{"id":9828,"date":"2021-12-16T19:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.travelpayouts.com\/en\/?p=9828"},"modified":"2023-01-16T23:50:35","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T20:50:35","slug":"tips-to-speed-up-your-wordpress-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelpayouts.com\/blog\/tips-to-speed-up-your-wordpress-site\/","title":{"rendered":"18 tips to speed up your WordPress site"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How page speed influences your site success<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No matter how well-designed your website is and what value it brings, slow page speed might leave you with too few readers ready to wait until the site is fully loaded. Here are the main reasons to work on your page speed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Rank higher on Google<\/strong>
    Google, Bing and some other search engines use page speed as a ranking factor<\/a>. The faster your site loads, the higher it will rank in the SERPs for relevant queries, and the more traffic it will drive.<\/li>
  2. Reduce bounce rate<\/strong>
    Consumers will leave a site that loads too slow.     According to research<\/a>, a little less than 50% of consumers expect a web page to load within two second otherwise they\u2019ll bounce off. <\/li>
  3. Increase conversions
    <\/strong>    Studies have shown<\/a> that page load speed affects conversion rates on the site. Thus, the faster a page loads, the more likely consumers are to commit a desired action. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    However, even if your site loads within the desired two seconds on your computer, it won\u2019t necessarily do so on other devices. Since you often visit the site, it\u2019s highly likely that browsers store it in the cache and for this very reason it loads fast. First-time visitors won\u2019t have this head start. Thus, don\u2019t skimp on testing your site speed every now and then to see it from the user’s perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How to measure your site speed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    For starters, it would be well worth checking the speed of different pages, as each one of them has different amounts of content and thus requires different time to load. While the homepage can be a benchmark, make sure to also test your top-performing pages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To see the whole picture, you can check different indicators such as page size, the number of requests it generates, whether caching is enabled and which type of content the page has. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Today, the web abounds with dedicated tools that will check your site speed and help find areas for improvement. For example, world-renowned SEO experts and hosts of our Traffic Show<\/a> Jason Barnard and Tristam Jarman recommend trying out Pingdom<\/a>, GTmetrix<\/a>, and PageSpeed Insights<\/a>. These tools will show all the speed issues your site faces and will also explain what they mean. Identify main issues that slow down the site and work on them in the first place. If these bugs are out of your expertise, make sure to delegate them to a developer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s highly advisable to run testing on a regular basis (at least once a month) to monitor how blog updates affect its loading time as well as keep test scores saved and analyze them in dynamics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    18 tricks to speed up your WordPress site<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Below, we\u2019ve gathered 18 tips to make your WordPress site run as fast as ever before that most webmasters can apply without handing their site over to a developer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Switch to a reliable server<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Quality server hosting<\/a> is often half the battle when it comes to WordPress page speed optimization. Ideally, its capacity should correspond to your traffic volume, so that at peak hours the server can bear the load and won\u2019t crash. This is not the case, though, of shared hostings, which often provide one server for hundreds or even thousands other sites, and at peak traffic periods just can\u2019t give clients all the resources that they need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Thus, if your site has a rather large audience, make sure to splurge on a good quality hosting, especially given that it doesn\u2019t usually cost that much. Also, when choosing one, look not only at its price but other parameters influencing the performance as well, such as RAM (random-access memory), CPU cores, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Upgrade WordPress version<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    When was the last time you upgraded WordPress? The platform releases updates every few months to decrease vulnerabilities and help sites perform better, so keep up and regularly check for upgrades. They\u2019ll provide your blog with extended functionality, higher security, and less bugs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Pay attention that WordPress always has two releases\u2014the latest one, which is likely to have bugs, and another, more stable one, with some of the bugs already fixed. To ensure WordPress performance tuning and avoid deficiencies, go with the second one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you\u2019re still wondering \u201cWhy is my wordpress site slow?\u201d remember to update other platform components as well, such as the theme, plugins, etc. By failing to do so, you\u2019ll only increase your site vulnerability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Remove unnecessary plugins<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Webmasters often use too many plugins, increasing backup size and cluttering the site files. To avoid WordPress slow loading, run thorough review and remove non-essential plugins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Instead, you can download one premium plugin such as WP Rocket<\/a> with all necessary functions or integrate third-party tools that will help automate some tasks. For example, use free social media management tools<\/a> to schedule and manage posts on Facebook or Instagram. Or, integrate one of these marketing platforms<\/a> to set up your email marketing campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Switch to a lighter theme<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Themes greatly influence the overall site performance and can also be a reason for your WordPress site running slow. The more dynamic elements your theme has, the higher the page size, and the slower it loads. What you can do is carefully check the theme before installing or switching to a lighter one. Any of default WordPress themes will run smoothly, but you can also check a list of the best WordPress themes for affiliate marketing<\/a>, with necessary integrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Optimize images<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The next step to make WordPress faster is to reduce the size of media files on your site, as they increase page weight and slow down the loading speed. Rather than getting rid of all pictures that make your site so appealing, be sure to reduce their size, which can enhance WordPress page speed optimization. Below, you can see the difference in image formats and their sizes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    You can use compression tools like JPEG Optimizer<\/a>, Optimizilla<\/a>, Kraken.io<\/a>, or install one of image optimization plugins such as Optimole<\/a>, WP Smush<\/a>, Shortpixel<\/a> or Imagify<\/a>, to name a few.  