About the BellaItalia
BellaItalia Food Store, founded by Laura, is dedicated to bringing authentic Italian delicacies to the American market. Laura, originally from southern Italy, and her family launched their webstore in 2014 to expand their beloved family restaurant’s reach. Despite their passion and high-quality products, they faced significant challenges with their online store.
The website had sluggish performance, particularly on mobile devices, with a Google Page Speed score as low. These issues impacted user experience and overall site effectiveness, prompting the need for a comprehensive optimization overhaul to better reflect their commitment to excellence in Italian cuisine.
Expectation from Clients
Our clients anticipated a significant enhancement in their website’s performance to better serve their customers and stay competitive in the market. A major goal was to elevate the mobile Page Speed score significantly, ensuring that users on mobile devices experienced fast and responsive browsing. They expected a noticeable improvement in Core Web Vitals, including Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), to offer a smooth and efficient browsing experience.
Clients aimed for optimized Magento backend configurations to reduce load times and improve overall site stability. They wanted advanced HTTP request optimization and caching strategies to further enhance website speed and performance. Efficient implementation of CDN services and optimization of external JavaScript and tracking codes were also key expectations to ensure minimal impact on page load times.
What Was the Process?
Our team initiated a thorough optimization process to enhance the mobile Page Speed score, increasing it from a modest 12 to over 55. This involved implementing various techniques such as image optimization, minification of CSS and JavaScript files, and improved server response times.
To address the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) issues, we meticulously worked on stabilizing the layout shifts that occurred during page load. This led to achieving a green CLS score of 0, which ensured a more predictable and pleasant user experience.
We focused on optimizing Core Web Vitals, particularly the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), by fine-tuning server response times, optimizing images, and reducing client-side rendering delays. Our team conducted a comprehensive review and optimization of Magento’s backend configurations. We improved performance by optimizing third-party plugins, removing unnecessary core modules, and applying best practices for Magento performance enhancement.
We applied advanced techniques to optimize HTTP requests, including font loading optimizations, gzip compression for assets, lazy loading of JavaScript, and merging/minifying CSS sprites.
To further boost performance, we implemented a Content Delivery Network (CDN). This, along with merging and minifying CSS sprites, helped reduce load times and ensured that content was delivered quickly to users across different locations.
We utilized Varnish and OpCache to enhance full-page caching. This approach not only improved page load speeds but also reduced server load. We reviewed and optimized external JavaScript and tracking codes to ensure they did not adversely affect page load times.
The Result
Google Page Speed Score increased from 12 to over 55.
Achieved a perfect Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) score of 0.
Improved Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and other Core Web Vitals metrics significantly.
Reduced Magento page load times by approximately 40% through backend optimizations and third-party plugin enhancements.
Advanced Optimization Techniques resulting in a 50% reduction in HTTP requests and a 35% increase in overall site speed.
CDN and CSS Sprites merging led to a 45% improvement in content delivery speed.
FPC and OpCache Tuning resulted in a 60% reduction in server load and improved page load times by 50%.
External JS and Tracking Code Optimization reduce their impact on page load times by 30%.
