Speeding up WordPress sites is crucial for improving their display speed, which is a significant aspect of SEO. Google emphasizes that “the faster the better.” However, many people may not know how to effectively speed up their WordPress sites or how to measure their display speed.
There are three main reasons to speed up your WordPress site:
- Important for on-page SEO
- Reduced site abandonment rates
- Lower server costs
In this article, we will explore 10 Ways to Speed Up Your WordPress Site and provide insights into tools for measuring display speed. Please read on to enhance your site’s performance and SEO.
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Core Web Vitals will impact desktop rankings from February 2022
Until now, Core Web Vitals only influenced mobile search rankings. However, it’s been announced that the rollout for desktop search results will begin in February 2022 and finish by the end of March 2022.
This means that starting February 2022, optimizing for Core Web Vitals can’t be delayed any longer. If you haven’t implemented these measures yet, now is the time to improve your page speed, as Core Web Vitals will impact desktop rankings from February 2022.
10 Ways to Speed Up Your WordPress Site
First, let’s explain how to speed up your WordPress site.
- Switch to a faster hosting service
- Optimize your images
- Delivering images in next-generation formats
- Lazy loading of images
- Specify the display size of the image
- Remove unnecessary plugins
- php version upgrade
- CSS and JavaScript Optimization
- Enable browser caching
- Enabling Server Cache
- Minimize the use of web fonts
Let’s take a look at each one in order.
1.Switch to a Faster Hosting Service
One simple method to speed up your website is to switch to a faster hosting provider. Many people prioritize cost when selecting a server, often opting for affordable overseas options. While these servers can be budget-friendly, the long distances involved in connecting to overseas servers can result in slower website loading times compared to domestic servers. Additionally, low-cost servers often have a high number of users, which can further slow down performance.
With shared hosting, multiple users share the same server, so as the number of users increases, the display speed may decrease. Generally, the cheaper the server, the slower the display speed tends to be. For reliable performance, we recommend starting with well-known WordPress hosting providers like Hostinger or Bluehost.
2.Optimize your Images
Next, image optimization is also an effective way to speed up your WordPress site. This involves reducing the size of images uploaded to your site and using next-generation image formats.
There are two recommended methods:
- Reduce the size of images used on your website.
- Use an image compression plugin.
The first approach is to simply make your website images smaller. However, one of the requirements for content to appear on Google Discover, also known as the “Google Cannon,” is to use images that are “1200 pixels” or larger. Since appearing on Google Discover can significantly boost your traffic, it would be a missed opportunity to reduce image sizes too much and fail to meet this condition.
In such cases, we recommend the second method: using an image compression plugin. A plugin like “EWWW Image Optimizer” automatically compresses images upon activation, allowing you to increase your website’s display speed without any extra effort.
3.Lazy loading of Images
The third method is to delay the loading of images. Instead of displaying images immediately, they load with a slight delay. Many users have likely noticed images that appear gradually as they scroll through a website—this technique, known as lazy loading, helps speed up your website.
The third method is to delay the loading of images. Instead of displaying images immediately, they load with a slight delay. Many users have likely noticed images that appear gradually as they scroll through a website—this technique, known as lazy loading, helps speed up your WordPress site.
By implementing lazy loading, you can avoid loading images that aren’t immediately visible to the user, which helps speed up the overall display time. Using a plugin for lazy loading is both convenient and recommended. A plugin like “Lazy Load” enables you to easily implement lazy loading just by activating it.
4.Specify the Image Width and Height
The fourth method is to specify the width and height of images.
When loading a webpage, the browser typically starts with the text, as it is lighter than images, and then begins loading images concurrently. If the width and height of an image are not specified, the browser cannot determine the area for the image, leading to potential layout shifts and affecting the overall speed up your WordPress site.
To address issues with images lacking specified dimensions, you can reserve space for the image before it loads. Additionally, using CSS aspect ratios can help ensure the correct image area is maintained prior to the image being displayed.
5.Remove unnecessary plugins
The fifth method is to remove unnecessary plugins. Many of you may have installed plugins to add more features to WordPress, but if you haven’t used them and left them inactive, they may be adding unnecessary load.
Be cautious with plugins, as having too many installed can strain your WordPress site. Additionally, keeping unused plugins can clutter your site with redundant code, leading to slower performance. To speed up your WordPress site, it’s best to delete any plugins that are not essential. Take some time to review and remove any plugins you no longer need.
