Magento 2.0 scalability - better performance for your shop
Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento) scaling takes on many faces. You could say that it is a multidimensional issue. Depending on what your goals are, you can speed up your system, optimise your SEO or make your shop able to welcome many more visitors. In this article, I will cover these 3 most important elements of scaling Magento.
Accelerating Magento
Sometimes we come across the opinion that Magento doesn't run fast. I'll demur to say that this is a myth. If your Magento is running slow, it is not the fault of Magento itself, but of an improper installation.
So what can you do to make Magento run fast?
First, you need to identify what the cause is. To do this, you need to analyse how long each step of the application execution takes. This can be done by your IT department or by hired specialists. In either case, however, it is a good idea to install APM on your servers. Such a system will tell you exactly how much time the server is spending on each step of the website service.
With this knowledge, potentially what you will need to do is:
- improve the configuration of the servers or migrate to a perfectly adapted infrastructure such as Monogo Cloud.
- Improve the performance of the modules that are running the slowest or feel that they should not be running so slowly. Alternatively, look for similar modules that meet business requirements.
- remove unnecessary modules.
- separate the Magento backend (backoffice) from the frontend. Ideally switch to headless, which provides better optimisation capabilities and uses the Magento API. This way, there is no part of Magento components in the page rendering, as we only use the API.
5 Switch to lazy-loading of media (images). - optimise images using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms -> I encourage you to take a look at our media optimisation product.
- Move away pages that contain too much content.
After these steps, your shop on Magento will definitely run faster. Not all points will apply in every case. However, this is a typical Monogo optimisation list. We apply it like a Magento performance checklist.
Better SEO in Magento
Better SEO means more organic traffic. There are no miracles here, you need to bet on two elements:
- SEO optimisation,
- systematic creation of new content (preferably once a week or more often).
In our experience, it doesn't really matter which element you start with. Content creation and all the processes involved are challenging for many organisations. Do not look for excuses in the form of SEO to hold back the introduction of a culture and strategy for new content creation (Content Strategy).
Of course, it is good to write anything that has great SEO right away. But from our perspective, it is more important to start producing content as soon as possible. This will ensure that the search engines index a huge number of key phrases that will yield results after a few months.
Implementing the content strategy in the organisation itself will also take some time. Therefore, running SEO optimisation as well as content production concurrently is the best solution. But if we have to choose between the two then we would strongly recommend creation.
How does this apply in the context of Magento? Whether with Magento alone or with Headless, the current solutions on the market support SEO very well. However, you can read what SEO meta-data elements need to be correctly entered on each page at this link: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
Magento welcomes more visitors
When your online shop is unable to accommodate large numbers of visitors this introduces unnecessary nervousness at many levels of the organisation.
To avoid this, perform a performance test. In a controlled environment, ask your specialists or your IT department to check the level of concurrent visitors that leads to your site shutting down or slowing down significantly.
If you are not satisfied with the results, it only makes sense to increase the power of your infrastructure. Discuss with your IT department whether moving to a Kubernetes (K8S) solution is possible.
This solution will enable your infrastructure to scale automatically when your e-commerce traffic increases. Monogo Cloud, for example, has built-in auto-scaling mechanisms. This way, you don't have to worry during promotional periods such as black friday that sites will stop working.
Summary
The issue of Magento optimisation is a complex technical and business issue. Fortunately, most of the work can be carried out at a technological level. However, it is not excluded that some business decisions will have to be made.
To take care of organic traffic, start creating content. If you don't know how to start, get help from specialists. At Monogo, we have a unique programme that lasts 2 weeks and leads to the publication of your first article. After that, in cycles even internally, you will be able to create content. Systematically, because that's the most important thing.