Building Zen Carts is the bulk of what we do at PRO-Webs, so knowing them well and testing configurations and modules is a big part of what we do. Today I will give you a list of 5 things to make your Zen Cart faster and better performing.

1. The number one thing to do is this list of tweaks and trick to speed up your Zen Cart supplied by Zen-Cart.com. I suggest you follow this great list of Zen Cart configurations closely to make a big difference in your Zen Cart performance.
2. Images are a problem for most store owners… We want them and they slow down our stores. So, I suggest a few tips on images for your Zen Cart: Use images only as big as you really need; reduce the number of colors in images to reduce their file size…. and install Image Handler2 for Zen Cart to cache, compress and re size images easily and efficiently.
3. SQL queries can be a real problem for Zen Cart, your store generates a huge amount of queries for most functions. Reducing the number of queries can be very quickly done using the Query Cache Module from Data Diggers. This module is lite, easy to install and will cache queries for your admin and catalog sections of Zen Cart… In most cases this will drop about 30% off of your query load time.
4. Caching images and queries is great… But add the ability to cache pages and control the cached time is a real load time saver for your Zen Cart. I recommend this Zen Cart performance module from MagneticOne.
5. Lastly, and this one is the easiest of all…. Backup your database weekly and then under Tools in your Zen Cart administration section, select the Store Manager and do these 2 things weekly to help maintain the performance level of your store and database. First, the very top button for Empty Admin Activity Log table from the database: Click reset; Then the last selection on the page is Optimize Database:  Click Confirm… Do this is a non peak period.

There you have it… Quick easy and very inexpensively make your Zen Cart Cook!

We are not affiliated with MagneticOne in any way and make this recommendation based on our experience with the module and its ability to cache and speed your Zen Cart up. We have received no compensation for this recommendation from MagneticOne or anyone else to say this… It is of our own free will and choice.