It’s been a long day at work. You freshen up and lie down on your comfy bed to check out the last thing you left in your browser. Your search for it. But wait, why it is taking forever to load!
Frustrating, right?
Can’t get answers right away!
Well! That is the story of every visitor on a website that takes so long to load. Bad user experience is the ultimate consequence of this mistake.
Talking about websites, Drupal powers over 1 million websites on the internet. While running your business on a Drupal website, you may be focusing on many factors including getting it into top search engine results. But what’s the point of getting it to top positions in SERPs when it won’t load within seconds. All your efforts will go in vain, and you won’t receive any outcome.
Also, read more about Drupal 9 new feature list.
This is why today we are going to throw some light on the Drupal performance optimization tips that will help you get the visitor to your website within milliseconds.
Let’s get started!
Lazy Loading
It may say lazy, but it’s a smart move to include in your website.
You may have come across the same while scrolling websites but must be unaware of what it is termed.
A website that loads only when the user scrolls to access its content is the magic of lazy loading. It not only decreases the page load time but upscales the website performance by a significant amount.
You may be wrong if you think that this tactic can only be applied on websites accessed via desktops. Lazy loading can be used smoothly in a mobile environment too, thus giving you access to a wider audience.
Blazy, Lazy load, image lazy loader, and more are some of the renowned modules you can utilize to implement lazy loading in your website. This is a lesser-known and adopted practice that is now supported by Chrome and can be used as an asset to your Drupal website.
Caching Modules
Caching is another way of optimizing the performance of your Drupal website.
What is it? Let’s understand!
When you access the website for the first time, some data is stored in the device’s memory. So when you re-access it takes less time to load, thus enhancing your user experience. The cached version of the website or that page is what leads to the quick page load time.
With caching enabled in versions like Drupal 8, most of your work is done for your website. Although with the installation of additional modules, you can have better control than the built-in caching feature in a Drupal website.
For a thorough understanding, let’s take an example of a module, say the boost module. It is a cache and compresses coding. For any anonymous or authenticated visitor, the website performs at its best speed for both of them.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
The third in the list of the experts to optimize Drupal page load speed is utilizing a content delivery network. When a user accesses any website, the Content delivery network functions to deliver the content through a data center or a proxy server located physically close to their location.
There are arrays of content delivery network companies that have data centers spread at various geographical locations around the globe. Some of them are Level 3, Amazon, Cloudflare, and others.
High performance and readily available content is the top advantage of using CDN. No extra efforts are required to make it work for websites as several hosting providers offer an automatic feature in their hosting.
Consistent site performance during high traffic timelines, low load on the main server, and more are some of the significant advantages of utilizing a content delivery network in your website.
Image Optimization
Images are the best way to acquire and retain the attention of your visitor on a website. Although, as an excess of anything is harmful, the same goes with the inclusion of images on your website.
Extremely large files that may be killing on your website can be a threat to your Drupal performance. Make sure that the images have a consistent size before using them on your website. This is how you can optimize them and make them neutral to cause any threat to your website performance.
Online images can be made of optimized sizes with an image resize filter that is inserted via a WYSIWYG editor like TinyMCE or CKEditor. You can expect an image resized to your requirement just by entering the height and width of the image in the same.
It is time to put these steps into use!
These are some of the major factors affecting Drupal performance. Implementing the above-mentioned Drupal performance Optimization tips will help you speed up your website or page load time. No one size fits all but we assure you that these factors will help you achieve recognizable outcomes for your Drupal Website.
If you are unable to implement these steps on your own, it is always recommended to consult a Drupal Development Company before you take any steps. If you’re a novice and make such changes to your website, there might be some consequences you don’t want to see. That’s why it is always better to consult the experts and get it done while you focus on your work.
Also, read more about Know the Complete Plan for Drupal 9.
So, wait no more, implement these tips to your Drupal Website and optimize your Drupal Website’s performance and start attracting visitors!