How to fix low performance score on PrestaShop

Steps for PrestaShop

1. Enable CCC (Combine, Compress, Cache): Admin → Back Office → Advanced Parameters → Performance → CCC → enable 'Smart cache for stylesheets', 'Smart cache for JavaScript', 'Minify HTML', and 'Compress inline JavaScript in HTML'.
2. Enable browser caching: Advanced Parameters → Performance → Browser cache → set to enabled.
3. Optimise images: Catalog → (any product) → Images tab — PrestaShop has a built-in image resizer; also install a free module like WebP Images by MyPrestaModules to serve WebP format.
4. Place PrestaShop behind Cloudflare (free tier): update your domain's DNS nameservers to Cloudflare for automatic CDN, GZIP, and caching.
5. Remove unused modules: Modules → Module Manager → disable and uninstall any module not actively in use — modules inject JS/CSS on every page load.
6. Re-test with PageSpeed Insights.

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.