Six Steps to Speed Up Your WordPress Website Print

Having a fast website is critical for any project or business. A slow website leaves a poor impression on visitors and increases the likelihood of them leaving. Pages that load between one and five seconds increase bounce rates by 90%.

Additionally, search engines like Google consider page speed a key ranking factor. Slow websites struggle to appear in organic search results.

Fortunately, there are many ways to boost website performance. In this article, we’ll explore the most effective methods to speed up your WordPress site, significantly improving its performance.

Start with the Right Hosting Plan for Your WordPress Site

Ensure you choose a reliable hosting provider with high-speed servers and robust specifications that meet your website’s needs. Verify that the hosting company has a strong track record in providing WordPress hosting and customer support.

Some hosting providers offer unique features to accelerate WordPress sites. For example, BayHost provides specialized WordPress hosting with a 15-day free trial to enhance site speed and performance. It also uses SSD drives to ensure fast data retrieval and website speed.

Reserve Free WordPress Hosting with a Domain

Six Steps to Speed Up Your WordPress Site

1. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
   A CDN is a network of geographically distributed servers that work together to deliver website content faster to users’ browsers. It’s ideal for WordPress sites targeting audiences in different locations worldwide. A CDN reduces the distance between the user and the server, significantly lowering latency and increasing page speed.
   CDNs cache static website content. When a user visits your site, the nearest server delivers the content, reducing external HTTP requests. Cloudflare is one of the best CDN providers.
   You can create an account by visiting Cloudflare’s website, linking your site, and updating your DNS to activate Cloudflare’s CDN servers, boosting your site’s load speed.

2. Choose an Optimized WordPress Theme
   The WordPress theme you use plays a significant role in your site’s speed. Selecting a well-optimized theme is essential for accelerating your WordPress site.
   To ensure a theme’s quality, check user reviews and verify its performance before use. Look for these technical criteria when choosing a fast WordPress theme:

   • Optimized Code: Ensure the theme’s code adheres to W3C and WordPress standards to avoid performance or security issues. Use tools like the HTML Markup Validation Service or the Theme Check plugin to validate the theme’s code.

   • Lightweight Size: Opt for a theme with only essential features, minimal code, and JavaScript/CSS files under 100 KB. Default WordPress themes typically meet these criteria.

   • Browser Compatibility: Choose a theme compatible with all major browsers to ensure a consistent user experience.

   • Mobile Responsiveness: With over half of website traffic coming from mobile devices, the theme must be mobile-friendly without sacrificing speed.

3. Update WordPress Plugins Regularly
   Keeping your WordPress plugins updated ensures your site benefits from the latest performance and security enhancements. Security and performance are interconnected—a vulnerable WordPress site can slow down or become unusable.
   As an open-source platform, WordPress attracts hackers searching for security vulnerabilities. Regular updates are crucial to protect your site. Since WordPress 5.5, you can enable automatic updates for the core, plugins, and themes directly from the dashboard. However, manual updates are also an option.

4. Remove Inactive Plugins
   WordPress plugins expand your site’s functionality, but inactive plugins can consume resources, negatively impacting speed. Remove any plugins you’re not using.
   Deleting plugins is simple: from the WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins, locate inactive plugins, and select Delete.

5. Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
   Large images can significantly slow down your site. Follow these tips to optimize images:

   • Use JPG format for non-transparent images, as it reduces file size compared to PNG while maintaining quality.

   • Match image dimensions to the required display size. For example, if the display area is 1000px, don’t use a 2000px image.

   • Compress images using Photoshop or an online tool like this one to reduce file size without affecting quality.

   • Test your site’s speed using GTmetrix to ensure images don’t cause long load times.

6. Activate the LiteSpeed Cache Plugin
   The LiteSpeed Cache plugin is vital for minifying code files and building the necessary cache to boost browsing speed. It’s fully compatible with BayHost servers, and we highly recommend it.
   You can easily install it by searching for “LiteSpeed Cache” in the WordPress plugins directory and activating it on your site.
   Note: Avoid using other caching or speed-related plugins alongside LiteSpeed Cache to prevent conflicts.

Conclusion

We hope this guide helps you implement the best steps to speed up your WordPress site. If you have questions or need help improving your website’s speed, don’t hesitate to contact the BayHost support team.