If you want to improve website performance and at the same time boost performance in search engine results, focus on speed.
Do so when you choose a hosting provider and when you perform your duties as website administrator.
What do we mean by speed?
Data Access Speed is a measure of how long it takes to read and access data on the server's drive.
Data Access Speed is crucially important for dynamic data-driven websites like Joomla!
Reason: when a visitor clicks on a link in a Joomla! website they trigger hundreds of database queries.
Data Access Speed is a function of your web server's configuration.
Page Load Speed is how long it takes for a web page to load in the visitor's browser when they click on a link.
Slow loading web pages result in frustrated visitors abandoning your website and not coming back!
Faster loading pages means more interaction, more page views, and more sales enquiries if you are a business.
Page Load Speed is a function of both your web server's configuration and the decisions you take as website administrator.
How you can improve website performance
Focus on Page Load Speed to improve website performance in browsers and search engine results.
Things to think about when choosing a hosting provider.
SSD vs HDD
SSD or Solid State Drives deliver much improved performance when compared to traditional spinning disk HDD drives.
And NVMe (or Non-volatile Memory Express) SSD drives offer significant performance improvements over traditional SSD drives.
Read more: Joomla! websites perform better on SSD drives.
Server application
A server application we like is called LiteSpeed Web Server.
Hosting companies which offer this application state they do so because it increases server performance, stability and security.
Read more: About LiteSpeed Web Server
LiteSpeed or Varnish Caching
The difference in page load speed is noticeable.
Things to focus on when administering your website.
Enable Page Caching
Enable the Page Cache Plugin and adjust Global Configuration settings.
Enable Gzip Compression
Adjust Global Configuration settings to enable Gzip compression, if supported by your hosting provider.
We recommend that you install and configure Akeeba Admin Tools.
Admin Tools will when appropriately configured will add the necessary lines of code to the HTACCESS file for you.
Read more: Global Configuration.
Customise the HTACCESS file
You should take care when adding code to the HTACCESS file as the result could be to break your website.
There are some significant lines of code that can be added to improve performance in web browsers.
Admin Tools Pro will when appropriately configured will add the necessary lines of code to the HTACCESS file for you.
Ask for help with customising the HTACCESS file.
Use Akeeba Admin Tools Pro
Subscribe to the Pro version for optimum impact on performance as well as website security.
Admin Tools Pro facilitates customisation of the HTACCESS file from within your website's control panel.
Ask for help with Admin Tools Pro.
Housekeeping
Focus constantly on improving website layout to improve the experience of visitors, humans and search bots alike.
Use the Redirects Component to fix broken links.
This will improve SEO but will also improve page load speed.
Read more: How to fix broken links with Redirects Component.
Performance results may be downloaded in PDF format for reference at a later date when you the following free tools.
Google Lighthouse
Requires installation of a browser add-on or extension.
Read more: How to use Google Lighthouse to improve Site Speed
GTmetrix
Can be performed online without the need for a browser add-on or extension.
Read more: How fast does your website load? Find out with GTmetrix
Google PageSpeed Insights
This tool enables a quick comparison of performance on mobile and desktop devices.
Read more: Google PageSpeed Insights
Read more: More useful links to help improve website performance.
Geographic Location
If your website serves a target audience in one country, it makes sense to host the website close to where the audience is.
Doing so will minimise latency (time taken for content to travel from server to visitor's web browser).
The alternative is to use a CDN or Content Delivery Network.
You may prefer for practical business reasons instead to host with a provider in your own country.
In which case consider using the service of a CDN like Cloudflare.
You may also wish to check that your intended hosting provider offers CDN integration.
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