Everyone prefers a fast-loading website, whether you, your users, web browsers, or search engines. During and post-development of a site, you must constantly focus on WordPress site speed to improve business metrics.
From gaining a high rank in search engine results to increasing revenue, speed helps at every stage. Therefore, you must know about tips and tricks for WordPress speed optimization. So, let’s get started with it.
Why WordPress Site Speed Matters?
Speed is an essential metric that helps to measure a website’s overall performance. And speed doesn’t only refer to the loading speed; it also covers the time the site takes to process requests and provide responses.
When creating a WordPress site, focus on its speed, as a high-performance site retains more customers. And it also improves the SEO of a website, helping to rank it in the top index. In addition, it quickly adapts to screen sizes, supporting increasing the user base.
How To Optimize WordPress Website?
You can utilize the below-provided tips and tricks to optimize WordPress website speed.
#1: Select an Authentic and Trusted Hosting Provider
Web hosting is the primary pillar of a WordPress website’s fast speed. While selecting the hosting provider, thoroughly analyze its plans and hosting services. In addition, cross-verify the available hosting as per the business requirements. Thus, always check whether you need to be dedicated, shared, managed, or virtual private server WordPress hosting.
In addition, look for the bandwidth and other metrics in a hosting plan. New WordPress users usually prefer shared hosting due to low prices without knowing its pros and cons.
But, you should never only use cost as a primary metric for selecting a hosting provider. From an expert’s perspective, you should prefer dedicated hosting if you need a secure and swift site. Otherwise, choose one that fits your business constraints.
#2: Prefer Using a Lightweight Theme
On the WordPress platform, you can find thousands of themes with animations, high-end graphics, images, and multimedia files. But, before selecting such a theme, you must know that all such high-quality components put additional effort into the server. More components mean more code to process, which leads to lower performance.
Therefore, you should always use a lightweight theme with minimal design with necessary functionality. It would help you process requests and load the website faster.
Additionally, if you need such a lightweight theme, partner with a WordPress development company, all such firms understand the business requirements and create themes with lightning-loading speed.
#3: Reduce File Size and Simplify Page Designs
All WordPress sites consist of CSS and JavaScript code at the backend, which contributes to making sites heavy. And as you know, heavy sites use more resources and take more time to load. It would help if you minimized or shrunk the size of such files for faster websites. Due to shrinking, CSS and JS files will take up less space and will get loaded quickly.
Furthermore, to reduce the backend code, create a simple design with only the required features. It’s not mandatory that your site must have animations and all such components. A simple design with a clean interface can also help you retain visitors and increase conversion rates. Also, it would efficiently adapt to any screen size and will be appropriate, regardless of the current trend.
#4: Utilize a CDN and Prevent Redirects
Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of interconnected servers that stores a copy of your WordPress website. Whenever a user requests your site, it detects its location and sends the site’s copy from the nearby server. Due to it, the waiting time gets reduced, and end-users access the site within the minimal time possible.
Also, while selecting the hosting service plan, ensure to avail yourself of CDN services.
Further, reduce the number of redirects on site as you can. When a WordPress site uses numerous redirects, the backend code increases and uses more resources. Therefore, to cut down the excessive code and boost site speed, use redirects in optimal quantity by creating a site architecture.
#5: Constantly Update PHP
PHP is a server-side scripting language, and every WordPress site utilizes it efficiently. However, if your site uses an outdated PHP version, it can impact performance and even security. Therefore, you must continually update the PHP to its version for best-in-class speed.
In addition, updating PHP will also help you in preventing cyber-attacks and maintaining data integrity and confidentiality. Moreover, it will support efficient memory management, optimized user request processing, and quick loading of web pages.
As a result, the memory need will get reduced, and you will save resources along with speeding the site.
#6: Configure a Caching Mechanism
Likewise, caching is also essential for reliable hosting services and other speed optimization techniques. It primarily gets configured for returning website visitors.
When you configure caching, it stores some website files in temporary memory. When the user requests those files, it instantly delivers them, regardless of first fetching them from the server and then providing them in the user’s browser. It’s way faster than the traditional communication between the server and the browser, where the complete load is on the server. However, with caching, the load decreases, which reduces resource utilization and cost.
In addition, the visitor sees the website loading in their browser within seconds, which increases the satisfaction rate.
#7: Reduce Database Calls and External HTTP Requests
Additional and unnecessary calls always downgrade the speed, making websites slow and poor performing. But you can prevent such calls by debugging the website code and replacing unwanted database and PHP calls with basic HTML code. And by using caching with this tip, you can enormously boost the website speed.
Additionally, you must analyze the code, plugin, and themes accessing scripts and files from third-party sites, such as Google. If the requests are high in number and not required by your business, then delete them. It will assuredly increase the website speed in loading across browsers and adapting to different screen sizes.
Hire WordPress Developer for Accelerating Speed
Every WordPress website is different, as they all use contrasting themes, customizations, and plugins. And it makes it difficult for one person to select the relevant approach for optimizing its speed. Sometimes, you need to configure caching, and sometimes, the additional HTTP calls need to get eliminated. However, executing something wrong can slow down the site rather than increase its speed.
But you can prevent such misconfigurations and select the relevant mechanism for the WordPress site if you hire WordPress Developer. Additionally, using WordPress time tracking tools can help developers efficiently manage their work and ensure timely project completion.
A WordPress Developer holds expertise in the domain and knows which site needs which modifications. And they will also help to customize the site efficiently, integrate plugins, migrate the site, select relevant hosting providers, and more.
Concluding Up
To optimize the speed of a website, you need to focus on overall components. First, select a reliable WordPress hosting service provider, use a CDN, and configure caching. In addition, shrink the JavaScript and CSS code and remove additional comments and spaces.
Moreover, update the PHP to its latest version, utilize a simple design, and reduce excessive HTTP and database calls. Your website speed will rocket once you start following WordPress tips and tricks.
