10 Proven Ways to Increase WordPress Website Speed

Are you wondering how to increase website speed?

Well, at the start, everyone faces the same issue you are facing, but you don’t have to worry anymore. We will tell you how to improve your website speed to lower the bounce rate. According to Google, the site that takes almost 10 seconds to load has a bounce rate of 123%”.

so the traffic will be lost, and ranking too. 

To avoid these problems, you must speed up your WordPress site to load faster than 5 seconds to keep the reader on your site. Also, the site’s loading speed matters for Google to rank your site. If you don’t pay attention, you’ll lose visibility and potential clients that bounce back due to high loading speed.

The good news?

You can optimize your WordPress site’s loading speed by following the ten simple but effective techniques to avoid all this trouble. These techniques will improve your search engine ranking and user experience. 

So let’s start without any further wait:

Choose a Lightweight Theme

When setting up a WordPress website, your chosen theme sets the foundation for speed and performance. Lightweight themes are designed with minimal code and avoid unnecessary features that can slow down your site. Unlike heavy themes with many built-in features, lightweight themes offer a lean structure that keeps loading times low.

Popular Lightweight Themes to Consider

• Astra

Known for speed and simplicity, Astra is a popular choice for users seeking a fast, minimal design.

• GeneratePress

Another highly rated theme, GeneratePress, is optimized for speed and works well with popular page builders.

• Neve

Neve is designed for versatility and offers a lightweight framework that allows customers customisation.

Choosing a theme like this ensures that your site runs smoothly. Avoid themes with excessive animations, sliders, or complex designs, as these can add extra load times and negatively impact performance.

Invest in Quality Hosting

Hosting is the backbone of your website’s speed. A reliable, high-quality hosting provider optimised for WordPress can drastically improve load times. Look for hosting options that cater specifically to WordPress, often including server-side optimizations that general hosting services may lack.

Types of Hosting to Consider

• Shared Hosting:

While affordable, shared hosting can be slower because your site shares resources with many others.

• Managed WordPress Hosting:

Offers speed benefits with optimised servers and built-in caching.

• Dedicated or VPS Hosting:

It is more expensive but provides superior performance by allocating specific resources to your website.

Some well-regarded providers known for WordPress speed include SiteGround, Bluehost, and WP Engine. These providers focus on speed and uptime, ensuring your site performs at its best.

Optimise Images for WordPress

Images and visuals are the essential parts of the website that give an appealing look to your site. But you must compress the lard image file into a low-widget image by reducing the memory size. 

However, some of the methods that are used to optimise the images for the website are defined below:

Image Optimisation Methods

• Use Compression Tools:

You have to compress the size of the image by reducing some extra MBs of the image. You can use “TinePNG” or “ShortPixel” tools to compress the image before uploading.

• Enable Lazy Loading:

One more effective way to improve the loading time is to use lazy loading, which delays the visuals so the visitor can load the remaining site faster.

• Choose the Right File Format:

First, only two popular image formats, “JPEG” and “PNG”, take time to load. But now there’s a particular image format for the site “WebP” that provides high quality with a smaller size and loads faster than other image formats.

Optimizing images is not an option but rather a compulsory step to follow if you want to increase the speed of your site. 

Minify CSS and JavaScript Files

As you know, CSS and JavaScript files contain thousands of lines of code that control your site’s appearance and functionality, reducing the extra lines of code or spaces that weren’t even needed. 

These files are large, and reducing the size of the files makes the site load faster.  

Here’s how you can do this:

Simple Steps to Minify Code

• Use Minification Plugins:

You have to use “Autoptimize” or “WP Rocket” to make the minifying process more accessible and automatic, reducing the file size.

• Combine Files:

Try to combine multiple CSS and Java files into one single file; that helps reduce the number of requests HTTP has to process while loading to improve the load time.

Now it’s time to discover some plugins that will help you to make the responses faster.

• Use the Caching Plugin for Faster Response

Caching stores a version of your site so that when a visitor visits some pages and tries to return to the previous page, it presents the saved version instead of loading the whole page from the start.

Benefits of Caching Plugins:

• Faster Load Times for Return Visitors:

Cached pages load almost instantly for visitors who come back to your site.

• Reduced Server Load:

Caching lowers the demand on your server, especially during high-traffic periods.

Some popular WordPress caching plugins include W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache. These plugins are easy to install and come with customizable settings to help optimize load speeds.

• Limit the Number of Plugins

While plugins help you add functionality to the site, they also make the site load that takes time to load. Each plugin contains code that adds weight to the site and impacts the site badly.

Here are three tips to manage plugins:

Tips for Managing Plugins Efficiently

• Audit Existing Plugins:

Regularly review your plugins and delete those you no longer need.

