10 Ways to Make Your WordPress Load Faster

January 4, 2022

Slow and steady definitely does not win the race when it comes to blogs and websites.A slow site can be frustrating for readers and can kill you in search engine rankings.However, making your WordPress load faster isn't always that straightforward.To help you out, today we are going to take a look at ten tips that will dramatically speed up your WordPress site.If you are on Blogger, take a look atthis postfor tips that apply to you.

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How to make your WordPress load faster

Before you start tinkering around with your site speed, it's best to have a starting point so you can see how your site performs before and after making changes.GT Metrixis a great tool for analyzing the performance of your site.

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Tip #1: Use a Great WebHost

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Tip #2: Use a Solid Framework & Theme

We use the Genesis framework in all of our WordPress designs because of its speed and customizability.Genesis comes free with ourWordPress designsand is one of the most solid frameworks out there.Some frameworks and themes come with far more features than you'll ever need or use.Sticking with the simplicity of Genesis is the best way to keep things clean and running lightning quick.

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Tip #3: Delete Post Revisions

There is nothing worse than a site cluttered with too many copies of post revisions, trashed items, and spam comments.Who needs all of that?I love theWP-Optimize pluginbecause you can set it to routinely clean up your database so it's not weighed down by all that garbage.Once it's installed, just go to Settings > Optimize Database to configure the settings you want.You'll love how tidy your site feels after using this amazing plugin.

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Tip #4: Optimize Images

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Tip #5: Identify Plugins that are Slowing Your Site Down

An easy way to determine which plugins may be slowing your site down is to install and run theP3 (Plugin Performance Profiler).It shows you exactly which plugins are impacting your page load time.Once you determine which plugins are slowing down your website, you can then decide whether or not those plugins are worth keeping.If not, get rid of them.

Be sure to delete the P3 plugin after you finish, because leaving it activated will slow your site down.As a general rule, it's best to keep the number of plugins on your site under 20.Remember that less is more when it comes to plugins and to choose plugins wisely.

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Tip #6: Compress Your Site

Compressing your site using Gzip is a great way to make your WordPress load faster.Gzip zips up all of your website files so they are easier for your server to transmit them to your reader's browsers, hence decreasing page load time.There's really no drawback to installing Gzip and the increase in speed can be pretty significant.You can install Gzip using a plugin or you can contact your hosting provider and ask if they can assist you with compressing your site.

If you are comfortable digging into the backend of your site, you can try to edit your .htaccess file via your file manager.Locate it in the root directory of your server and simply add this code to it:

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript

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Tip #7: Use a Good Caching Plugin

WP Total Cacheis one of the best caching plugins out there, but again, please be certain to follow theinstallation instructionscarefully.You'll be amazed at the dramatic improvements you'll see in site speed and YSlow score after installing this plugin, but again I cannot stress enough how important it is to install it correctly.WP Total Cache is a very powerful and advanced plugin, so if you are a novice, it would probably be best to skip this tip.You'll still see dramatic improvements in site speed by following the other 9 tips.

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Tip #8: Optimize Your Database

WordPress uses a database to store everything about your site – posts, pages, comments, plugins, settings, etc.It's all there in your database.Every time someone loads your site, the database has to be read.If the database is packed to the brim then the information can take a long time to load causing a slow loading site.WP-DBManager pluginis a great plugin that will help you easily back up, repair, and optimize your database, which in turn will speed up your site.

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Tip #9: Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

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Tip #10: Declutter Your Site

Remember that less is always more when it comes to your site.Rid your site of anything that isn't absolutely essential.Some final ways to declutter and speed up your site:

• remove any inactive plugins and widgets that you don't need/use
• limit the number of posts shown on your blog
• show post excerpts/summaries instead of the full post
• simplify your sidebar by removing widgets that aren't absolutely necessary
• limit the number of ads, pop-ups, etc.
• remember that your users visit your site for content and/or products, not for the millions of widgets and ads you have on your sidebar.Don't let your widgets and ads overshadow your content.

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Keep it simple!

I hope that those ten tips made your WordPress load faster and improved how your site works.Remember that if you need help with your site, you can alwayscontact us!

We'd love to hear about the improvements you've seen on your site after applying these tips.Share them with us in the comments!

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