Does speed matter in sales? Yes, because your shoppers always expect an ideal page load time - 2-5 seconds. Mobile users are even more demanding. They want to start using the page in no more than 2 seconds.
It is to your advantage to optimize your website speed. Your e-commerce will be benefited from, especially when it comes to 2022. A post-pandemic period. It is time to determine how fast your website could load.
In our post, we want to talk to you about page speed tests and the opportunities to provide a faster and more efficient experience for all your customers irrespective of device. You will be able to compare the 6 fastest Magento 2 themes and determine which one is better for your store.
All right, where do we start?
How does site speed affect sales
Over the last years, we have observed an increased share of users who shopped online due to the coronavirus pandemic. And even now online commerce is more important than ever.
Now, clients are very usability-conscious and very unforgiving of slow-loading websites. Above, we mentioned 2 seconds page load time.
Best we can tell, three-quarters of users are ready to wait 4 or more seconds before abandoning a page. However, in its reports, Google keeps saying that most people bounce after 3 seconds.
Now, what do you get if you win the fast loading time?
- The increased users' engagement.
- The accelerated purchase decision-making.
- The optimal website performance that results in the highest sales conversion rate.
- A high-performing website on both mobile and desktop devices is ranked ahead of competitors.
The one thing is so obvious - the faster your website works, the more you sell. Website speed definitely matters in 2022.
Do you have a clear idea of how fast your site loads?
Before making a decision on how to make your Magento 2 site faster, you can run a speed test. It will help you to monitor the performance and get some optimization recommendations.
There are many Free online tools for website speed testing. Here we will consider 2 sources for analyzing page speed data - GTmetrix and PageSpeed Insights.
Page speed tests
These speed tests show different aspects of speed and load time, based on monitoring metrics. Various metrics allow for understanding where your site performance goes up and down.
At the end of the test, you get sets of scores. Later in the post, we will show you performance scores for some Magento 2 themes. And now let’s talk briefly about how to use speed testing tools.
First, you enter your website URL into the bar.
Google’s Pagespeed Insights
The results of this Google tool are based on analyzing lab data from Lighthouse and field data from the Chrome User Experience report. Field data and Lab data track various performance metrics. Your website performance thus is analyzed in such a way that later Google’s Pagespeed Insights tool provides opportunities for maximum positive changes in page load time.
For instance, the Lighthouse API measures the emulated data, collected in a controlled environment: mobile networks or the predefined devices and network settings. Lab data is helpful for defining what hinders your site performance. The report looks like a lighthouse diagram. It gets updated in real-time as you interact with your website.
Conversely, the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) Report tracks real user experience data on millions of sites. CrUX data come from the registered users. This report measures the diagnostic metrics like Time to First Byte (TTFB) and First Contentful Paint (FCP) as well as the Core Web Vitals metrics. See the full list of metrics.
Data helps to drill down into user experiences grouped by similar technologies. The main CrUX purpose is to enable web developers to compare a real user performance in the scope of competition.
Pagespeed Insights report also includes the opportunities & diagnostics section. Here you receive suggestions to make your page faster. And in the Passed Audits section, you may see what your page is doing right. If you see a long list, that’s nice. It means you use proper ways to improve your website speed.
Well, it was a short description of Google’s Pagespeed Insights tool work. This tool gives you an overall score for both mobile and desktop pages. In the end, you will see a detailed report with color areas. Green = Good, Yellow = Needs Improvement, Red = Poor. Even if the report is technically overwhelming, the results in colorful areas will help you define what slows down your website. Plus, whatever speed metrics results you want to monitor, you can expand each section of the report.
There will be shown how your site is performing in various speed-related areas. In other words, you get scores. A score of 85 or above indicates good performance.
And then you will also be provided with recommendations for improvement.
GTmetrix
This speed tool is also powered by Lighthouse API. In terms of loading, interactivity, and visual stability GTmetrix consists of similar metrics. The GTmetrix Grade is based on a formula, which shows two new percentage-based scores: the Performance Score (70%) and the Structure Score (30%).
But there are a few key differences between Google and GTmetrix tools. Here you can see some of them:
- GTmetrix allows you to customize tests based on location. And Google does tests in servers based on their geographic region only.
- GTmetrix and Google have different CPU/Memory designations for tests. That would affect the metrics.
- The differences in network connections may provide changes in individual metrics.
In order to learn more about the GTmetrix report, visit their website.
And now we want to talk about the opportunities which speed up your website. And that's the Magento 2 themes we'd like to focus on.
How to enhance the Magento performance with a template
Yes, your site template can affect the speed of your Magento 2 site. We'd rather not say too much, but better show you some scores.
Here is a roundup about speed tests and performance scores for 6 Magento 2 themes. Compare and choose the fastest one.
|
Argento |
Breeze Blank |
Claue |
Porto |
Pearl |
Magetique |
|
|
Page speed mobile score |
90% |
97% |
41% |
41% |
39% |
15% |
|
Page speed desktop score |
100% |
99% |
75% |
63% |
85% |
58% |
|
Gtmetrix performance |
99% |
96% |
84% |
68% |
94% |
29% |
|
Gtmetrix Structure |
97% |
97% |
78% |
65% |
93% |
76% |
|
Full load time |
1.1s |
1.4s |
2.4s |
3.7s |
6.6s |
8.5s |
|
Total page size |
0.87MB |
0.817MB |
1.26MB |
4.07MB |
1.92MB |
3.5MB |
|
Total Page requests |
33 |
28 |
43 |
267 |
67 |
56 |
As you will recall, the PageSpeed Insights score of 90 or above is considered awesome. That means your site is nice in interactivity, loading performance, visual stability, and some other metrics.
