WordPress is the most popular content management system available, and it functions really well right out of the box. On the other hand, this does not mean that it does not require optimization for speed because there are many reasons that might slow down a website. You need to speed up your WordPress site if you want to maintain your competitive edge.
After all, a faster website provides a better experience for users and sends positive signals to search engines regarding its SEO performance. Therefore, by optimizing your website, you can raise its ranking on Google’s search results page.
Tips and Plugins to Speed Up Your WordPress Site:
How do you make sure that the pages on your WordPress website are strong, load quickly, and send positive signals to Google? Our team of web designers has created a list of suggestions and free WordPress plugins to help make load times as short as possible.
Free WordPress Plugins for Improving Site Speed:
W3 Total Cache:
W3 Total Cache is the plugin that we recommend using if you want to be sure that your caching plugin is the best that it can be. This will store the most recent versions of your pages in a cache and bring up those versions very quickly. This results in a huge increase in the amount of time it takes for a page to load since your server no longer needs to construct the various elements that go into making up the web page each time a visitor to your website requests a certain page.
Content Delivery Network (CDN):
It is not a good idea to connect a user who is located in Raleigh, North Carolina with a server that is located in San Diego, California. This is going to take a huge amount of time. By utilizing a content delivery network (CDN) like Amazon Cloudfront, you can make certain that your webpages and the components of those webpages (such as JavaScript, pictures, and so on) are served from the location that is geographically nearest to the user.
WP-Optimize:
Maintaining a high level of site maintenance is absolutely necessary if you want your pages to load quickly. WP-Optimize removes unused data that is slowing down your website and cleans up your database. This can include things like spam comments, post drafts and modifications, pingbacks, trackbacks, and content that has not been approved. Additionally, it will optimize MySQL on a weekly basis and defragment the database.
Smush. it:
Never put your trust in WordPress to reduce the size of your images for you. Even though the size of an image may appear to be quite small on your screen, this does not necessarily mean that it has a small data footprint. Even This WordPress plugin may help you squeeze that final image reduced in weight out for you, and it’s automated! If you can lower the weight of an image through the optimizations in Photoshop, then this plugin is for you. Always make sure to squish it! This will result in a reduction in loading time.
Revision Control:
WordPress is wonderful since it keeps a record of all the updates you make to your posts and ensures that you never throw away your hard work. Nevertheless, there is a catch to it. All of those revisions, or saved drafts, are still present in your database, which could potentially slow down the performance of your website. You have the ability to manually establish a limit on the number of stored revisions via the Revision Control feature. A helpful hint is that you will rarely require more than four or five.
Be Careful about Plugins!
When it comes to plugins, you want to practice Utmost DISCRETION in your choice. Your web pages may also receive additional CSS and JavaScript files as a result of installing many plugins. It is normal practice for them to query your WordPress database on each page load. Additionally, make sure that any previous plugins that you no longer use are deactivated and uninstalled. Simply turn off and remove the software!
Other Tips to Increase Your WordPress Site’s Speed:
Choose a Good Host:
A bad hosting service can slow down your website and possibly cause it to become offline for several hours at a time. We recommend using Hostinger, which is optimized specifically for WordPress installations if you are interested in achieving the highest level of speed possible from your website. It’s possible that the web design company that created your site also provides hosting services as part of an all-inclusive package agreement.
Choose a Lightweight Theme:
There are times when little is more. In spite of the fact that goofy extra features and widgets may lure you, go for a style that is as simple as possible. This will make navigating and loading the page simpler and quicker. If you use Flashy themes on your website, you may notice a decrease in performance and may come to the conclusion that your website does not rank highly in search engine results.
Optimize Homepage for Quick Loading:
The homepage of a website is typically the page that is the most resource-intensive and the slowest to load. Consider adopting a simple and uncomplicated mode of style. Maintain a clutter-free environment for users to interact with, and enhance their overall experience by ensuring that pages load quickly for them.
Reduce the number of posts that are displayed on your site and make sure that excerpts are displayed rather than full posts at all times. A homepage that is clear and concise will make it easier to navigate the site, reduce the amount of time it takes for pages to load, and lower the percentage of visitors who leave without clicking anything.
Disable Pingbacks and Trackbacks:
It is beneficial to your site’s search engine optimization, or SEO when other websites link back to your page. Creating links within your own website is another something that should be prioritized. Pingbacks, on the other hand, can make your website more difficult to use. Backlinks will continue to function normally even if you disable pingbacks and trackbacks; this will only affect your notification system.
Note that certain themes will aesthetically show pingbacks and trackbacks in a manner that is comparable to the comments section of an article. If this is the case with the theme that you have chosen, you might think about keeping this option active.
Minimize HTTP Requests:
Pictures and charts have the potential to boost engagement, but they also have the potential to slow you down. You shouldn’t load your page with photos that aren’t necessary. If you want to construct a page that is heavy on photos, you should be sure to optimize all of the images by utilizing Smush. to reduce the amount of time it takes for the page to load for the first time.
Cleanup WordPress Database:
When you delete material that isn’t needed, it helps keep the overall size of the file manageable and also contributes to making your backups smaller. In addition to that, you need to get rid of any comments that are spam, any bogus users, and any old drafts of your work.
