How to Make Craft CMS Faster

Learn how to optimize your Craft CMS site for speed in our latest blog post. From image optimization to caching techniques, we've got you covered.

There are a few reasons why a Craft CMS site might be slow:

1. Large or uncompressed images can slow down the site, as they take longer to load.
2. Excessive use of third-party plugins and scripts can add bloat to the site and slow it down.
3. Insufficient server resources (e.g. CPU, RAM) can cause the site to be slow, especially if there is a lot of traffic.
4. If the site is not properly optimized (e.g. using caching, minifying assets, etc.), it can lead to slower loading times.
5. A slow hosting provider or outdated server software can also contribute to a slow site.

Overall, there are many factors that can contribute to a slow Craft CMS site, and it's important to identify and address the root causes in order to improve performance. Continue reading to learn how we can solve these issues.

There are many options for optimizing your digital media. Here at Brilliance we almost exclusively implement ImageOptimize.

ImageOptimize is a plugin for Craft CMS that allows you to optimize images on your site, which can help improve performance. When you upload an image to your site, the plugin automatically compresses it using lossless optimization techniques, which reduces the file size without sacrificing quality. This can help improve the load time of your pages, as smaller images take less time to transfer between the server and the client.

The plugin also includes a built-in task that can be used to optimize images that have already been uploaded to the site. This can be useful if you want to optimize images that were added before the plugin was installed, or if you want to run optimization on a regular basis to ensure that all images on the site are optimized.

Overall, the ImageOptimize plugin is a useful tool for improving the performance of a Craft CMS site by reducing the size of images and helping to speed up page load times.

There are a number of excellent caching plugins for Craft, the cream of the crop however is Blitz.

Blitz is a caching plugin for Craft CMS that can help improve the performance of your site by storing commonly used data in cache, reducing the load on the server. When a user visits a page on your site, the plugin generates a cached version of the page and stores it on the server. Subsequent requests for that page can then be served from the cache, which reduces the load on the server and speeds up the response time for the user.

Blitz includes a variety of options for controlling how and when cache is generated, including the ability to set specific expiration times for different types of pages and elements. It also includes a dashboard widget that provides real-time statistics on cache usage, helping you to monitor the effectiveness of the plugin on your site.

Overall, Blitz is a powerful caching solution for Craft CMS that can help improve the performance of your site by reducing the load on the server and speeding up response times for users.

Third-party plugins and scripts can contribute to the bloat of a Craft CMS installation in a few ways:

1. By adding additional code and assets (e.g. JavaScript and CSS files) to the site, which can increase the size of the pages and slow down the site.
2. By using server resources (e.g. CPU, RAM) to run their own processes, which can decrease the overall performance of the site.
3. By adding additional database queries to the site, which can increase the load on the database server and slow down the site.

It's important to be selective when choosing third-party plugins and scripts for your Craft CMS site, as adding too many can lead to a slower and less efficient site. It's also a good idea to regularly review the plugins and scripts in use on your site to ensure that they are necessary and up-to-date.

Craft CMS is a complex application that has unique needs for resource requirements and PHP extensions. When you're evaluating your host the two most important things to keep in mind are:

1. Performance: Look for a host that uses fast servers and has a solid track record for uptime. You may also want to consider hosting options that offer server-level caching and other performance enhancements.
2. Compatibility: Make sure that the host supports the version of PHP and other software requirements needed to run Craft CMS.

Here at Brilliance, we exclusively use Servd for hosting our clients sites. It offers a range of hosting plans that are optimized for Craft CMS, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated server options.

One of the key features of Servd is its focus on performance and reliability. The hosting platform uses high-performance servers and includes features such as server-level caching, CDN integration, and automatic scaling to help ensure that websites hosted on the platform are fast and reliable.

In addition to hosting, Servd also offers a range of support and management services for Craft CMS websites, including plugin and theme updates, security monitoring, and backup services.

Overall, Servd is a great hosting platform that is specifically tailored to the needs of Craft CMS websites, with a focus on performance, reliability, and support.

Speed is something so crucial, that most of the times it makes sense to bring an expert on the subject matter. We LOVE making Craft CMS sites perform at their optimum potential, we can take any site, and get it to an acceptable loading time. Reach out to us today!