How to fix low performance score on Magento Open Source

Steps for Magento Open Source

1. Enable full-page cache: Admin → System → Cache Management → enable 'Full Page Cache'; configure Varnish via Admin → Stores → Configuration → Advanced → System → Full Page Cache.
2. Enable JS/CSS minification: Admin → Stores → Configuration → Advanced → Developer → set Minify JavaScript Files and Minify CSS Files to Yes (use in production mode only).
3. Set up a CDN: configure static and media base URLs to point to a CDN endpoint in Admin → Stores → Configuration → General → Web.
4. Compress images in bulk using a free Magento 2 extension (e.g., Kraken Image Optimizer) or pre-process images before uploading to pub/media/.
5. Enable GZIP at the server level in your Nginx config: add 'gzip on; gzip_types text/css application/javascript image/svg+xml;' to the server block, then reload Nginx.
6. Run bin/magento deploy:mode:set production and bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy to bundle and minify all static assets.
7. Monitor performance with PageSpeed Insights after each change.

What is low performance score?

The Lighthouse Performance Score (shown in Google's PageSpeed Insights tool) is a single number from 0–100 that summarises how fast your web page loads and responds for real users — especially on mobile. It is calculated from five timing metrics, with the three Core Web Vitals (Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift) carrying the most weight. A score below 50 is considered "Poor" by Google; a score above 90 is "Good." Think of it as a health-check report card for your page's speed: every point you gain means real customers are waiting less and leaving less.

Google officially uses page experience signals — including Core Web Vitals — as a ranking factor, meaning a very low score can directly suppress your position in search results and reduce organic traffic. Beyond rankings, a slow page destroys conversions: industry data consistently shows that each additional second of load time drops conversion rates by 10–20 %, and mobile shoppers are the most sensitive. A score of 8/100 on mobile means the vast majority of your mobile visitors are likely bouncing before they even see your products, costing you both ad spend and organic sales. Closing this gap is one of the highest-ROI technical improvements an ecommerce store can make.

See the complete Low performance score guide for every platform and the full background.