Optimization is especially important for images above the fold. Even if you enable lazy loading, these media files will load as usual, which can slow down the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Embed videos<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Embedding will also make WordPress site load faster, as videos won\u2019t take up your server space. Uploading them, on the other hand, can increase backup size, cost bandwidth and lead to your WordPress site loading slowly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Embedding allows for simply displaying the video on your site, while the file is hosted on a separate server and doesn\u2019t slow down the site performance. Where can you upload videos? While the most popular platform today is YouTube<\/a>, you can also try Vimeo<\/a>, SoundCloud<\/a> or other solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Upload your video to a dedicated platform, copy its URL and paste it to the relevant post, so WordPress will automatically embed the video instead of storing it in the database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Enable lazy loading<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    If you\u2019re asking \u201cWhy is my WordPress site so slow?\u201d even after optimizing media files, it\u2019s time to enable lazy loading. This feature allows for downloading only the elements that the user will see on their screen, while other files will be loaded when the user scrolls down the page. Lazy loading is applicable to images, videos, iframes, comments, and other page elements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To enable this feature and speed up WordPress sites, install dedicated plugins<\/a> like Lazy Load by WP Rocket<\/a>. Note that some themes lazy-load files by default, starting from WordPress 5.5, and if that\u2019s not your case, set up the feature<\/a> manually. Remember that lazy load won\u2019t reduce the size of featured images and other files above the fold, so make sure to optimize them anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Choose a fast DNS provider<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    To avoid WordPress slow loading, you can also upgrade your DNS provider. DNS stands for Domain Name System and is often referred to as a phone book of the internet, hosting records of IP addresses and domain names, tied to them. So, every time a user types in a site\u2019s name, the DNS provider checks the IP address for this domain to send the user to. This process takes time, and free DNS providers are often slow to respond. What you can do is switch to a more reliable service, for example, Cloudflare. It runs very fast and is free to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Use caching<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Caching allows for temporary storage of file copies, which helps deliver them to visitors more efficiently. And if you\u2019re looking for tips on how to speed up your WordPress site, caching can make it two, three, or even five times faster. So, how does it work? Instead of generating a page for every time a new visitor opens your site, caching tools make a copy of this page and then serve its cached version to all future visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To avoid WordPress slow loading, make use of one of the dedicated plugins such as WP Rocket<\/a>, WP Super Cache<\/a>,  W3 Total Cache<\/a>, Cachify<\/a>, etc. Caching is also provided by some hosting services such as SiteGround<\/a> or Hostinger<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Clean up database<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Why is WordPress so slow despite all optimization tricks? Perhaps, you haven\u2019t cleaned up your database yet! This is the place where all the site data is stored, including configuration settings. Sometimes, it gets packed with too much information, some of which is no longer needed but could slow down WordPress speed. For example, it can be spam comments on your blog, old post drafts, fake user accounts, and so on. By deleting such data, you\u2019ll also make your site backups smaller in size and faster to implement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In this tutorial by WordPress<\/a>, you\u2019ll learn how to clean up your database and optimize site performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Optimize CSS files<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    CSS files (Cascading Style Sheet) control how HTML elements are displayed on the page: size, fonts, color, spacing, etc. They are stored as a plain text, which can be edited in any text editing program. Minimizing CSS files will allow you to greatly improve the site performance. Many webmaster tools like Google PageSpeed Insights display the size of CSS and JS files on the site, so you\u2019ll know about the issue when auditing your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How to optimize WordPress through CSS files? First, you can edit CSS manually on web development platforms like ColdFusion Builder or Dreamweaver (they offer advanced features in comparison with a simple text editor). Second, install a dedicated plugin, for example, Autoptimize<\/a>, which will help reduce not only CSS but also HTML and JS on your blog. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Depending on your protocol, you can also combine CSS files to increase WordPress speed. HTTP 1.1 loads files consecutively, so each next file starts loading only after the full load of a previous one. You can combine scripts to short the load time. On the other hand, HTTP 2 loads files simultaneously, so combining them won\u2019t affect the speed much. You can check your site\u2019s protocol via KeyCDN Tester<\/a> and combine CSS files with dedicated plugins like WP Rocket<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Set up JS files loading<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Just like CSS files, JavaScript code can also be optimized to speed up WordPress sites. Here is what you can do:<\/p>\n\n\n\n