Web performance is the key to have high ranking websites. With the introduction of SEO, almost everyone wants their website to secure top position in Google SERP. To make it happen, there are a few things that should be paid attention to by the developers so that they can create well-optimized websites. WordPress and Drupal are two of the most commonly used content management system platform. Knowing which platform is apt for your website depends largely on your goals that are both short-term and long-term. If you are looking for an open-source platform that provides user-friendly solutions to all your CMS needs, then you can choose to use either platform.
If you consider asking others to take their help in making an appropriate decision, then you will get mixed answers on which platform is the fairest. Thus, it is best to decide on your own which platform will be the best. Drupal has great popularity in the web development industry and it is also widely used CMS. It is an open-source CMS and offers several features that are perfect for creating and developing websites. Such websites are believed to stand out among others. Websites developed with the help of Drupal are scalable, secure and flexible.
When you want to attract more website visitors and keep them engaged, there is only one thing you need to pay attention to. It is faster loading web pages. Users don’t wait too long for a website to load. They lack so much patience and the level of impatience is not measured in seconds, rather in milliseconds.
Hence, we go through five major ways that will help you improve your Drupal Development and it will eventually improve the performance of your website. Continue reading to know more –
●Drupal’s Cache - The best way to improve the performance of your website is to use Drupal’s built-in caching. The feature is turned off by default and therefore, it is being missed by the developers that have just started using Drupal. Enable caching for your website from settings. After the option is enabled, Drupal sorts the entire database into a different unique table which is used to respond faster. However, it should be kept in mind that Drupal creates duplicated data for the information that is already there in the database and the copies often get out of sync with underlying data. Clear all cache button will help Drupal to retrieve the latest data as the cache is rebuilt.
●Boost - Boost module helps to improve the development and procedure of a website to a great extent. The boost module is believed to work well in environments of shared hostings. Though if you are not familiar with working on the Drupal platform then using the module can be a bit hectic. Boost helps to make a website much faster than caching does. Though it should be noted that Boost works great only for anonymous users, so if you already have a lot of authenticated users, this solution is not appropriate for you.
●Varnish Cache – Another great way of making your Drupal website perform better. Varnish Cache helps to supercharge the performance of your website. Additional software is installed in this module. This procedure is quite technical and a well-versed developer is needed for great results. The investment made is worth the performance delivered. Web pages are served at a rate that is much faster than Apache. It can offer a view of around 3000 pages per second. Varnish works great with Drupal 7. Though details should be checked before implementing.
●Memcached – Memcached is an advanced solution that helps to improve Drupal Development procedures and the performance of a website also improves. Though it is not for everyone. Memcached doesn’t work in an environment of shared hosting. Secondly, there is a need to install and configure additional software on the server. If you don’t have permission to do this then assistance from the system administrator is needed. It has three components, the Memcached software, Drupal Memcache and a PHP extension. All of these work together to deliver outstanding results. It has been reported by several developers that when Memcached and boost are used together, they deliver tremendous results. So, if your website has several users that contain both anonymous and authenticated users, using Boost and Memcached together will be the best solution.
●MongoDB – There are several ways in which the development of a Drupal website can be improved instead of just using caching. MongoDB is a database that is similar to a “No SQL” type and it can be used in a Drupal website. This simply means that there is no need for a MySQL database at the back-end. Records are not stored by the database, instead, JSON documents are stored in the database system. Another characteristic of MongoDB is that the database is stored in the memory. You might think that if the data is kept in memory then there are chances of losing it when the server crashes. With the introduction of the latest version, a small tweak in the configuration will solve the issue. Though NoSQL Databases are not for everyone, they work well for large production sites.
Wrapping up
You must have noticed something as a developer. Improved development and additional speed come at a price. So, if you are not the owner of a server or are a dedicated system administrator, it’s time that you will need to invest time and money to get a few things at the place. To start from the very least, your website should have Drupal’s built-in system caching module enabled. If you observe that it is not providing desired results, switch to boost which is relatively helpful in improving Drupal development for a website. Several factors affect the performance and development of a website, hence, a few things should be kept in mind always. The website should be cached properly, unused modules are removed and images are of the correct size. These things along with apt bandwidth usage will drive your Drupal Website faster.
Author’s Bio:
I’m currently working as Content Manager with WebWorld Experts India. I have a great passion for digital marketing and I help small and medium-sized businesses improve their online presence and grow their revenue by formulating effective digital marketing strategies for them. Apart from Digital Marketing, I have a keen interest in Responsive Website Design India, Web Development, Graphic Design, Web Application Development technology, etc.