How To Make Your WordPress Website Load Faster

There is nothing more annoying than a slow-loading website. So it is important to make sure that your website is fast, regardless of the internet connection speed that is used to view it.

Our list below gives several options you have for speeding up your WordPress website.

1. Limit the Number of Plugins that you Use.

Plugins are a great way to add special functionality to a website. However, many plugins often increase the size of each page and load unnecessary CSS files and JavaScript. So be sure to deactivate any plugins which are not being used. Additionally, stop using plugins that dramatically increase the load time of a page.

2. Cache. Cache. Cache.

Another way to speed up your website is by implementing caching. Caching serves pages faster by saving copies of files and limiting server-side processing. One plugin which does a great job at caching is WP Super Cache.

3. Use Compression.

Sometimes pages load slowly because of the size of the page or media that is contained within. By using compression, namely gzip, can significantly reduce the size of each page. And it can be accomplished by using the WP Super Cache that we linked to above, or various other WordPress plugins.

4. Optimize Images.

One thing that slows down many WordPress websites is that large images are often embedded in posts. Instead, take advantage of WordPress’ great thumbnail features and opt not to use the full-sized image. You can also optimize images before uploading them to WordPress. For more information, see our article 6 Ways To Optimize An Image.

5. Opt for a Minimalist Theme.

Sometimes, the problem lies with the theme. Perhaps your chosen theme has a lot of images and graphics. Perhaps it has a lot of bulky code and custom, yet inefficient, database queries. If this is the case, you will need to simplify your theme or choose another.

6. Don’t Rely on External Websites.

Much of the content around the web, such as videos from YouTube, or images from image storage websites, can be linked to directly. The problem with this is that your website will be only as fast as the external website. So if they are having a slow day or a down day, your website will be negatively affected. Some other examples of external content include badges from advertising websites and widgets.

7. Minimize Advertising.

It might also be necessary to minimize your use of advertisements. If you are using image ads or javascript based ads which are hosted elsewhere, you will have the problem that we just identified above. So one way around this problem is to opt for text or link ads. If you must use image ads, see if you can host the images yourself.

8. Move to a new host?

If you’ve tried everything and still have a slow-loading website, the problem could be with your web host. We have dealt with some hosts, for example, which take significantly more time than the norm to process PHP files and MySQL queries. So, if you’ve exhausted all possibilities and have talked to the support provided by your host, then its time to move on. Looking for a good WordPress host? Try HostGator .

 

For more information on making your website faster, see our article 32 Ways To Spped Up Your Website.

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12 Responses to “How To Make Your WordPress Website Load Faster”

  • Raju December 29, 2008 at 11:10 am

    Damn :|
    I have a post in my drafts which is pretty similar to this, very helpful post for many I am sure

  • zplits | what’s the latest? March 22, 2009 at 11:08 am

    Hi, thanks for this great information. Could you check my site if it is loading fast enough?

  • John September 19, 2009 at 5:00 pm

    Hi,

    It seems that the Wp Super Cache plugin isn’t compatible for WP 2.8.4 (only up to 2.8.2). Are there any other options?

    Also, is there any way to make the central content container load before the sidebars? That would make things faster.

  • hassan January 2, 2010 at 9:00 am

    ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh man thank you so much that super chace thing did help soooooo much my website is now like ……. 100 times faster

  • Mauricio September 4, 2011 at 1:11 pm

    If you are using wordpress, i think the best one is (W3 Total Cache)

  • Garen October 18, 2011 at 11:55 am

    Also you can check your site speed with pingdom tools. They are great and try to keep you site loading under 5 seconds. It might take a little bit of work, but has a lot of advantages. Higher rankings in Google are one :) .

  • Ven February 9, 2012 at 6:29 am

    Hi, Apart from Super Cache, Hypercache is one of the best wordpress plugin to improve blog loading time. You can also use the Head cleaner wordpress plugin which optimizes css, js scripts to load even faster.

    Thanks.

  • Ozhan June 29, 2012 at 2:18 am

    When I tried cache first it slowed my site down. Is it normal or is there a problem with my theme?

    • Velvet Blues October 30, 2012 at 1:05 pm

      Sometimes a cache can slow down your site. This could happen based on your configuration settings or how well your server supports the caching plugin that you are using.

  • Gihan December 20, 2012 at 6:51 am

    after i installed the WP Super cache i noticed that the home page is loading faster but still the inside pages are very slow. any help/advice?

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