Are you tired of your WordPress site running slow? Do you want to improve your site’s speed and performance? If you’re a WordPress site owner, you’ve likely experienced the frustration of dealing with a slow-loading website. But fear not! With the right approach, you can transform your sluggish site into a speed demon, leaving visitors impressed and your business thriving.
In this article, we’ll go over 10 steps that you can take to speed up your WordPress site and get it running faster than ever before.
1. Monitor Website’s Speed
The very first step to verify your website speed is to regularly audit your site’s performance.
For that, you can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to identify and address any performance bottlenecks
You may be wondering what is a good web speed to aim for after you have run your site Speed Test?
If your page loads under 2 seconds, then it’s a good result.
2. Choose a Reliable Hosting Provider
Selecting the best hosting company is the first step towards having a fast website. Your hosting provider is responsible for storing your website’s data and delivering it to visitors efficiently. If your hosting provider is slow or unreliable, it will directly impact your website’s performance.
It’s also important to understand some basics difference between hosting type, for example, Shared x VPS (Dedicated), Web Servers used by the hosting (Apache, NGINX or Litespeed). We have a very helpful article to guide you choosing the Ideal WordPress Hosting
Opt for a provider with robust infrastructure and tailored solutions for optimal performance.
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3. Optimize Your Images
Images are often the culprits behind slow-loading WordPress sites. Large, unoptimized images can take ages to load, dragging down your website’s overall performance.
To prevent this, ensure your images are compressed and appropriately sized for your website.
Ideally, ensure your images extension are in webp format, as it’ll reduce the size of the image without losing quality.
For a better image optimization, you can use a plugin like Smush or EWWW Image Optimizer.
4. Leverage Caching Plugins
WordPress pages are generated dynamically, meaning that every time a user access a page or posts, a request will be sent to the server, passing through a few stages until it delivers that page/post to the user.
This whole process can slow down the page load, and that is why we recommend a caching plugin to optimize the page load.
A caching plugin can help to speed up your WordPress site by caching your site’s pages and posts.
Caching plugins will create static copies of your website’s dynamic content, reducing the time it takes to generate and deliver pages to visitors.
Popular caching plugins include WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, and Cache Enabler.
5. Implement Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN strategically distributes your website’s static content, such as images, CSS, and JavaScript files, across a network of servers worldwide. This means that visitors can access your content from the server closest to them, significantly reducing loading times.
Choosing a CDN provider will depend on the popularity and needs of your website. The most used CDN providers include Cloudflare, Akamai or MaxCDN.
6. Enable Gzip Compression
Gzip compression can help to reduce the size of your site’s files, which can improve your site’s speed and performance. For Gzip compression, you can use a plugin like WP Performance Score Booster.
It’s important to check if Gzip compression is enabled in your hosting via control panel. If you have any question about Gzip enablement, please contact your hosting.
7. Optimize Your Database
Over time, your WordPress database can become cluttered with unnecessary data, such as spam comments and outdated revisions.
Optimizing your database can help to speed up your WordPress site by reducing the size of your database and removing unnecessary data. A lean database contributes to a faster site.
To optimize your database, you can access the phpMyAdmin from your control panel. This involves a manual process, so if you are uncertain on how to manage these steps, we recommend using plugins like WP-Optimize or Advanced Database Cleaner. These plugins can remove spam comments, SQL queries as well as old revision from pages and posts.
8. Minimize Your CSS and JavaScript Files
Static source code like HTML, CSS and JavaScript can be built up and compromise your site speed.
Trim the excess baggage from your site’s code. Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files to reduce their size, promoting quicker load times and a smoother browsing experience.
You can try plugins like WP rocket or Autoptmize to optimise your code and reduce any unnecessary characters, like spaces, line breaks, and comments.
9. Disable Unused Plugins and Themes
While plugins are powerful tools, too many active plugins can bog down your website. Unused plugins and themes can slow down your WordPress site by adding unnecessary code.
To disable unused plugins and themes, you can go to the Plugins or Appearance section of your WordPress dashboard.
Regularly review your plugins and disable any that are inactive or unnecessary.
10. Keep WordPress, Plugins and Themes Updated
Outdated WordPress versions, plugins and themes can contain security vulnerabilities and performance issues. Stay current with the latest updates to benefit from performance enhancements, bug fixes, and security patches.
In addition to it, ensuring the site is running on the latest version of PHP will keep your site secure and optimized. You can refer to the PHP Suported Version documentation to confirm that your site is not running on a vulnerable PHP version.
A well-maintained site is a fast and secure site.
Conclusion
By implementing these 10 steps, you can transform your WordPress site from a slow-loading burden into a speedy asset for your business. Remember, a fast website is a happy website, and happy websites attract more visitors, convert more leads, and ultimately, generate more revenue. So, don’t let a slow website hold your business back. Take action today and unleash the true potential of your WordPress site!
Have you implemented any of these strategies to speed up your WordPress site? Share your experiences and insights with us in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!