• Choose Multi-Function Plugins:

Instead of several single-use plugins, look for ones that cover multiple needs.

• Keep Plugins Updated:

You must remove or update the old plugin that didn’t work to make your site faster and more lightweight.

• Distribute Your Content Over Servers

A content distribution network (CDN) saves a copy of your content on different servers at other locations. So, the user can access the content from the nearest location to save the load and the request time. In most straightforward words, the closer the server to the client, the faster the response they get.

Now let’s discuss some benefits of CDN:

• Global Speed Improvements:

Users around the world can access your site faster.

• Reduced Server Load:

CDNs handle some of the traffic, reducing demand on your primary server.

Popular CDN providers for WordPress include Cloudflare and StackPath. These services are relatively easy to set up and can significantly affect page load speed.

Reduce External Scripts and Font Files

External scripts, such as social media widgets, font files, and advertising networks, can slow down your site. Each external file adds another request, increasing load times.

How to Limit External Resources:

• Choose Local Hosting for Fonts:

Download and host font files locally instead of linking to external sources.

• Use Minimal Social Media Plugins:

Instead of multiple widgets, consider simpler alternatives. 

• Limit Ad Scripts:

Ads can slow your site significantly. Consider their placement and only use essential ones.

By reducing the number of external scripts, you keep your website loading quickly, even on slower connections.

Update WordPress Regularly

You must keep WordPress’s theme, plugins, and installation up to date to optimize its performance.

The update may include removing the bugs from the site or adding an extra feature to improve the loading speed. Avoiding the updates can make you slow and increase the risk of the bounce rate.

Tips for Regular Updates

• Schedule Weekly Checks:

Make it a habit to review available updates for your site.

• Enable Auto-Updates:

Some plugins and themes offer auto-update, so you have to enable it so that whenever an update is launched, you get updated ASAP.

• Back-Up Before Updating:

Regular backups protect you from potential issues that may arise from updates.

Consistently updating your WordPress components keeps your site running smoothly and prevents unnecessary lags.

Optimize Your Database

As time passes, your database can store junk files that are no longer needed, and you have to remove them all. These could be spam mail or comments, old drafts, and revisions. Regularly manage the database’s content to ensure you have only the needed data.

Steps for Database Optimization

• Remove Old Revisions:

Post revisions and drafts take up unnecessary space.

• Delete Spam and Trash:

Removing these items clears up the database. A junk file or a large file you didn’t need will be an unnecessary weight for your website.

• Use a Plugin for Automation:

Using plugins like WP-Optimise can handle these tasks automatically, keeping your database in top shape.

Database optimization is a simple yet effective way to reduce load times and enhance site performance, especially as your content grows.

Conclusion

By following these ten proven techniques, you can improve the speed of your WordPress website speed significantly. Faster WordPress websites provide a better experience, reduce bounce rates, and even help with search engine rankings. Start with the lightweight theme and premium hosting. Then, move to image optimisation as this takes time to load the site.

Regularly updating the content and removing unnecessary files from the database will make the site faster. Implementing these methods needs deep technical knowledge, so if you are unaware of these things, we prefer to hire a specialist or an agency to handle your workload while you see the results.

But if you don’t have the time or expertise to do it by yourself, contact us now to speed up your website and reduce your site speed.

FAQ About increasing website speed

• How do I optimize my site for more speed?

You can start with premium hosting and then move to image optimization. This will cover 50% of your WordPress site’s speed issue, which will be more than enough if you are a non-technical person.

• Why is the load time high while the internet speed is high?

A WordPress site can be slow for many reasons, such as having too many plugins or requests. Try to remove unused or old plugins that aren’t necessary anymore.

• What is caching?  

Cashing is the process of previewing the old version of the page visitors visit and moving to the next page, and when they come back, that old version is presented to them. This saves the site the load time it takes to load from the start.

• Why do I have to optimize the images for the site speed?

Images with huge sizes take time to load, which makes the site slow. Optimising, reducing the size, and using the Webp format for the image will increase the site’s speed.

• What is hosting, and what is its impact on the WordPress website?

Website hosting is a place where your site is stored and presented live. The more reliable and premium the hosting will be, the faster you’ll get. Try using something other than free hosting, as it is slow and insecure.

• How to test WordPress website speed?

Use the Google Analytics tools or GT metrics that give you an idea of how fast your site is loading and what steps you must take to increase the website’s speed.

• Does using too many plugins affect website performance?  

Yes, using only a few plugins can slow down your site. Each plugin contains the code, and the site takes time to load all these codes whenever a visitor opens a site.