Overview: We expect our websites to run quickly and efficiently all the time, and it can be extremely frustrating when they don’t. Fortunately, there are several things you can try to get your WordPress website to run faster. In this blog, we’ll tell you all about them!
Nobody likes waiting. Waiting for the next episode of a favorite TV show, waiting for food to be delivered… waiting for a slow website to load. If you have a WordPress website, you may be wondering if there’s anything you can do to make it run faster. The short answer is: Yes!
There are many things you can do to optimize your website and improve its performance and speed. In this blog post, we’ll go over some of the most effective strategies for speeding up your WordPress website.
Choose a fast web host
The first step to optimizing your WordPress website for speed is to choose a fast and reliable web host. Your web host is responsible for serving your website’s files to visitors, so if your host is slow, your website will be slow too.
When you’re shopping around for a new web host, look for one that offers fast server response times to speed up delivery of your website’s content. You can start right here: MyUnlimitedWP offers subscription plans that include both regular hosting and managed hosting!
Use a lightweight WordPress theme
The theme you choose for your WordPress website can have a big impact on its performance. There are a lot of elaborate themes out there that are packed with bells and whistles, but as you look over the descriptions of the available themes, ask yourself: Will I actually use all of these features?
Many WordPress themes are so loaded with features and options that you may never use all of them — and what’s the point of letting your website get bogged down by features you don’t use? When you go browsing for themes, look for a lightweight option that is optimized for speed and doesn’t have a lot of unnecessary code.
Optimize your images
Images are a key component of many websites. You want your website to be nice too look at! But they can also be a major source of slowdowns. Large images can take a long time to load, especially on mobile devices. To optimize your images, make sure they are compressed and sized appropriately. You can use plugins like WP Smush or EWWW Image Optimizer to automatically compress your images and make your WordPress website run faster without sacrificing quality.
Minimize HTTP requests
Every time someone visits your website, their browser sends a request to your server for each file that needs to be loaded, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images. The more requests that are made, the longer it will take for your website to load.
To minimize the number of HTTP requests, combine multiple files into a single file, and use CSS sprites to combine multiple images into a single image file.
>> Related Reading: What Is an HTTP Request?
Use a caching plugin
Caching can dramatically improve the performance of your WordPress website by reducing the amount of time it takes to load pages. A caching plugin creates static versions of your website’s pages and stores them in the cache.
When someone visits your website, the cached version is served instead of generating a new version from scratch. This can greatly reduce the amount of time it takes for your website to load.
>> Related Reading: How to install a plugin
Minimize plugins
Sure, WordPress plugins — like the aforementioned caching plugin — can add a lot of functionality to your website, but they can also slow it down. Every plugin you add to your website requires additional code to be loaded, which can increase the time it takes for your website to load on a visitor’s device. Try to limit the number of plugins you use, and only install plugins that you truly need.
Optimize your database
Your WordPress database stores all of your website’s content, including posts, pages, comments, settings — the whole kit and caboodle. Over time, your database can become cluttered with unnecessary data, which can slow down your website. Use a plugin like WP-Optimize to clean up your database and optimize its performance.
Use a content delivery network (CDN)
A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of servers located around the world that can serve your website’s content to visitors from the server closest to them. By using a CDN, you can improve the speed of your WordPress website by reducing the time it takes for your content to travel from your server to your visitors’ devices. We really do live in the future, don’t we?
Keep your website up-to-date
WordPress updates are released regularly to improve performance, fix bugs, and enhance security. By keeping your website up-to-date, you can ensure that it is running the latest version of WordPress and all of its components, including themes and plugins. This can keep your site running efficiently all the time, and remove a lot of the worry involved in making your WordPress website run faster.
In Summary
It’s frustrating when your WordPress website starts to run slowly, but there are several steps you can take to make it run faster — from the simple and straightforward to the more technical.
If you’re ready to take those technical steps to make your WordPress website run faster, but you don’t exactly consider yourself a tech genius, look no further. At MyUnlimitedWP, we know WordPress inside and out, and we can optimize your website and make it run like a dream. Contact us today to find out what we can do for you!