How to Speed Up WordPress Website Performance (7 Amazing Tricks)

“How to Increase Website Speed WordPress” is an undeniably popular topic these days.

In a world where people want things instantly, waiting for slow websites can be frustrating. Imagine visitors coming to your site and waiting for it to load – not a good experience, right?

This is where the significance of a WordPress website with swift loading times shines. Such a site keeps both users and search engines satisfied, ultimately enhancing your company’s success. 

Additionally, page speed significantly influences search engine rankings, including Google, and the overall user experience. If your website is slow to load, expect increased bounce rates and potential SERP performance issues.

In order to speed up your WordPress site, you can use a variety of speed optimization techniques. In this post, we’ll share every tip we know about speeding up WordPress websites.

So, let’s get started…

Why It’s Important to Ensure WordPress Speed Optimization?

Since the beginning of the internet, many things have changed. Today’s users anticipate considerably quicker loading speeds, and your website should align with these expectations. In fact, to make sure your site is fast and performs well, WordPress speed optimization is crucial for improving website performance and user experience. Slow-loading websites can lead to a drop in number of visitors who stick around, which can negatively affect your bottom line.

Here are key reasons highlighted with the specified keywords – 

• Slow-loading websites often lead to visitor abandonment, with a one-second delay causing a 7% decrease in conversions.
• Search engines like Google consider page loading speed when ranking websites, meaning faster sites tend to rank higher in search results.
• High bounce rates, where visitors leave without exploring other pages, may signal poor performance. 
• Speedier websites can reduce bounce rates and keep visitors engaged.
• Faster websites tend to have improved conversion rates, with visitors more likely to take desired actions like making a purchase or signing up for newsletters.
• Speedier websites can also reduce server load, potentially saving hosting costs.

Also Read: Speed Up Your WordPress Site for Better Traffic & Conversions

How to Increase Website Speed WordPress?

Did you know that according to Google’s recommendations, the best practice is to keep your website’s loading times at three seconds or less? Meeting this benchmark is essential to ensure that your website aligns with users’ expectations for speed-up WordPress sites and overall performance.

If your WordPress site loads too slowly, you risk missing out on valuable leads and potential sales for your business.

To achieve this, let’s explore some strategies – 

1. Choose a Robust Hosting Provider and Plan

A good hosting provider and plan is essential to speed up WordPress websites. Shared hosting may appear cost-effective, but it can result in slow loading during peak traffic due to resource sharing.

A better option for WordPress is managed WordPress hosting. Managed WordPress hosting providers specialize in hosting WordPress sites, and they optimize their servers and services specifically for WordPress. This can lead to significant speed up WordPress website.

In addition, managed WordPress hosting providers typically have fewer websites on each server, which means that your website will have more resources available to it. This can also lead to speed improvements.

Here is an example of how a good hosting provider can speed up WordPress sites:

A site on shared hosting loads in 5 seconds, but on managed WordPress hosting, it loads in 2 seconds or less, greatly improving user experience.

Overall, choosing a great hosting provider and plan is one of the best things you can do to speed up your WordPress site.

2. Keep Your WordPress Core, Themes, and Plugins Updated

In today’s digital age, a speedy and responsive website is more than a luxury – it’s a necessity. 

Your WordPress core, themes, and plugins are like the engines and gears that power your site. It is critical to keep it updated in order for it to work as efficiently as possible. These upgrades can be performed manually or automatically. 

But why the fuss about updates?

Well, it’s about more than maintaining and improving functionality, increasing its security, and ensuring long-term compatibility.

Beginners often avoid updates out of fear that they might break their site. Furthermore, out-of-date themes and plugins can frequently cause conflicts with one another or with the WordPress core, resulting in poorer performance. As an open-source platform, hackers are continuously on the lookout for security flaws. 

When you keep your WordPress themes and plugins updated, you’re not only giving it a fresh coat but also ensuring that it always operates with the latest and greatest performance and security improvements.

Before rushing to hit update, there is one important step you must take – back everything up! This provides an extra layer of protection as you work to speed up WordPress sites and improve its overall performance.

Also Read: Best Practices To Update WordPress Safely

3. Install a WordPress caching plugin

Investing in a cache plugin is a strategic decision to create a better, faster, and more enjoyable user experience on your website in a world where every second matters. 

Often, WordPress performance issues can be chalked up to the way WordPress assembles web pages on the server side. Sometimes, WordPress websites can be a bit slow, and it’s because of how they put web pages together.

This can be a problem, especially when you want to do WordPress speed optimization to make your site faster. The solution?

Use a caching plugin. These clever tools store ready-to-go copies of your web pages and show them to visitors. No more waiting for pages to be built from scratch. This makes your site load much faster, which is great, especially for visitors who are seeing your site for the first time and want to speed up  WordPress website.

You’ve got some good options for caching plugins for your WordPress site. 

• WP Rocket
• W3 Total Cache
• WP Super Cache
• Hummingbird

These plugins are designed to streamline the caching process, aiding you in how to increase website speed WordPress. Once configured to match your site’s requirements, you’ll swiftly notice a significant improvement in loading speed.

4. Optimize Your Images for Swift Loading

We have heard or said this many times – images play a pivotal role in enhancing your website’s visual appeal and engaging your audience. However, their larger file sizes can contribute to slow loading times, although eye-catching images are a joy to look at.

