How to Optimize a WordPress Website for Speed

If you have a WordPress website, or you’re about to establish one, you’ve probably informed yourself earlier and know some facts that will be part of your new project. When it comes to internet presence, nowadays you can see some patterns in the user’s behaviors and things that attract or repel them. Along with mobile-responsive websites, attractive and useful content, and trustworthy customer relationship, website loading speed is absolutely essential for all things listed above. Website speed is something you should pay attention to because the faster your website is, the more users that come on it will actually use it. In the era where everything is online and competition is blossoming on every step with innovative approaches to gain users, you always need to be at least one step before them. That’s why a fast loading website is pure gold. Luckily for you, optimizing WordPress website for faster loading speed is not unreachable – there are plenty of online tools and hacks that can help you to improve it. We’re giving you some advice.

 

1.     First of all – test your website speed

The very first step of improving your website’s performance is checking and choosing as best and reliable hosting providers as possible. Today you can find plenty of hosting companies and many different types of web hosting, but not all solutions are suitable for WordPress websites and not all companies are the best for your needs. First, you need to have a long-term strategy based on your aspirations so you can see exactly what you need: for example, if you plan to expand your website or transform it into an e-commerce website, you’ll need more features than if you’re running a blog. Some hosting companies offer hosting solutions created especially for WordPress websites, and inside of that niche, you can choose different packages according to your needs. Hostinger has the most recommended WordPress solutions including LiteSpeed Web Server, dedicated tech support available 24/7, lots of themes and plugins, etc. Remember: different hosting solutions are designed for different types of websites, so if something is cheaper doesn’t mean that it’ll please your needs. Contemplate on a reliable and steady relationship with a good hosting provider like on a long-term investment, and don’t skimp on quality.

 

2.     Uninstall/deactivate all plugins you don’t use

Plugins are great features, but they can slow down your WordPress website performances a lot. Most of the time people don’t even think that something yet so simple can cause a problem and don’t even look in front of their noses. The main problem with plugins is their compatibility one with another, are they updated, how they’re coded, and large sizes. WordPress has a large field of plugins and sometimes you can be seduced by their usability and install too many of them even if you don’t actually need them. Think twice before you install a new plugin if it is necessary (focus is on quality, not on quantity) and remove unused plugins.

 

3.     Pick a perfect WordPress theme

Spoiler alert: the perfect WordPress theme doesn’t mean it has the perfect performance. The main difference between WordPress and other website builders is that on WordPress you have lots of predefined themes you can buy or take for free and use it. Sometimes it can be a problem to find a perfect theme not just in that visual way, but in a functional way too. The theme you pick can perfect fit for your website according to its purpose, but it can be poorly coded and slow it down. Also, many WordPress themes have a lot of dynamic elements such as sliders and widgets which increase the possibility of slowing down your WordPress website performance. If you’re a newbie, start with some clean, simple theme with a good speed test results and later, as you become more experienced and search for something more. Or you can give it to the professionals to do their job. It’s always a good idea.

 

4.     Compress images and avoid videos

Stunning, high-resolution images are absolutely necessary if you’re planning to go hard and go big with your website. The main snag with images is that they’re the key contributors to the website’s size due they require more space than textual content so they need to be compressed. The bigger image is, the more your website will need to load. It’s necessary but easy to learn how to compress them to a size as small as possible but without losing quality. Photoshop has Save for web options which are very practical, but if you aren’t a master of Photoshop you can find plenty of online tools for compressing images, just search for it. It will compress the image to be as quality as original, but smaller in size. As far as video is concerned, you can imagine how it can slow down the website if images can do, and they’re static. Instead of uploading videos directly to your website, upload them to some websites specialized for video content, like YouTube or Vimeo, and then share it on your website.

 

5.     Keep your WordPress website updated

Keeping a website updated is not just a speed issue, but also security. Luckily, the WordPress platform keeps all its components updated regularly, always keeping an eye on bug fixes and including new features, plugins, so always use the latest versions – your website will be running more efficiently, so don’t be lazy.

 

Conclusion

When it comes to preventing problems, always start with stuff you can control and predict. Having a speed-optimized WordPress website and having a website at all is not an easy job – it requires monitoring, patience, knowledge, and desire to learn because you can learn something new every day, that’s how fast the things change. Luckily, WordPress is very user-friendly and it’s perfect for everyone – both for experts and newbies, so you can discover how to do things by yourself, at least the things you can do. We hope this article will help you and encourage you to always learn more and to make your WordPress website as stunning as you want.

1 Comment

What are the common causes of WordPress website crashes? (And how to avoid them) - Organized Themes January 23, 2022

[…] downside is there is an equal number of low-quality plugins/themes that can negatively impact your website speed and performance. Having too many of these can overload and ultimately crash your […]

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