Choose the right hosting
Possibly the biggest factor governing your website’s speed is where you’ve decided to host it. Not all website hosts are created equal and their pricing reflects this. Free hosting is available but it certainly isn’t a free lunch – you’ll be paying for it somewhere. A good hosting provider with optimised server configurations can significantly improve your website’s speed. Look for a provider that offers features like SSD storage, content delivery network integration, and caching options.
Choose a lightweight WordPress theme that can do the job
Selecting a well-coded theme is essential. Themes with excessive features and complex designs, as well as off-the-shelf one size fits all designs can slow down your website. Opt for a theme that is optimised for speed and follows best practices.
Use plugins wisely
We love plugins – we’re even building custom plugins – but installing too many of them can leave your site lagging and impact performance. Remove any unnecessary or outdated plugins and choose lightweight alternatives when available. Opt for plugins that have good reviews, are regularly updated, and are known for their efficient performance.
Optimise your images
Large image files take much longer to load and can significantly slow down your website. To avoid this, you can compress and optimise images before uploading them using tools like Photoshop, TinyPNG, or plugins such as WP Smush. Additionally, consider lazy loading images to load them only when they appear in the user’s viewport.
Cache me if you can
Caching can greatly improve the speed of your website by storing static versions of your pages so they don’t have to be loaded every time someone visits your page. Utilise WordPress caching plugins to enable browser caching, page caching, and object caching, reducing the server load and speeding up page delivery.
Minify CSS and JavaScript files
Minifying your CSS and JavaScript files involves removing unnecessary characters, spaces, and line breaks, reducing their file sizes. You can use plugins like Autoptimize or WP Rocket to automatically minify these files.
Take charge of your WordPress database
Regularly clean up your WordPress database by removing unnecessary data such as post revisions, spam comments. Plugins like WP-Optimize can help automate this process.
Don’t skip updates
Updates can be time-consuming, but they’re important. Regularly update your WordPress themes and plugins to benefit from performance improvements, bug fixes, and security enhancements.
Keep an eye on your performance
Utilise tools like Google PageSpeed, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to regularly test your website’s speed. These tools provide insights and recommendations on how to further optimise your website.
Need Any Help?
If your site is struggling and you’re unsure about where to start, or if you’re not overly techy, we can help. Our team of WordPress Developers will give your site what it needs to thrive and continue maintenance for as long as you need it (subject to your support contract).
We also offer loads more WordPress services, so if you’re looking for even more, take a look and get in touch.
Make the most out of your WordPress site with us, today.
