WordPress optimization guide on boosting performance

Website performance is crucial in today’s digital environment for user satisfaction and search engine rankings. WordPress, being one of the most popular content management systems, offers a variety of possibilities for website building and maintenance. However, in order to get maximum performance, your WordPress site must be optimized.

Choose a Lightweight Theme

When choosing a WordPress theme, go for lightweight choices that prioritise performance. Look for themes that are well-coded, have a clean design, and concentrate on the most important features. A lightweight theme decreases your website’s total load time and offers a seamless user experience.

My recommendation if you’re using Elementor, is to use their own theme called Hello, you can read my review here.

Minimize Plugin Usage

Stop filling your site with plugins that accomplish a variety of things! While plugins might add functionality to your website, an excessive amount of plugins can cause it to slow down. Examine the plugins installed on your WordPress site on a regular basis and delete those that are no longer needed. If feasible, combine many plugins into a single plugin to lessen the demand on your website’s resources and reduce page requests.

Optimize Images

Images frequently account for the majority of the size of a webpage. Optimize your photographs by compressing them without compromising quality; I recommend using the popular Smush plugin to optimize every image in your Media Library as well as future uploads on the fly. This step dramatically improves site speed and loading times.

Implement Caching

Caching is the process of storing frequently requested data, such as HTML pages and images, in order to provide them to users as soon as they are requested. Installing a caching plugin, such as W3 Total Cache, enables you to create static copies of your websites, eliminating the need for recurrent processing requests.

Caching enhances user experience by increasing loading speeds and decreasing server load. If you have a mission critical website, which you’re making money from the business and are looking for a next-level caching solution, we recommend WP Rocket.

wprocket-file-optimization

WP Rocket Settings

  1. Cache
    • Enable caching for mobile devices box.
    • Check the Enable caching for logged-in WordPress users box.
    • Keep the Cache Lifespan set to 10 hours if you often update your page.
  2. Optimisation of Files
    • Check the box next to Minify CSS files.
    • Unless you’re using HTTP/1.1, leave Combine CSS files unchecked.
    • Enable Optimise CSS Delivery and leave the default setting of “Load CSS Asynchronously” alone.
    • Check the box next to Minify JS files. – Again, deselect Combine JS files unless you are using HTTP/1.1.
    • Enable the Load JavaScript delayed option.
  3. Media
    • LazyLoad
      • Check the Enable box for pictures box.
      • Check the box to Enable lazyLoad for iframes and videos.
      • Check the Replace YouTube iframe with preview image box.
    • Enable Fill in the missing picture dimensions.
    • Don’t lazyload the LCP image!
      • Exclude LCP images by adding their URL to the “Excluded images or iframes” field.
  4. Preload 
    • Enable preloading.
    • Check the Enable link preloading box.
  5. Database
    • Remove revisions, draughts, transients, comments, and other sorts of backend overhead from your database.
    • Before you mess with the database, make a backup of your WordPress installation in case something goes wrong.
    • Tick the boxes that correspond to the areas of the database that you wish to clear up, then click Save Changes and Optimise.

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Content Delivery Networks, deliver static material from your website, such as photos, CSS, and JavaScript files, across several servers in different geographic locations. This distribution guarantees that consumers may access your website from the server that is nearest to them, lowering latency and increasing loading times.

Integrate a CDN, such as Cloudflare or MaxCDN ( Now StackPath ) to take advantage of their worldwide network and improve the speed of your WordPress site.

No Cheap Hosting

To keep your website reliable, fast, and online, avoid using cheap hosting companies. I’m talking about the ones who offer huge promotional discounts but then quadruple the price after the first year. Instead, go with a managed provider who specialises in WordPress hosting and maintains their servers free of congestion.

Regular Updates and Maintenance:

It is critical for speed optimization to keep your WordPress core, themes, and plugins up to date. Updates including bug fixes, security patches, and performance improvements are often released by developers.

Check for updates on a regular basis and install them to guarantee that your website functions smoothly and efficiently. Additionally, execute routine maintenance chores such as database optimization and performance monitoring.

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