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.