What template achieved a 90+ PageSpeed score?
When testing the fastest Magento 2 themes, we got the best performance test score with the Argento theme.
Argento theme by SwissUpLabs
Google page speed insight score:
- Mobile score 90
- Desktop score 100
- Performance 99%
- Structure 97%
- Fully Loaded Time - 1.1s
- Total Page Size - 0.87MB
- Total Page Requests - 33
As you will recall, the PageSpeed Insights score of 90 or above is considered good. That means your site is nice in interactivity, loading performance, visual stability, and some other metrics.
What template achieved a 90+ PageSpeed score?
When testing the fastest Magento 2 themes, we got the best performance test score with the Argento theme.
We’ve also tested 5 other Magento 2 themes. Here you can compare them by page speed score.
Free Breeze Blank theme by SwissUpLabs
Breeze Blank is absolutely Free Magento 2 template. The best performance is achieved by CSS and JS optimizations. Besides lightweight CSS, there is RTL support, single-page application (SPA) support, Tailwind 3.0 color palette, responsive images. It is all to enable a fast-loading website. The Blank theme is good to write custom designs.
Google page speed insight score:
- Mobile score 97
- Desktop score 99
- Performance 96%
- Structure 97%
- Fully Loaded Time - 1.4s
- Total Page Size - 0,817MB
- Total Page Requests - 28
Claue theme by ArrowHiTech
Claue template is suitable for different types of eCommerce sites. It includes 27+ homepage layouts, Instant search, Look-book, Popup, Ajax cart, Megamenu, Daily deals, Quick view, color swatches.
Google page speed insight score:
- Mobile score 41
- Desktop score 75
- Performance 84%
- Structure 78%
- Fully Loaded Time - 2.4s
- Total Page Size - 1.26MB
- Total Page Requests - 43
Porto theme by p-themes
Porto template is one more premium theme for Magento 2 stores. Among features you can see Header builder and the Elements page. The Porto theme has a lightweight layout. Some speed optimizations help the template to get a high page load speed score.
Google page speed insight score:
- Mobile score 41
- Desktop score 63
- Performance 68%
- Structure 65%
- Fully Loaded Time - 3.7s
- Total Page Size - 4.07MB
- Total Page Requests - 267
Pearl theme by Wetpixel
Pearl template has 25+ Magento 2 extensions in the package. There are many available features: 14 homepages, 8 catalog templates, 4 pre-built footers, 4 custom headers. that streamline the usability of any kind of eCommerce store.
Google page speed insight score:
- Mobile score 39
- Desktop score 85
- Performance 94%
- Structure 93%
- Fully Loaded Time - 6.6s
- Total Page Size - 1.92MB
- Total Page Requests - 57
Magetique theme by Templates Monster
Magetique template offers different layouts for various types of eCommerce. The theme includes 20 extensions, AMP support, 5 header types and 2 navigation menus.
Google page speed insight score:
- Mobile score 15
- Desktop score 58
- Performance 29%
- Structure 76%
- Fully Loaded Time - 8.5s
- Total Page Size - 3.5MB
- Total Page Requests - 56
After monitoring themes’ scores, you may notice that the Argento theme provides the fastest experience.
So what's the secret of Argento's template to getting high scores?
Key aspects of fast website based on Argento template
Here we listed a few key points which put Argento at the top of the fastest Magento 2 themes.
- There’s no animation for faster load times. And the Lite YouTube Embed was added to use instead of the YouTube iframe. With the feature, the inserted video will load significantly faster.
- The support of Google AMP pages for mobile devices. It restricts HTML/CSS and JavaScript, allowing faster rendering of mobile web pages. Argento theme includes the Accelerated Mobile Pages module to offer a streamlined experience for mobile users.
- Argento comes with image optimization techniques: WebP images support, Lazy loading, prioritizing visible content. With the built-in Page Speed extension, you've got many ways to load website images faster. Optimize your site images for better performance.
- There are no JavaScript-heavy resources in the Argento theme in comparison with the default Magento 2. It makes the template easier to get a high page speed score.
Above we mentioned a lot of speed metrics. When analyzing a site, you can see lab data and field data. As you may remember the field data show the effectiveness of your website in the area of real user experience, not a robot. To monitor a real-world user experience, Google released Core Web Vitals.
Optimizing Magento 2 site for Core Web Vital metrics
Google's Core Web Vitals initiative has a kind of another motivation along with improving page speed.
The Core Web Vitals report answers the questions:
- How fast does the page load?
- How fast until it is interactive?
- How fast until it is stable?
There are 3 metrics that introduce different aspects of the user experience: Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), First Input Delay (FID), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). Read more.
Basically, Google's Core Web Vitals is about quality signals that are crucial to delivering a great user experience on the website. Passing Google's Core Web Vitals test is essential as it has become a new ranking criteria since May 2021.
Also with regard to the Argento theme, it was optimized for Core Web Vital metrics. With the template, you get your Magento 2 store prepared to pass the test and win a ranking rage. Month by month the Argento theme is updated with the new optimizations to enhance LCP, FID, and CLS metrics.
On a final note
Why is your website loading so slow? Yes, we ask questions like this.
Maybe you've already tested your website with Google or other tools. Maybe you've already used speed optimization suggestions. Have they worked for your Magento 2 site?
We are wondering if you know how to make your site faster, keep customers engaged, and still hold top positions in 2022. We expect you to understand that after reading the article.
The best way to improve your site's performance is to use the fastest Magento 2 theme. Please let us know your thoughts and comments on this.