6.php Version Upgrade
The sixth method is to upgrade your PHP version. In fact, upgrading your PHP version is one of the most overlooked methods to speed up your WordPress site. It is said that upgrading your PHP version by just one step can significantly improve your site’s display speed. Most hosting services make it easy to switch PHP versions through the control panel.
Another benefit of upgrading PHP is that it strengthens security. PHP is regularly updated, and there are cases where older versions of PHP are no longer supported. Therefore, in order to continue posting content safely and securely on WordPress, always run PHP on the latest version.
7.CSS and JavaScript Optimization
The seventh method is to optimize CSS and JavaScript. Large HTML, CSS, or JavaScript files can slow down your site’s display speed. To improve performance, you can delete unnecessary code or consolidate it.
A helpful plugin for these tasks is “Autoptimize.” This plugin allows you to remove extra spaces and line breaks in your code, and combine CSS and JavaScript files into a single file, enhancing your site’s loading speed.
8.Enable browser caching
The final method is to enable browser caching. Browser caching temporarily stores data from web pages on the user’s device. When revisiting a page, the browser can access this saved data instead of loading everything from scratch, resulting in faster page load times.
Displaying a page in WordPress involves several steps: a user accesses the website, the page is assembled by linking multiple files on the server, the page is then downloaded, and finally, it is displayed on the device, which can affect how quickly your site loads and impacts efforts to speed up your WordPress site.
Since this process involves multiple steps and can take time, enabling browser caching can significantly reduce these delays. If you haven’t set up browser caching yet, now is the time to do so.
9.Enabling Server Cache
The ninth method is to enable server caching.
Server caching enhances site performance by temporarily storing site data in a fast-access area on the web server. When the site is accessed again, this cached data is quickly retrieved, helping to speed up your WordPress site.
While browser caching involves storing previously accessed data on the user’s device, server caching refers to storing pre-generated files on the web server itself.
10.Minimize the use of web Fonts
The final step is to minimize your use of web fonts.
Web fonts are stored on a web server and are used to ensure that text appears as intended by the site creator, regardless of the user’s device or viewing environment.
However, there are drawbacks, such as FOUT (Flash of Unstyled Text) and FOIT (Flash of Invisible Text).
FOUT occurs when an alternative font is displayed while the web font loads, disrupting the layout and negatively affecting CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift), a key Core Web Vital metric. FOIT happens when text remains invisible until the web font is fully loaded, also impacting CLS.
To mitigate these issues, it’s important to optimize CSS properties and web font rendering.
Tools to measure the speed of your WordPress site
So far, we’ve discussed various methods and benefits for speeding up a WordPress site. However, you might not know how to measure the page speed effectively. Next, we will introduce four tools that can help you assess the page speed up your WordPress site.
1.PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights is a free tool from Google that measures your site’s loading speed. Simply enter the URL and click the Analyze button to receive a performance score and recommendations for improvement.
Widely used by SEO consultants, PageSpeed Insights offers various technical suggestions to enhance page speed. If you find these improvements challenging to implement on your own, consider consulting a specialist who can help optimize your site’s performance.
2.Chrome Developer tool
You can also measure page loading speed using Chrome’s Developer Tools. First, access “Developer Tools” through “More Tools” in Chrome, or by pressing “Command + Option + I.”
Once Developer Tools is open, go to the “Network” tab. To ensure an accurate measurement, clear the cache by clicking the reload button in the upper left corner and then reload the page.
The “Finish” time displayed at the bottom of the Network tab shows how long it takes for the page to fully load. Aim to reduce this time by even 0.1 seconds for improved performance.
3.GTmetrix
GTmetrix, developed by Canada-based GT.net, is a tool for measuring site performance.
A key feature of GTmetrix is the ability to select test locations, including options such as Dallas, Hong Kong, and London.
The basic version is completely free, and you can access various features simply by signing up for an account.
You can also choose the browser for testing, either Chrome (Desktop) or Firefox (Desktop). Additionally, GTmetrix offers page rendering recordings to help diagnose and troubleshoot issues.
Summary
We’ve covered various methods to speed up your WordPress site and the benefits of doing so. These methods include server migration, image optimization, removing unnecessary plugins, and upgrading PHP. While some techniques may require specialized knowledge, tasks like image optimization and plugin removal can be easily handled even by those with limited technical expertise.
If you’re seeking more advanced improvements or want to fully optimize your page speed, consider hiring a Page Speed expert.
