Drupal Speed Optimisation – 5 Proven Ways to Make Your Site Faster

why Drupal speed matters for SEO and UX

Having a fast Drupal website is important for three key reasons:

• SEO: speed is one of the factors used by search engines to rank websites; faster sites are prioritised on search engine results pages and therefore tend to gain more organic traffic
• User satisfaction: people have short attention spans and expect websites to load quickly, with up to 50% of users exiting a site if there’s a two second delay in loading
• User engagement: faster sites have better user engagement, such as page views and conversions

With these important factors in the mix, wanting to maximise your Drupal website speed is a no-brainer! A faster website will result in more visitors, happier users and increased conversions – and it may even boost your profits.

how to check Drupal site speed with GTMetrix

Before we start optimising Drupal speed, it’s a good idea to get a baseline of your current website performance.

We recommend using GTmetrix, which is a great, free online tool. Simply go to the GTmetrix website, type in your URL and click ‘Test your site’.

A performance report will be generated, including two speed scores – PageSpeed and YSlow. By navigating through the tabs, you’ll also find lots of speed and performance tips. The ‘Priority’ column gives a helpful indication as to which actions should be taken first.

As well as testing your homepage, it’s also worth checking the speed of any other important or high-traffic pages on your Drupal website. Make sure to note down your speed scores (or sign up for a GTmetrix account) so you can keep track of speed changes and improvements over time.

Top 5 ways to speed up your Drupal site

We now share our top five tips for optimising your Drupal website’s speed…

1. Enable caching

   Caching involves storing your website’s data in a local storage space, aka cache. This means creating a snapshot of your website pages and files when they are displayed for the first time, so they can be loaded more quickly for future website visits.

   Browser caching – the main type of caching – is where internet browsers hold the most recently downloaded webpages in their caches. This means they don’t have to re-download your site files every time your site is requested and thus giving your Drupal website a massive speed boost.

   Browser caching is enabled by default for Drupal 8 and 9. To enable caching for Drupal 7 and earlier versions, you’ll need to go to Configuration > Performance > Caching.

   Whatever Drupal version you’re using, we also recommend installing Advanced CSS/JS Aggregation. This module offers advanced catching options to boost your site’s speed even further, though it can take quite a bit of tweaking to find the best settings for your site.

2. Select rapid hosting

   Hosting providers store your website’s files on a server and provide infrastructure to enable your site to function online.

   Whenever a user types in or clicks on your URL, the relevant browser requests your site files from your server. Your host then processes and responds to this request, this enabling your site to be displayed.

   How quickly your site loads depends on how quickly your hosting provider is able to process browser requests and provide site files. Speed is also affected by the geographical location of your server – with shorter distances between server and user increasing site speed.

   There are many factors to consider when choosing a hosting provider, including cost, type of hosting and security – but make sure to factor in speed too. If you’ve made lots of other speed optimisations and your Drupal site is still slow, try upgrading your hosting package or seeking a new provider.

   If your site regularly receives visitors from different, widely geographically-spread countries, it may also be worth setting up a Content Delivery Network (CDN). This is a network of servers worldwide, thus reducing the distance your website files need to travel to users in different locations.

   For more information about CDNs, speak to your hosting provider, contact us or read this great GTmetrix article.

3. Compress images

   The heavier your site, the longer it takes to load. Images are usually the largest, slowest website elements, so it’s vital to compress them and reduce file sizes to optimise Drupal website speed.

   For best practice, crop and edit images to fit their intended purpose on your site, before uploading. Pixlr and Resize Image are great, free online image resizing tools for this purpose. For example, if you only need a thumbnail, upload a thumbnail-sized image and not a 10MB high-quality file!

   If your website uses Drupal 7 or an earlier version, it’s also worth installing a module such as Image Optimize to further compress imagery and improve site speed. For Drupal 8 and later versions, the Drupal core automatically resizes and scales site images to maximise speed.

