WordPress Speed And Optimization Tips
In my 20+ years of web design and Internet marketing I often get the question, “How do I speed up my WordPress website?”, but the answer isn’t necessarily a quick one. As a WordPress expert and an Internet marketing specialist I understand the importance of website speed so here are some items that you can look into before contacting a WordPress expert.
There are many factors that play into WordPress website speed…
Here are a few things to look into:
- Slow Plugins: These are great tools but if you have too many they can slow your site down and some are known to be bandwidth hogs such as Jetpack and many others. That being said, there are some that can actually help too…
- Good Plugins: Get “Smush” plugin to optimize your images and run the free version first, but you may need to purchase the full version if you don’t see a big difference. You will need to keep restarting it as the free version doesn’t do all images at once. Also get a popular caching plugin such as “WP Super Cache” which is good for someone who doesn’t know much technical stuff and then go through the options and check the boxes for all of the recommendations or for the more advanced user, try W3 Total Cache..
- Website Hosting: Most people shot by price and by ads they’ve seen online rather than doing some research first and price doesn’t always mean value. If you need optimal performance and speed for your website, then selecting a hosting plan on a “Shared Server” may not be in your best interest. The term “shared” means exactly that – you will be sharing *everything* including server speed. Not to mention reputation, so if someone on that server hasn’t been updating their site and it gets hacked, then very soon your server’s identifying IP address will be blocked by hundreds of thousands of sites, but that’s a whole other article.
- Content Delivery Network [CDN]: Most large websites that you visit already use this and especially companies who rely on Internet marketing. When you use CDN you are essentially taking all of your static files that make up your site such as images, php files, css, Javascript and more and allows visitors download them as fast as possible by serving the files on a servers as close to their location as possible. There are many CDN options out there, some are third party services and others are simple plugins so do some research and select the best one based on your budget and level of experience.
- Theme Issues: A lot of people install a particular theme because the demo looked really pretty but not all themes are created equal and some are so limited in their features that you will end up having to install way too many plugins to get the performance you want and we know how having too many plugins can slow down your site and open you up for more conflicts. Be sure to start off with a solid framework theme that includes most of the features you will be wanting. Too many website owners will install a theme and then leave it alone but you really need to keep it up to date and also make sure you look at the Theme Status to ensure your hosting platform has the recommended resources installed. Also be sure that the theme doesn’t have any patches that need to be done as well.
- Optimize WordPress Database: There are many ways to achieve this but if you are not a database expert, then I would recommend downloading a plugin called WP-Optimize but please be sure to backup your entire site before running a plugin like this. If you have some type of control panel on your hosting platform then download a backup of your database from the server first before running this plugin – just as a safety precaution.
There are still many other factors that could account for a slow website. Try these things and see if they help.
If you still need help, then by all means please feel free to contact me and I can “take a look under the hood” for you.