How to Boost the Performance and Scalability of Drupal Websites

Performance and scalability are two factors that affect the profitability and impact of a website to a great degree. If your site is slow and cannot accommodate increasing traffic, you’ll undoubtedly lose potential customers which will lead to the inhibition of your business’s growth. After all, research indicates that 40% of people abandon a site that doesn’t load within 3 seconds. Given that, a nimble and scalable website is the need of the hour for any business aspiring to succeed in this highly competitive world. Drupal development is a potent way for building such sites as the CMS is pre-equipped to exhibit fast performance and incredible scalability.

However, as all websites are unique and have different requirements, Drupal's performance and scalability depend on multiple components. In this blog, we’ll examine some of these components and delve into how you can utilize them to boost site speed and scalability. 

5 Components to Focus on For Incredible Drupal Website Performance and Scalability 

1. The Caching system

In simple terms, caching is the process of storing copies of files in a temporary storage also known as cache. This reduces the load time and helps a website deliver incredible performance as no time is wasted re-creating things that haven’t changed since they were accessed the last time. As a cutting-edge CMS, Drupal renders robust Cache API and multitudinous caching layers to empower websites with a nimble performance. 

To leverage the immense potential of Drupal’s caching capabilities, it is imperative for you to define what can be cached, how long it requires to be cached, and so on. Once you align the caching system with your business’s unique needs, you can rest assured that your website will move on an upward spiral of growth. Now, let’s delve into the various layers of caching Drupal development companies can equip your site with.

Different layers of the caching system

Opcode cache

Opcode cache is a backend cache that stores a copy of the compiled PHP script. It can bring a significant improvement in the performance of your Drupal website. 

Browser cache

Browser cache as the name suggests refers to the caching capabilities of the browser. Sensing the need for nimble websites, almost all modern browsers are equipped with capabilities to store copies of multitudinous static assets such as CSS, scripts, images, and other things. However, they can only do so if the server permits them to. The phenomenal benefits of browser caching include a reduction in network traffic and optimization of page load speed. 

Application cache

Application cache refers to the Drupal application cache layer which consists of cache backends and render cache. Optimizing it is an integral requirement for ensuring the unmatchable performance of your Drupal website. Gladly, this is the layer Drupal development companies have the most control over.

Varnish, CDN

Varnish or CDN includes a reverse proxy cache service between Drupal and the browser. It is capable of caching and reusing content generated by Drupal in cases where it doesn’t change from one request to the next. 

For instance, if your homepage content remains the same for every visitor after the generation of HTML by Drupal, the reverse proxy cache service keeps a snapshot and utilizes it to respond to subsequent requests. This doesn’t require Drupal to build the page over and over again and contributes to better website performance.

2. Page weight and performance budgets

Page weight refers to the overall size of the assets that form a webpage in bytes. Smaller page weight is associated with better website performance, so it’s imperative to focus on it. When it comes to performance budget, it refers to the benchmarks for various performance metrics you can set for your website. Page load time, maximum time per database query, and maximum HTTP POST request size are some examples. 

Creating a performance budget is crucial to ensure that the new code and features employed in Drupal website development don’t degrade the website’s performance. It establishes pre-defined results for you and ascertains that you are treading in the right direction. 

3. Contributed modules

The Drupal community persistently strives for top-notch Drupal performance and scalability. The development of contributed modules for boosting website speed and addressing specific areas of concern is a potent step the community has taken in this direction. Given below are some fabulous contributed modules you can leverage to ensure optimal performance of your Drupal site.

Utility modules

These modules empower you to optimize some performance settings and take the core functionality to a whole new dimension. Automatic image optimization is an example of the same.

Monitoring modules

As the name suggests, these modules act as your valuable assistants and monitor your website’s performance for you. They also report any lags or issues with core web vitals.

Debugging modules

These modules play a vital role in debugging tags, cache headers, and contexts. 

4. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

A content delivery network comprises a network of distributed servers that are located in close proximity to the users’ location. These work together to yield fast content delivery. On top of it, these also act as firewalls and render enhanced security to the website against cyberattacks. 

It is imperative to note that in most cases, content delivery networks are an integral part of the hosting solutions provided by Drupal web operations platforms. You can also configure them separately through third-party CDN service providers.

5. Scaling of the server

Scalability refers to the ability of a server to adjust itself to accommodate increasing load in times of need. As your business grows, the traffic to your website will also increase and this will further lead to increased requirement of resources to cater to the increasing load. Server scaling is all about equipping your server with the desired resources such as enhanced memory and storage. Depending upon your preferences, you can either opt for horizontal or vertical scaling or a combination of both. For the uninitiated, both types of server scaling have been discussed below.

Vertical scalability

Vertical scalability deals with adding more resources to a server. This includes increasing things such as memory, storage, and CPU.

 Horizontal scalability

Horizontal scaling deals with increasing the number of servers to divide the load between them. 

Let’s Wrap Up

Drupal performance and scaling depend on several factors such as caching, server scaling, and CDNs. By focusing your attention on all these parameters, you can ensure a nimble performance and incredible scalability for your business website. If you are seeking one of the best Drupal website development companies in the world to boost the performance of your website, you can culminate your search at LN Webworks without any second thoughts. Our developers have successfully equipped thousands of Drupal websites with exceptional performance and scalability. So, contact us today, and let us create the magic for you.