How to Improve Page Speed in WordPress

In the modern world, everything is about speed and efficiency. When it comes to website performance issues, website speed is one of the main culprits in losing visitors and increasing the jumping rate to your WordPress website. If your website loads as slowly as it should, there is no doubt that your traffic will be directly affected. Recognizing this fact, many developers and business owners wonder how to speed up WordPress sites. The below information will help you understand why fast loading times are essential, and you’ll even learn a few tips on How to Improve Page Speed in WordPress. 

Why is site Speed Important?

i. Conversion Rate:

Multiple studies have shown that site speed affects conversion rates (or, the rate at which users complete a desired action). Not only do fast-loading sites have more users, but they also convert at a higher rate than slower sites. Several companies have found that reducing page load times by a few milliseconds increases conversions:

Mobify found that reducing their homepage load time by 100 milliseconds increased session-based conversions by 1.11%.

Retailer AutoAnything saw a 12-13% increase in sales after cutting page load times in half.

Even American multinational retail corporation Walmart discovered that improving page load times by one second increased conversions by 2%.

ii. Bounce Rate:

The bounce rate represents the proportion of website visitors who leave after viewing just one page. When a page fails to load immediately (more than two seconds), users are inclined to either close the window or navigate away. For example, the BBC observed that with every additional second their pages take to load, they lose 10% of their overall user base.

iii. SEO Best Practices:

Since Google prioritizes delivering relevant information to users quickly, a website’s performance plays a vital role in its Google search ranking. Mobile device performance, in particular, is of critical importance in SEO.

iv. User Experience:

Extended page loading times and slow response to user interactions result in a subpar user experience. The frustration of waiting for content to load can cause users to abandon the site or application entirely.

Google has a Declaration about Website Speed

Hope you also observe that “If the WordPress website is not optimized properly, it takes a good amount of time to load the website content”. Research has shown that if a website’s content takes more than 2 seconds to load, visitors close the tab and move to another website.

If you want to grow your website, you should start thinking about speeding up your website. Because Google has declared that page speed is an important factor in determining a website’s ranking. A fast-loading website page is more likely to rank higher in Google search results. Furthermore, page speed also affects user experience, which can affect your website’s bounce rate, which can ultimately decrease your website’s overall search engine ranking.

When Start Blog or Website

If you start your blog or website, then hope you want to reach your targeted visitor by publishing content. Now without ranking on the Google search page, your goal will fail. To rank on Google the main factors are proper SEO and Website Speed.

There are millions of websites, and each of them is constantly pushing the level. But not everyone is thinking about speed, but you should because you want to be on top. 

I’m constantly trying to speed up my blog using different tools and ways. My days are focused on speed testing, and that’s why I want your site to be faster too. I have successfully increased my website speed to 1.74 seconds (approx) and I am quite happy with it.

I am a website developer, especially in WordPress, But I have little knowledge of SEO. Based on this knowledge and discussion with my friend who is an SEO expert I have shown a short guide of On-Page SEO Guide. Here you’ll see how responsiveness and the overall performance of your pages affect SEO rankings.

If your users your website Google’s RankBrain will notice, and you don’t want that to happen and level your website as a poor website. If your website takes more than 3 seconds to load and performs poorly, you will lose a potential customer. The data above shows how conversion rates start to drop when the loading speed increases by just a few milliseconds.

Just by speeding up your blog, you can increase conversions by up to 210% resulting in more sales, customers, leads, and followers.

Now that you know speed is important, it’s time to optimize your blog for optimal performance. Follow the steps and use the tools from the guide below:

Best Practices to Improve Page Speed in WordPress 

i. Cache:

“Server-side caching enhances WordPress site performance.” Client-side and server-side caching are both important for WordPress site performance. Once a user loads your site for the first time, you can take advantage of the browser’s ability to cache that site’s content locally. So on the next visit, the user has already loaded it. Similarly, on the server side, having a caching layer works wonders for serving your site very quickly.

The most common way to enable server-side caching with WordPress is by using the W3 Total Cache or other Cache plugins. This plugin (or a similar one) is required on almost all hosts. Also, remember to leverage your browser cache.

Plugins drive functionality to your WordPress site, and you can do almost anything with a plugin. But as I wrote earlier, plugins have multiple holes and they come with these holes to your WordPress blog, Be careful about plugins.

So, before using any plugin read reviews, check them regularly, and make sure you update them to the latest version when it’s available. If there are plugins that you can’t live without but still slow down your site, there are ways to keep using them. Generally, if you determine that a plugin is loading slowly, the next step is to talk to your hosting company about increasing the memory on your server.

Never rely on a single plugin. Always try to find an alternative and better than the one you are using. Use a plugin called Query Monitor that sifts through your entire site and reports what percentage of the total load time each plugin is responsible for handling.

ii. Use a Good Quality Hosting Service

A web host is the first step in speeding up your website. If you don’t know, the speed of your website or blog depends on your server and its response time. Since you are provided with a server through your web hosting, make sure it is optimized for WordPress.

The WordPress platform requires a significant amount of memory and static resources. When you start adding more plugins, it becomes heavy to manage. An optimized server built specifically for WordPress uses SSD storage, superior RAM, and account isolation to meet your growing needs.

To maintain low loading times in WordPress, you need a host who understands its plugin, cache, and database requirements.

For shared hosting, I always recommend CloudWays, especially once your website starts getting good traffic.

