How to speed up a WordPress site
When you're building (or maintaining) a WordPress site, one of the most important metrics to keep your eye on is page load times. How quickly your website loads can dramatically impact conversion rates, and last year, it even became an official ranking factor in the Page Experience update.
Many different factors can influence how quickly your website loads for users, and improving them can be easier or more difficult depending on your CMS. In this blog, we're going to unpack the key issues that slow down WordPress sites, and what you can do to speed yours up.
What is WordPress hosting?
WordPress Hosting is a type of web hosting service specifically designed and optimised for sites using WordPress. If you want your WordPress site to be fast, you need to choose the right host for the job. After all, you wouldn't keep your money in a safe made of cheese. Our WordPress hosting platform is purpose-built for speed, reliability, and ease of use. What's more, we support the latest versions of PHP for maximum compatibility.
What is page speed?
Page speed refers to the amount of time between your browser requesting a page, and the browser fully processing and rendering the content. This can depend on many different factors, including the size of the page, what sort of content it contains, where the servers delivering the content are, your connection speed, device, operating system, browser, and many more.
Why is page speed important?
We mentioned earlier that page speed can affect conversion rates, but by exactly how much? Well, according to a Portent study, a site that loads in just 1 second has an e-commerce conversion rate 2.5x higher than a site that loads in 5 seconds! A matter of seconds could be costing your business serious amounts of money in the long run. So it makes sense to speed your WordPress site up as much as you can.
In May 2021, Google also made page speed a ranking factor in organic search, meaning that faster sites have a better chance of ranking highly in Google, and therefore, winning more clicks. Google measures site speed using Core Web Vitals, a set of three important metrics that show how well (or poorly) your site is performing for users. You can see how you're doing in your Google Search Console, or by entering your page into Google's PageSpeed Insights tool.
Why is my WordPress site so slow?
There are a few different reasons that can explain why your WordPress site could be underperforming. The first is that you’re not staying on top of your updates. Whether that’s making sure that you’re using the latest version of PHP, or checking that each of your plugins are up to date – neglecting any updates can impact the speed of your WordPress site. Another possibility is that your WordPress doesn’t have caching enabled, which means your PHP has to work a lot harder. To combat this, there are caching plugins to help speed up the process and to make your site perform quicker.
Although we detail how to fix a slow WordPress site on a separate guide, here are some of the most common reasons why your WordPress site may be slow:
1. Out of date PHP version
An outdated PHP version can affect how certain aspects of your WordPress site runs. This also poses a security issue – so it’s in your best interest to keep your PHP version updated!
2. Too many plugins
Are all of those installed plugins necessary? If the answer is no, you should consider deleting a few of them. Having too many plugins can clash with others you have installed, as well as increase your site’s loading time.
3. Your server is at capacity
An underpowered server that hosts your WordPress site can bottleneck its performance, especially under heavy workload.
4. Large media file sizes
While you probably want your photos, video and any audio displayed at the highest quality, uploading them at their original file size will seriously slow down any website.
5. Too many elements and widgets
If your pages have too many things going on, this can add weight to your site and slow it down. This is why simple design and minimal pages perform faster than those loaded with lots of elements. While it may look or seem cool to you, it won’t be to your users who have to wait for them to load!
How to speed up your WordPress site
Here are some key actions you can take to improve your WordPress site's page speed:
1. Optimise your images
Bulky image files are one of the most common causes of poor page speed. We'd recommend uploading them in next-gen image formats such as WebP or SVG, and resizing or further compressing any very large images.
2. Delete unnecessary plugins
Every WordPress plugin uses up valuable server resources, so if there are any you don’t use, it’s well worth getting rid of them. If you're unsure, why not try deactivating them first and testing your site, then deleting them once you’ve seen the results?
3. Mobile-first design
Since users overwhelmingly browse on mobile, Google now looks at the mobile version of your WordPress site first. It's no longer enough to be mobile-friendly, mobile experience has to be the first and central pillar of your web design.
4. Choose a reliable hosting service
Picking the right hosting provider plays a crucial role in ensuring your site is fast and reliable. We've got over 20 years' experience in all things hosting, and offer affordable, well-optimised WordPress Hosting packages to suit your needs and budget.
5.Stay on top of updates
For a speedy WordPress site you will need to regularly update your themes and plugins. Included in your list of items to update should also be your PHP scripting language. Keeping on top of these updates will make sure that your WordPress runs smoothly day in day out.
6. Use the right theme
One of the simplest ways to reduce page load times on a WordPress site is choosing a lightweight, responsive theme. Ideal for businesses without big development budgets, these do the heavy lifting for you and adapt themselves to user devices.
7. Install a caching plugin
If your WordPress site doesn't have caching enabled, that means every time a browser requests a page from your site, PHP has to assemble an HTML file from content in your database and serve it to the browser. A caching plugin builds every HTML page on your site with PHP, and keeps it saved and ready to go when a request comes in, improving loading speed.
8. Clear out your database
It’s hard to move through a room full of junk, and the same applies to your database. With frequent use, old files build up and start to impact your page speed, so doing a purge of any unnecessary images and documents can help.