If your site needs to catch up to your expectations in terms of speed than you’d like, and you have never optimized your images, this step can be a game-changer.

Remember that large images can significantly delay loading, thus decreasing image size before adding them to your site. 

In WordPress, there are a few effective optimization methods:

• One involves resizing images before uploading, using tools like Photoshop or ImageOptim.
• The second way employs WordPress plugins such as Smush, which optimize and compress images as you upload them, even those already in your Media Library.
• Lastly, the lazy loading technique renders all images on a page at once when the page is first loaded, and lazy loading only loads the images that appear in the user’s browser window. 

5. Disable Unused Plugins

WordPress is a remarkable platform, thanks to its arsenal of plugins and widgets that allow you to expand your website’s functionality in countless ways. It’s tempting to install plugins for every little feature you desire.

Although plugins can simplify your life, having fewer can harm your site’s performance. Also, leaving unnecessary plugins on your WordPress site can slow it down, leading to a less-than-ideal user experience.

Managing your plugins wisely is essential to learning how to increase website speed WordPress. Before you take the plunge and remove a plugin entirely, consider it a good practice to disable an unused WordPress plugin and thoroughly test your website after each deactivation. This way, you can ensure that everything works as expected while improving WordPress speed optimization. 

So, if you are eager to make your WordPress site perform better and truly want to know how to increase website speed WordPress, start by disabling those unused plugins.

Also Read: Looking To Prevent WordPress Plugins From Breaking The Website?

6. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Web applications widely embrace CDNs because they offer four important benefits: better performance, increased reliability, cost savings, and resilience against cyber attacks, which are crucial for WordPress speed optimization. 

Sometimes, people visiting your website from a global or remote location may experience slower loading time due to geographical distance from your website server. 

That’s where content delivery networks (CDNs) enable your website to provide a smooth experience to users, no matter where they are accessing it from, effectively speed up WordPress sites. 

The best part is setting up and managing CDNs for your WordPress site is easy. Also, it takes care of your content delivery, so you don’t have to worry about the technical details. If you’re keen on boosting your website and learning how to increase website speed on WordPress, a CDN is a game-changing addition. It also reduces external HTTP requests by serving static content swiftly, avoiding a glut of HTTP requests at once. 

To set your CDNs, you can use,

• CDN Enabler – WordPress Plugin
• Incapsula – Free CDN Provider
• Cloudflare

Although initial setting up a CDN can take a few hours, it remains one of the quickest methods to enhance page-loading speed significantly.

7. Minify Your CSS and JavaScript Files

CSS and JavaScript play a pivotal role in enhancing your website, taking it beyond the limitations of HTML. If you run your WordPress site through tests like Google PageSpeed Insights or ySlow, you’ll likely receive a warning to minify JavaScript and CSS files. This is an essential step for the WordPress speed optimization process.

Reducing the number of JS and CSS calls is vital because it helps to decrease server response time and minimize file sizes. To achieve this, you can use a free WordPress plugin like Autoptimize. 

This plugin scans your CSS and JavaScript files, removing unnecessary code such as spaces and comments. It effectively shrinks the files to a size that allows for swift loading without any lag.

By minifying your CSS and JavaScript files, you’ll notice a significant improvement in your site’s loading speed. This optimization enhances user experience and helps you save on bandwidth usage, making it a crucial aspect of speed up WordPress sites.

Also Read: What to Expect During a Free Website SEO Analysis Consultation?

Final Thoughts, 

Delivering a fast experience on your website is essential for boosting sales. Website optimization is technique to speed up WordPress sites loads quickly and ensure users get the information they seek. We trust that this post will prove valuable in assisting you in speeding up your WordPress website.

If you encounter challenges with the above steps or feel uncertain about handling any of them, IndyLogix Solutions, as the custom WordPress development company, has your back. Our talented support team offers custom WordPress development services, enabling you to concentrate on optimizing your WordPress sites while we take care of the technical aspects.

FAQ

1. What are the common reasons for a slow-loading WordPress site?

Common reasons for a slow-loading WordPress site include:

• Too many plugins
• Unoptimized images
• Poorly coded themes
• Shared Hosting
• High traffic  

If you need help optimizing your WordPress site for speed, you can hire WordPress developer to help you.

2. How do content delivery networks (CDNs) enhance website performance?

CDNs boost website performance by caching content on servers worldwide, reducing the distance data travels and speeding up user loading times.

3. How can I get professional help to speed up my WordPress website?

You can secure expert assistance to accelerate your WordPress website by partnering with a top WordPress development services provider like IndyLogix Solutions, tapping into their specialized optimization services.

4. Can I speed up WordPress website without plugins?

Yes, you can speed up WordPress website without plugins by optimizing your images, enabling caching, and minifying your CSS and JavaScript files. You can also reduce the number of HTTP requests by combining your CSS and JavaScript files.

5. Are there any long-term strategies for maintaining a fast WordPress website?

Yes, to speed up WordPress sites and maintain it over time, regularly updating your WordPress core, themes, and plugins is crucial. Additionally, consider using the services of a WordPress development company like IndyLogix Solutions to ensure your site remains optimized and performs at its best.