How to speed up your Joomla Website

Would you like to know how to get your Joomla Website to load even faster than it currently does?

Does it seem like it takes forever for your web pages to load?

These next few steps will make a ton of difference. Let's get started.

First - Go test your website at the following locations:

Then, add the code below to your .htaccess file, save, upload and then go run the same speed test again. It should increase your site speed by at least 8 points (based on all the tests we have run).

.htaccess file modification

<IfModule filter_module>
FilterDeclare COMPRESS
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/html
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/css
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/plain
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/xml
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $text/x-component
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/javascript
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/json
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/xml
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/xhtml+xml
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/rss+xml
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/atom+xml
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/vnd.ms-fontobject
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $image/svg+xml
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $image/x-icon
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $application/x-font-ttf
FilterProvider COMPRESS DEFLATE resp=Content-Type $font/opentype
FilterChain COMPRESS
FilterProtocol COMPRESS DEFLATE change=yes;byteranges=no
</IfModule>

<IfModule !mod_filter.c>
# Legacy versions of Apache
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/css application/json
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml application/xml text/x-component
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml application/rss+xml application/atom+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/x-icon image/svg+xml application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/x-font-ttf font/opentype
&</IfModule>

If for some reason, this breaks your site, remove the second legacy "IfModule !mod_filter.c" code section.

Joomla System Cache

Another common and recommended practice of speeding up your Joomla Website is to turn on the System Cache. For Joomla 2.x and 3.x versions, login to the administrative panel of your website, click on the top "System" link in the left hand corner. Click on Global Configuration and under the "System Tab" turn on conservative or progressive cache handling. Leave the Cache Handler and Cache time to their default values. We recommend starting out at conservative. If after 30 minutes you see no problems with your website displaying correctly, try the progressive caching.

With either selection, you should be able to then test your site again at the above mentioned locations and see an increase in site load times.

Joomla System Cache Plugin

About 60% of the time, we have found that if you also access your plugins under the "Extensions" drop down in the Joomla Admin Panel and turn on the System Cache Plugin, increases in load time have also proven significant when this plugin is enabled. However, it has also been known to break sites. Sometimes the breaks are not apparent. It is always important once any cache has been turned on, wait approximately 15-30 minutes and then recheck your website. We also recommend checking your website in different browsers and even on different computers just in case the cache messed up your website. If this is the case, turn the system cache plugin off and contact a Joomla Website Developer.

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