   Another great way to boost website speed is with lazy-loading, where images below the fold are not loaded until a user scrolls down. To enable this feature, simply install Drupal’s Lazy-load module.

4. Keep modules up-to-date

   Surplus or outdated modules are another common way in which Drupal websites are slowed down.

   Drupal beginners often think that fewer modules means a faster site. But actually, it’s the quality and usefulness of installed modules is much more important than the quantity.

   You can check if any specific modules are slowing down your site by disabling each module individually and then running a speed test with GTmetrix. This will help you weigh up whether a module’s features and functions are worth any reduction in site speed.

   It’s also important to update modules to the latest versions to ensure your site is as rapid as possible. You can find out if any updates are currently needed by going to Reports > Available updates and clicking ‘Check manually’.

5. Optimise background processes

   Our final tip to boost Drupal speed is about scheduling and optimising background website processes.

   Background processes are continually taking place to keep everything running smoothly on your Drupal website. These include publishing scheduled content, making backups, and blocking hacking attempts.

   As you’d expect, the more background processes taking place at the same time, the more your site will be slowed down. In particular, backups take a up a lot of bandwidth, so you should these are schedule these for low-traffic times, such as during the night.

   To further optimise site speed, the Background Process module is well-worth installing. It provides lots of options for scheduling which background processes take place and when.

FAQs about Drupal site speed

Why is my Drupal site running slow?

There are many reasons why a Drupal site may run slowly, including outdated modules, inefficient database queries, large image files, poorly configured caching, or an overloaded hosting environment. Identifying the root cause typically involves performance auditing and analysis.

What are the main factors that affect Drupal site performance?

Key factors include server resources, caching configuration, the quality of contributed or custom modules, image and media optimisation, frontend assets (CSS/JS), database efficiency, and the number of users or concurrent processes. Site architecture and hosting setup also play major roles.

Does the Drupal version affect performance?

Yes. Newer versions of Drupal,  especially Drupal 9 and 10, offer significant performance improvements over earlier versions. They feature more efficient code, better caching, and improved support for modern hosting environments. Keeping your Drupal core and modules up to date is essential for optimal performance and security.

How does Drupal performance compare to WordPress?

Drupal and WordPress can both perform well when optimised properly. However, Drupal is typically used for more complex, data-heavy websites, which can require more robust performance tuning. WordPress may feel faster out of the box for smaller sites, but Drupal offers more advanced scalability and customisation options when managed correctly.

Can I lazy-load images in Drupal?

Yes. Drupal supports lazy loading of images, which can significantly improve page load speed, especially on content-heavy pages. Native lazy loading is built into core for recent versions of Drupal, and additional options are available through contributed modules like Lazy-load and Image Lazyloader.

How can I improve performance on Drupal multisite installations?

Optimising a multisite setup involves ensuring each site uses efficient caching, minimising duplicated or unnecessary modules, and monitoring database usage carefully. Shared resources (such as file systems or memory) must be well-managed to avoid one site impacting others. A centralised performance strategy helps maintain consistency across sites.

Which modules are known to slow down Drupal sites?

Some modules, particularly those that perform real-time calculations, extensive logging, or third-party API calls, can introduce delays. Examples include Devel, Views with exposed filters, Statistics, and poorly configured Rules or Feeds modules. It’s important to audit regularly and disable unused or unnecessary modules.

How can I monitor Drupal performance in real time?

You can monitor Drupal performance using tools like New Relic, Blackfire, or Tideways, which provide detailed insights into server response times, database queries, and application bottlenecks. Drupal-specific modules like Monitoring or Performance Monitor can also help you track site metrics within the admin interface.

We hope you enjoyed this blog about how to boost your Drupal website speed. For more expert Drupal tips, read our ultimate Drupal optimisation guide covering everything you need to know about optimising and maintaining your Drupal website.

Or, for on-demand Drupal support from an award-winning agency with more than two decades of experience, please get in touch.