Top Tips For WordPress Page Speed Optimisation

Are you looking for ways to optimise your WordPress website’s speed? Page speed couldn’t be more important when it comes to ensuring the success of your site, and here, we look at ways you can ensure your site is running at optimal speed at all times. 

Why Is Page Speed Important?

Nobody appreciates a website that is slow to use, and Google doesn’t like it either. In fact, Google’s algorithms are now penalising sites that are too slow to load. With that in mind, it makes sense to provide the safest and fastest experience for your users in order to reach a higher ranking and receive more website traffic.

A fast-loading website is not only much easier for Google to crawl, it also has an impact on conversions. Users simply won’t spend time and effort waiting for a slow site to download. The timeframe is very short in which to grab and retain your users’ attention. 

Any delays will result in people clicking away to one of your competitors’ sites. Therefore, making sure your site is loading as fast as possible is a vital component of your online strategy. 

So, how can you speed up your WordPress site? Here are some top tips. 

Choose The Most Powerful Hosting

The hosting service that you choose for your WordPress site has a vital part to play when it comes to your website performance. The best hosting providers will go the extra distance to ensure your site is fully optimised for performance and also provides excellent customer support. 

You can choose from different types of hosting, and not all are created equal. 

Shared hostings, for example, mean that you’re sharing the server’s resources with a number of other people. Should any of those people get a peak in traffic, you could find your site is impacted. That could be disastrous.

A dedicated hosting means that you are renting a single server, and all of its resources are only available to you. You can do anything you like with that server, and it’ll boost your load speed. 

The third option is to go for a Managed hosting. You’ll benefit from the most optimised server configurations for running your site since these companies have in-depth knowledge of WordPress and can offer dedicated features like automatic updates and security configurations.

Make sure to do your research well and select a hosting provider that you can trust.

Use Cache Plugins To Optimise Speed

Caching plugins will generate a static HTML page of your site, saving it onto your server. Whenever a user attempts to access the website, the caching plugin will display the HTML page which is lighter than the heavier PHP WordPress scripts. Think of it as the cache plugin “saving” the content so that it pre-loads more quickly when someone accesses your site.

Optimise Images And Utilise Lazy Loading

It’s crucial to make sure that every image you use has been fully optimised. Reduce the images’ weight. You can resize them according to their real size on the pages. You should do this manually and avoid allowing WordPress to decide on the size for you. 

Choose A Fast-Loading Theme

Another vital consideration is selecting the most appropriate theme. Choose one that has been optimised for speed. There are huge numbers of WordPress themes available to pick from. However, when you’re choosing the right one for you, don’t focus solely on functionality and aesthetics. While these things are important, it’s also vital to choose a theme that’s efficient when it comes to speed optimisation. 

Avoid Using Sliders On Headers

Sliders are well-known for having a significantly negative impact on your website’s performance. While a surprising number of websites still use them, you’re sure to find that taking this action will negatively affect your site’s speed. 

Get Rid Of Bloated Plugins

Plugins can be very tempting, especially as there are so many of them to choose from, all offering an array of exciting features and benefits. However, while it’s very tempting to download and install large numbers of plugins for different functions, you should be very aware of the impact that they have on your website. 

If you’re using unnecessarily bloated plugins that run large amounts of additional script, you should eliminate them completely or try to find a more efficient alternative. 

Before you activate any plugin, you should test the speed of your website. Test it again straight after activating it and then check to see the effect that it has had. If your site is significantly slower to load following the activation, you know that you need to take action.

If you have any plugins that you aren’t using, remove them. That will help you to avoid cluttering the database and will ensure you don’t add any unnecessary vulnerability points to the website.

Upload Any Large Media Files To A Suitable Service

It can be tempting to use the WordPress backend for hosting your audio or video files, but you should avoid doing this. It’s far more efficient if you upload these pieces to SoundCloud, Vimeo, or YouTube since they’re more suitable for handling the necessary bandwidth requirements. 

You can then point to your digital asset on your WordPress website instead of rendering it. You’ll find your entire site becomes far faster after you do this.

Use A CDN 

If you have a target audience all over the world, you’ll find that using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) makes sense for you. You’ll have your website hosted in a location that is closer to its end-user. Rather than having all the website content coming from a single server in a single location, a Content Delivery Network creates a whole network of global servers that will store the static files. 

This makes it much speedier to load your website in any location worldwide. If your target clients are based a long distance from where your server is located, using a CDN is definitely the best course of action for you.