Cache inclusion & exclusion by selecting a single URL or rules
• Auto clean from frontend

Pros:

• Comes with a user-friendly interface
• Offers a wide range of optimization features, ensuring your website is running as efficiently as possible.
• Regularly update the extension to ensure compatibility with the latest version of Joomla

Cons:

• The free version comes with basic features, and the advanced features are only available in the pro version
• Some users may find the advanced caching and optimization settings in Speed Cache to be overwhelming, especially if they are not familiar with caching concepts

2. JCH Optimize

Next, we have JHC Optimize. A free Joomla performance extension that provides several front-end optimizations for faster download speeds for your website. It also helps you to improve user experience and increase website traffic and high ranking in search engines.

Moreover, this extension will combine CSS and JavaScript files and background images into a sprite to reduce HTTP requests. JCH Optimize will also reduce your page size and boost your page speed with a couple of different techniques like compressing files with Gzip and removing unnecessary whitespaces from CSS and JavaScript files and the HTML pages.

Key Features of JCH Optimize:

• Combine javascript/CSS files into one
• Minifies and gzips aggregated files
• Combine background images in a sprite
• Compress and gzip aggregated files
• Exclude individual files or files from extensions that do not aggregate well
• Can defer Javascript or place it at the end of the page for optimized download
• Allows you to have lazy-load images
• CDN support

Pros:

• Enhanced user experience
• Allows to modify images by setting their height and width
• Offers six preset automatic settings

Cons:

• You need to raise a ticket for support

3. Clearing your cache after making changes to your website is a must. Cache Cleaner will be the best and easiest way to clean your Joomla cache in just one click. It uses Ajax, so you don’t need to reload the page either.