How to Increase WordPress Website Speed (Easy Guide)

You’ve definitely heard or read somewhere that the average human attention span is getting shorter and shorter (about 7 seconds if we’re being precise), and that this is mostly due to the information age that we all live in. The average customer is exposed to hundreds, if not thousands, of different sorts of information every day, including blog posts, videos, newsletters, and advertisements, which, of course, causes him to be extremely cautious and discriminating about where he directs his attention.

As a result, many business owners nowadays are concerned about how to capture people’s attention and direct them to their websites. But the real difficulty is how to keep them there.

Why Speed is Important for Your WordPress Site?

We may say that the digital world is pretty busy, thus in order for your website to stand out, you must provide the best experience possible. This means easy-to-use graphics, high-quality information, and, of course, a superb site speed!

It is likely that you have predicted what we will be discussing based on the title of this blog post. For your website to be successful, it must operate at peak performance and speed.

Consumers today aren’t willing to waste any time waiting for a website to load for more than a few seconds, which is why most website speed testing tools have a default setting of 3 seconds.

So, in the following few paragraphs, we’ll go over the following topics:

• Why is it so important for your WordPress website to load as quickly as possible? \
• What is causing it to slow down?
• What elements can have an impact on speed?
• What actions can you take to improve the overall performance of your website?

As previously stated, multiple studies have demonstrated that the average human attention span is approximately seven seconds. Seven seconds. Period. That is the amount of time you have to grab your visitor’s attention.

Unfortunately, in 2021, creating and publishing high-quality content isn’t enough to ensure the success of your website/business. The truth is that if your website is slow, potential customers may bounce or leave it before it even begins to load.

So, what do you do now? You should strive for excellence in both critical areas. Provide the best content possible and strive to have your website load in less than 3-4 seconds!

Because search engines such as Google now punish sites that aren’t fast, you should focus on making your website more efficient. Google considers sites with high bounce rates (when visitors leave a website before it loads) a “downvote” and pushes them down in search results.

In what way does this affect you, as a webmaster or site owner?

The amount of time you have to show users your content and persuade them to stay on your site is extremely limited.

In the case of a slow website, users may leave your site before it has even loaded.

One second delay in page load time can lead to 7% loss in conversions, 11% less page views, and 16% decrease in customer satisfaction, according to a StrangeLoop case study involving Amazon and Google and other larger sites.

How to Check Your WordPress Website Speed?

Top WordPress Performance Testing Tools

Test your website’s performance with the following tools to see how well it’s running. To cross-reference website data, you can use a single tool or a combination of tools.

1. PageSpeed Insights by Google – Web page speed analysis by Google

PageSpeed Insights was created by Google. This handy web app measures and tests WordPress performance on your site across a variety of devices, including desktop and mobile browsers, to ensure that your site is running smoothly. Users who access your site from different screen sizes and devices will benefit from this.

2. Pingdom Tools – Toolkits for Pingdom

There’s a free service called Pingdom that provides you with detailed information about your website’s performance including page load time and page size, as well as an in-depth analysis of each page on your website. You can even track your progress in reducing loading times by using this app’s performance history feature.

3. A third option is GTmetrix – Performance Test GTmetrix

Using GTmetrix, you’ll get an overview of your website’s loading speeds over time and a detailed report with suggestions on how to improve it. There is also a video playback feature that allows you to see where the loading speed bottlenecks occur.

4. WebPagetest Test your website’s performance with WebPagetest

Using WebPagetest, you can find out how fast your site loads, as well as a grade breakdown of its performance. Uniquely, you can choose a country from which to view your report, allowing you to see how your site performs around the globe. A large number of users from other countries may find this useful.

5. YSlow Plugin for the Browser – Browser extension called YSlow

Browser plug-in “YSlow” monitors the performance of any site that’s currently open in your browser and lets you know how well it performs. No load time is given, but it breaks down over 20 different performance indicators. This will allow you to compare your site to those of your competitors in your niche.