Tip – Buy an annual plan (1 year or more) to save money as discounted rates are only applicable for the first bill, renewal rates are higher.

iii. Use a CDN

A CDN (Content Delivery Network) works at the DNS or server level. Using a CDN helps reduce the load on a server. CDN helps distribute traffic to different server locations, reducing load times. Using a CDN makes your site up to 2 seconds or sometimes faster. I used CloudFlare, you can use it or others (like StackPath, Sucuri, Fastly, CacheFly, KeyCDN, Incapsula, Amazon CloudFront, MaxCDN, etc.) and got my results 2.06 seconds faster on Pingdom.

iv. Benchmark Your Site with Tests

Getting some benchmarks is essential before you start making any changes to your website. This will help you know exactly where you are now and whether the changes you are making are actually improving your site!

To test your site’s speed, your best bet is a combination of WebPageTest and Google PageSpeed Insights. WebPageTest gives you a good idea of the time it takes for a site to load (in seconds) and these metrics will help you know if it’s the back-end or the front-end that is causing a website to load slowly. Google PageSpeed Insights is great for seeing how your site is rendered by browsers and can help identify what improvements you can make on the front end.

Keep benchmarking keeping a record and analyzing your website from time to time. This will help you progress in the long run. This practice will ultimately make your website faster and help you maintain it.

v. Image Optimization

Images are important for your blog. Images are appreciated by both readers and search engines. But they also have another side. Images make your page size larger than normal. Also, it increases your loading time. Try to use fewer images. Using as few images as possible will ensure your web pages load smoothly.

Make sure you smush or compress them before adding them to your article Plugins like WPsmush help reduce image size while uploading. Also, remember to add the ALT attribute to them.

vi. Choose a Fast Load Theme

Your conversion and bounce rates are greatly affected by the theme you’re using. This will be:-

• SEO friendly
• Loading fast
• customized
• Free from bloatware
• Clear coded

These are some good signs of a theme and are usually seen in a properly coded theme. A theme should be written keeping all aspects of WordPress in mind. Some of the top WordPress themes are:-

• Genesis Framework – StudioPress
• Theme Theme
• ElegantThemes

Having a good theme will always give you and your users the best experience with speed and functionality

vii. Keep Updated

Keep your WordPress updated. WordPress developers regularly make their software faster and more secure so make sure you have the latest. Keep your plugins updated.

Keeping plugins updated, especially your cache and booster plugins will ensure you have the latest coding and advanced features available today. Also helps reduce plugin vulnerabilities.

FAQ of How to Improve Page Speed in WordPress

i. Do WordPress plugins affect website speed?

Yes, WordPress plugins can affect website speed. While plugins offer convenience, adding excessive plugins can be detrimental. Too many plugins can slow down a website and increase load times, making it essential to be mindful of the number and quality of plugins installed to maintain optimal website performance.

ii. Which WordPress plugins are slowing down my site?

Too many plugins installed on your WordPress site can slow its performance. Each plugin adds additional code to your site, increasing the load on your server and resulting in longer page load times. It’s essential to regularly review your installed plugins and remove any that are no longer necessary or are causing performance issues. This will help keep your site running smoothly and ensure it loads quickly for your visitors.

iii. What is the best speed plugin for WooCommerce?

When it comes to optimizing the speed of a WooCommerce store, the best plugin for the job is often considered to be WP Rocket. WP Rocket is a comprehensive caching plugin that can help improve your website’s performance by reducing page load times, optimizing images, minifying code, and more. It also has specific features designed to work well with WooCommerce, such as the ability to exclude certain pages from caching, preloading of pages to improve user experience, and lazy loading of images to reduce load times.

iv. Does page speed affect SEO?

Yes, page speed directly impacts SEO. Faster-loading websites tend to rank higher in search engine results. Plugins like EWWW Image Optimizer help optimize website speed and SEO by focusing on image optimization. Since images can contribute to a website’s bloat, optimizing them for page speed helps improve overall website performance and user experience and ultimately boosts SEO rankings.

v. How do I optimize WordPress speed without plugins?

To optimize WordPress speed without plugins, start by improving your site hosting and upgrading to the newest version of PHP. Compress your media files and optimize your website homepage for faster loading. Disable plugins that aren’t in use to reduce unnecessary resource consumption. These steps improve speed, impact your website’s SEO, and ensure an impressive user experience.

vi. How do I test my website’s speed?

You can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to test your website’s speed. It evaluates your site’s speed on a scale of 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating better performance. PageSpeed Insights provides separate tests for desktop and mobile versions of your site. Moreover, it offers suggestions to enhance your site’s performance, allowing you to implement immediate improvements based on the recommendations. For more information, you can check out the blog posted by Hubspot.

vii. How do I improve WordPress mobile page speed?

To improve WordPress mobile page speed, you can utilize plugins like WP Fastest Cache. One of its key features is mobile caching, specifically targeting faster page loading on mobile devices. By reducing the load on your website and optimizing overall performance, WP Fastest Cache enhances the mobile user experience.

Also read, Best Plugin to Increase Website Speed

Conclusion:

To improve page speed in WordPress, consider optimizing your website through techniques such as using a caching plugin, optimizing images, reducing HTTP requests, and choosing a fast hosting provider. Depending on your technical expertise and website complexity, you may either implement these optimizations yourself or hire a developer for more advanced improvements. Ultimately, a faster website can lead to better user experiences and improved search engine rankings.