9. Don’t host large audio or video files
Video and audio files are certainly engaging to visitors, but they’re also the most resource-intensive type of file out there. There’s a simple fix for this - rather than hosting them directly in your media library, you can speed up loading by embedding a link for a third-party service like YouTube or Vimeo.
10. Minimise JavaScript and CSS
While CSS and JavaScript are vital in making your site more visually appealing and interactive than pure HTML, these files have to be sent from server to browser every time the site loads. Making them smaller - or even reducing the amount of CSS and JavaScript files you use altogether - will undoubtedly help to optimise your WordPress site’s page speed.
11. Assess your page speed regularly
In order to truly assess your WordPress site’s speed overtime, you’ll need to check its speed regularly and make changes where necessary. There's no single number that tells the whole story, because performance changes based on where visitors are, how good their internet is, and if they've visited your site before.
Plus, how fast your pages load also depends on what's on each page and what you’re displaying to users. Most people look at the homepage to guess how fast a site is, but you should also check any other pages that get a lot of visitors. Even better – you should check all pages while performing this exercise!
To get a good idea of your site's speed, try a free tool like IsItWP. Just type in your homepage address and see how it does. This tool, and others like it, will even provide tips on how to make your site faster. Be sure to make changes and test again over time to see if they’ve made a difference.
12. Update your PHP version
At the time of writing, PHP 8.3 is the most recent PHP update you should be on to reap the benefits of its security and latest features. Plus, upgrading the PHP version of your WordPress site is absolutely crucial for website speed. Not only does this help with site performance, but it can enhance your user experience and in turn positively affect your search engine rankings.
Not sure what version you have? From the WordPress Dashboard’s side menu, select Tools > Site Health, and then select Info. Expand the Server section and scroll down until you see the PHP version.
13. Install lazy loading
If your WordPress site needs to be packed with images and other media, then consider using lazy loading. This feature allows images to load only when they are visible in the user's browser window, rather than all at once when the page initially loads. The remaining images will load as the user scrolls down the page.
By implementing lazy loading, you can create the illusion of a quicker page load time, as content appears progressively instead of overwhelming the browser with all the loading at once, which can cause the user to become impatient!
14. Use a video hosting service
Uploading videos to your WordPress site’s media library is a big no-no. Not only will it use up tons of storage, but it’ll seriously slow down your page load speed. To combat this, invest in a video hosting service that allows you to embed the code of the video instead. After all, video is king in today’s media landscape and it shouldn’t be disregarded.
15. Clean up your files
If you've been running your WordPress site for some time, or you have lots of content, it's likely that you've gathered a collection of outdated and unnecessary files in your database. These could include comment spam, remnants from themes and plugins you no longer use, inactive user accounts, unpublished posts, and lots of old media files. All of these can consume valuable storage space and create unnecessary strain on your server!
To help you clean up, plugins such as WP Optimize can perform a thorough audit of your files and eliminate anything that's not needed. This is not only quicker, but also safer than manually removing files from your server, as it will only delete any unused media files from your WordPress media library.
16. Limit your blog post revisions
Each time you save a post in WordPress, the platform generates a backup of your revision and keeps it in your database rather than removing the earlier version. This feature enables you to go back to any prior iteration of your post whenever necessary.
Although post revisions are handy – particularly if you need to revive an older version – they can accumulate in your database and gradually impact your site's performance. By default, WordPress allows for an unlimited number of post revisions, but with a simple adjustment, you can set a cap on the number of revisions saved for each post or even turn off post revisions entirely.
If you want to limit the number of revisions allowed, simply open your site’s wp-config.php file and add the following code to the bottom of the file:
define( 'WP_POST_REVISIONS', 10 );
This code limits each post’s number of saved revisions to 10. Setting it to 0 can turn off revisions, but we wouldn’t recommend this if you’re not tracking your changes!
17. Install a firewall
By setting up a DNS-level firewall, you can keep your WordPress site as safe as possible from DDoS attacks and other malware. By installing them at the DNS level, it can block bad-quality traffic from getting into your server – slashing the chances of data being stolen.
Plus, DNS-level firewalls can make websites faster and more reliable. They do this by spreading out the work across their network, so you get better speed along with strong protection.
18. Limit third-party scripts
Displaying your social feeds, embedding Google Analytics and AdSense for payment are all types of elements that require third-party scripts on your WordPress site.
Really weigh up which ones are worth having and serve your users first. “Nice to haves” may be slowing your site down without you realising it!
Why is speeding up your WordPress site important?
When users arrive on your site, you’ll undoubtedly want to offer them the best experience possible. And this includes a fast site and page loading speed. Customers are unlikely to stick around for long if your site is super slow. So whether you want to drive traffic to product pages, or divert users to read your blog, a slow site is likely to hinder this. Prioritise user experience by speeding up your WordPress site.
Now you're up to speed
We hope this guide has been helpful, and you now know more about speeding up your WordPress site. If you're ready to move to a quick, secure hosting platform, talk to us. We'll even help migrate it for you free of charge.