What Slows Down Your WordPress Website Website and How to Fix it?

1. Low-cost hosting plan

Your website’s host is where it resides and accesses the resources necessary to handle the traffic. If you use a shared hosting server or a low-cost hosting plan, your website will invariably run slowly. Your host controls the speed at which your information is transmitted to and received by your viewers. If you’re experiencing server limitations, none of the fixes listed below will speed up your site.

Solution / Fix: Using a managed WordPress hosting provider provides you with the best server settings for WordPress. Managed WordPress hosting providers also include automated backups, WordPress upgrades, and enhanced security features. This is why investing in a high-quality hosting plan is critical to your site’s success.

2. Data “caching”

Caching is a feature that saves a version of your site to be displayed multiple times by the same source. By avoiding the need to extract files directly from the server, your website consumes fewer resources. Regrettably, this also means that you must frequently purge your caching history to ensure that your audience does not view an out-of-date version of your site.

Solution / Fix :
Caching may speed up your WordPress site by 2-5x. Instead of generating the page each time, your caching plugin copies the page after the first load and provides it to future users.

Fortunately, you can resolve this minor issue by combining WordPress’s cache tool plugin with Varnish.

3. Utilization of large image files

While high-quality images enhance the aesthetics of your site, they can also significantly slow down its load time. Obviously, you cannot eliminate all images from your website, and it is frequently difficult to reduce the size of an image without sacrificing its quality using conventional editing software.

Solution / Fix:
That is why we recommend tools like ImageOptim and Optimole, both of which have demonstrated their worth numerous times.

4. There is no content distribution network (CDN)

Is your target audience located outside that country? Then you should consider using a content delivery network (CDN), which enables you to reach your audience from anywhere in the world without sacrificing site speed. You have a high traffic site but no content delivery network (CDN) to reduce the load on the hosting

Solution / Fix:
Multiple versions of your site are made available via this system on several proxy servers, which your visitors can access via the server closest to them.

5. Reduce the size of CSS, HTML, JS, and other files

Computers operate more efficiently when they are not required to read lengthy, complicated codes.
Solution /Fix:
You can reduce the time it takes for your site to load by minifying all CSS, HTML, and JS files. Numerous plugins, including Minify and Autoptimize, can assist you in this endeavor.

6. A Cluttered and Outdated WordPress database

WordPress is a well-maintained open source project. Each update will include new features as well as security fixes and bug fixes. Also, your WordPress theme and plugins may be updated.

As a website owner, you must maintain your WordPress site, theme, and plugins updated. Without it, your site will be sluggish, unstable, and susceptible to security attacks.

To keep your WordPress site running at peak performance, you must regularly clean out your database of any unnecessary data. Every other day, you should delete spam comments, unused data, and content. You can accomplish this task more efficiently by utilizing plugins rather than wasting hours on it manually.

7. Obsolete themes, plugins or Unnecessary themes and plugins

If you’ve been putting off system and plugin updates, now is the time to rectify the situation. Obsolete themes place a strain on your servers and leave them vulnerable to advanced threats.

When you update your website, you should delete any deactivated themes that are no longer in use. This reduces the load on your server and consequently increases your speed.

8. Low-quality or excessively large themes and frameworks

As with large images and files, using elaborate or low-quality themes and frameworks slows down your site. You do not need to use fewer plugins to maximize your site’s efficiency; simply invest in the

9. An excessive number of external links

Incorporating relevant external links into your content is an effective way to optimize it according to SEO standards. However, if you include an excessive number of external links, your server will struggle to retrieve all associated data in a timely manner. Conduct an audit of your links and include only those that are absolutely necessary for your SEO ranking.

10. Using WP Rocket and Optimizing Google Web Core

WP Rocket is the world’s most powerful web performance plugin. It will immediately decrease your page’s load time and improve your PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals scores on Google. There is no requirement for coding skills.