A WordPress site that loads slowly can make people angry, hurt your business, and even drop in the search engine ranks. For a better user experience and better SEO, speed improvement is a must. You can speed up and improve the performance of your WordPress site by following the steps in this complete guide.
1. Pick a hosting company that is fast and reliable.
Your website’s speed is affected by the company that hosts it. Shared hosting can slow down your site because it shares resources with other sites.
Most speed-friendly web hosts:
Kinsta offers fast managed WordPress hosting.
WP Engine is built to work best with WordPress and is optimized for it.
SiteGround has fast servers and speed boosters built right in.
2. Use a WordPress theme that isn’t too heavy.
Your website may load more slowly if it has heavy themes or a lot of code. Pick a theme that is light and well-optimized.
The best WordPress themes for quick loading:
Astra is very fast and can be changed in a lot of ways.
GeneratePress is small and focused on speed.
Neve: Made to be fast and work well on mobile devices.
3. Make images load faster by optimizing them
Your site loads more slowly when you have a lot of big pictures on it. To make things go faster, compress and resize pictures.
How to Make Images Better?
To shrink pictures, use Smush or ShortPixel.
Change pictures to WebP file.
You can delay loading off-screen pictures by using lazy loading.
4. Use an add-on for caching
Plugins that cache your pages store flat versions of them, which makes your site faster and less demanding on the server.
The best plugins for caching WordPress:
WP Rocket is a premium caching tool that is easy to use.
W3 Total Cache is a powerful, free tool for caching.
LiteSpeed Cache: Made to work best with LiteSpeed servers.
5. Combine and shrink CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
Combining cuts down on HTTP requests, and minifying gets rid of letters that aren’t needed in code.
The best plugins for minification are:
Minifying and combining CSS and JavaScript is what Autoptimize does.
WP Rocket: It has tools for minification.
6. Make use of a Content Delivery Network
A CDN saves copies of your website on many servers around the world. This makes it faster for visitors to load.
The best WordPress CDN services are:
Cloudflare has both free and paid plans.
BunnyCDN is cheap and quick.
KeyCDN is a high-performance network for delivering information.
7. Make your database work better
Over time, your WordPress database fills up with useless information that makes your site load more slowly.
How to Make Your Database Work Better?
You can clean up your database with WP-Optimize.
Get rid of post changes, spam comments, and temporary settings.
8. Don’t use too many plugins
Your site may load more slowly if it has too many apps. Leave only the necessary apps and get rid of the rest.
The best ways to manage plugins are:
Turn off and remove plugins that you don’t need.
Instead of using many apps that only do one thing, use a few that can do many things.
Update plugins often to keep them running smoothly.
9. Cut down on HTTP requests
An HTTP request is needed for every part of your site, like pictures, scripts, and styles. Cutting them down makes speed better.
How to Cut Down on HTTP Requests?
Put CSS and JavaScript files together.
Do not use external picture files; instead, use inline SVGs.
Put a limit on how many foreign fonts and icons you use.
10. Turn on Gzip compression
Gzip compression makes files smaller, which makes pages load faster.
How to Make Gzip Compression Work?
To cache your site, use a tool like WP Rocket.
In your.htaccess file, add this code:
11. Wait for or Async JavaScript to Load
When you load JavaScript files at the same time, it can slow down the rendering of pages.
The best plugins to put off JavaScript are:
WP Rocket: It has built-in choices for JS defer and async.
Async JavaScript lets you delay loading JS.
12. Turn off hotlinking
When other websites link straight to your images, they are hotlinking them and using your server’s resources.
How to Stop Hotlinking?
This code needs to be added to your.htaccess file:
13. Set up lazy loading
Lazy loading waits to load videos and pictures until they can be seen in the viewport.
Top Plugins for Lazy Loading:
Lazy Load by WP Rocket is free and doesn’t take up much space.
Smush: It lets you load images slowly and optimizes them.
14. Use a WordPress search that works faster
WordPress’s built-in search is slow and uses a lot of resources.
The Best Search Plugins for WordPress:
Relevant – An easier and faster way to find.
SearchWP is a premium search app that has a lot of extra features.
15. Cut down on external fonts and scripts
When you use too many outside scripts, like Google Fonts, tracking codes, and social media widgets, your website will load more slowly.
How to Make External Scripts Work Better?
Don’t use Google Fonts; instead, host fonts offline.
Get rid of tracking tools that aren’t needed.
Don’t use too many third-party apps.
16. Get the newest version of PHP
If you use an old version of PHP, it can slow down your site and put its security at risk.
How do I change the version of PHP?
Go to Dashboard > Tools > Site Health to see what version you have now.
Your server company can help you get the latest version.
17. Make WooCommerce faster by optimizing it
WooCommerce efficiency is very important if you have an online store.
How to Make WooCommerce Faster:
Cut down on the number of items shown on each page.
Use a caching tool that works with WooCommerce.
Use the Disable Cart Fragments tool to turn off cart fragments.
18. Check and keep an eye on website speed
Test your website’s speed often and make it run better.
Best Tools for Testing Website Speed:
Google PageSpeed Insights looks at your site and offers ways to make it faster.
GTmetrix – Gives thorough reports on performance.
Pingdom checks how long it takes to load from different places.
In conclusion
Making your WordPress site faster makes it easier for people to use, helps your SEO, and increases sales. You can make your site run much faster by picking a fast hosting service, optimizing images, using a CDN, caching, and lowering the number of HTTP calls.
Your WordPress site will stay fast and responsive for guests as long as you keep an eye on it and make changes as needed. Use these tips right away to make your website load very quickly!