How To Increase Speed of a WordPress Website!
Good Day! Firstly to programmers who don’t like WordPress, try it for some days. It makes life easier. For now, We will see how to speed up/increase the performance of a WordPress website.
Faster websites, Why?
Obviously, Faster Websites keep more audiences. Slower Websites bore them. Optimizations are done in order to make a website faster. if it’s a WordPress website then it’s a must!
Complete WordPress websites are heavier than normal websites. The reason is, it contains multiple plugins and needs a theme too. On the other hand, there is a load of images and videos.
1. Beware of your Hosting (Most Important)
A good hosting provider makes your website very fast. No matter what you do, if you have crappy hosting or you have lots of websites under one hosting, Your website will remain slow.
There are 3 options here-
- Change your hosting provider
- Upgrade your hosting package
- Get a VPS hosting or Dedicated Server (VPS is enough. Dedicated server not really needed in most cases)
These hosting providers are good for WordPress-
- DreamHost or SiteGround: Any of These 2 hosting providers is the best for WordPress. They are already recommended by WordPress. Their pricing may be a little higher but it is totally worth it.
- BlueHost: They are also recommended by WordPress. Their pricing is fair. It doesn’t have a speed optimizer like Siteground. But, It does a good job.
- GreenGeeks: Love their support system! I tried GreenGeeks for 2 years and overall, it did good work. Pricing is good. But, you shouldn’t buy very cheap plans though.
- NameCheap: If you want good hosting at a great price, It’s best for you. Their price is low, but don’t underestimate the quality.
If your website is very heavy and handles big operations, data then you should get a VPS plan of these hostings.
2. Compressing & Lazy-Loading Images, videos (2nd Important)
Compressing & Lazy-load images are one of the most important optimizations. It is the best optimization method after Hosting.
There are 2 options for compression-
- Compress all images and upload them on WordPress.
- Use a compression plugin so that all images are automatically compressed after uploading.
If you want to go with the 1st method, you can use tinypng.com, tinyjpg.com, reduceimages.com or you can also use any photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop.
The best image compressing plugins are OptiMole, wp smush, short pixel adaptive images, WP Rocket. I recommend using Short Pixel Adaptive Images. It is a lightweight plugin. And, if you can spend a few bucks, the WP rocket is the best. It does all the optimization works, not only the compression.
Lazy Loading
Lazy Loading is great. When you visit a Website, the top occurs first. Then you scroll and gradually progress down. In some cases, you may not even have to go down and can get what you need just from the top.
In that situation, it makes no sense to load all the images of the webpage. That’s when lazy loading shines. It only loads the images when you need to see them. It reduces the load of the page and initially makes it fast.
Popular Image compression plugins provide the lazy loading feature. You don’t have to worry. If you have any premium optimization plugin, they probably should provide video lazy-loading too.
3. Use Light Themes & Plugins
Try to use plugins and themes that don’t consume too much speed.
For example- If you want to build a full website with only the Elementor, there is no point to use big themes like Avada. Just install the Hello Elementor theme.
Instead of Wordfence, Use the IThemes Security plugin. Instead of WP Bakery Page Builder, you can use the default WordPress Editor. Also, remove unused plugins and disabled themes.
4. Use CDN
CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. The most popular CDNs are CloudFlare and StackPath. Learn more about CDN by searching on the internet.
Cloudflare is my personal favorite. If you have SiteGround, You can set Cloudflare very easily. It provides minification, CDN, and lots of other features.
5. Use a lightweight cache plugin
Cache Plugins does its work when users visit your website. When a request to the server is sent, it caches the data, and thus, repetition is avoided. That’s the basic definition.
There are many free cache plugins like W3 Total Cache, WP Fastest Cache, Autoptimize, WP Rocket, etc. If you can buy it, I strongly recommend WP Rocket. For a free one, W3 Total Cache is fine and does multiple tasks.
If you want a plugin that does very few works but is lightweight, Autoptimize is great. It doesn’t do many tasks like W3 Total cache, that’s why it’s small in size.
6. Get the help of GTMetrix
GTMetrix, the savior! Go to their website. They offer free speed checks and Give Grades too. They give percentage-wise scores along with load time.
Now, you can use GTMetrix for increasing your website speed too. I always use GTMetrix. They give some Warnings and have a waterfall section which tells you what is consuming the speed and what to do.
Now, check the warnings and do the fixings. Go to the waterfall section, get familiar with it. Use it to detect bulldozers.
If you fix most of the issues, Congratulations! Your website is on light speed!
Full Optimizations without extra plugins
Here is a better solution. Did you recognize that if you install CDN, cache plugins, image optimizer plugin, database cleaning plugins, there will be dozens of plugins and your website might even get slower instead of getting fast!
Solution: Don’t use multiple plugins for doing the same task. Don’t use more than 1 CDN.
BEST SOLUTION: Buy WP ROCKET. It will do the same task that will be done with 10–12 plugins. It's definitely worth it!
Now, If you want an expert who will make your website very fast instead of doing these yourself, You can hire me too. Contact me on my new Fiverr Account (I’m Not Spamming)
Also, If you have any questions
/ if you want a professional website done
/ or do some graphics/marketing strategy work
/ or any help in your online business
/ or a buddy who will do some teaching,
You can contact me at getsamionweb@gmail.com
Please don’t think I am spamming or trying to highly promote myself, But if you think it’s a good idea, Feel free to contact me.
