Skip to main content

How to Improve WordPress Site Speed for Better Performance

Once upon a time, in the tranquil hours of a Sunday morning while sipping our favorite brew - a charming blend of exotic beans promising clarity and enlightenment - we embarked on a mission to uncover the mysteries of WordPress site speed. It all started with a cheeky comment from our friend Lara, who owns a bustling online bakery. "My website," she declared between bites of croissant, "loads slower than molasses in January." Our little quest was ignited right then and there, urging us to delve into the secretive underworld of optimizing WordPress for speed and excellence. Let me tell you about that journey.

Wake-up Call: Discovering the Current Speed​

Before we dive headfirst into the labyrinth of optimization, we need to first realize how slow we actually are. Imagine dragging yourself up a hill, unknowingly carrying a backpack full of rocks, while everyone else jaunts effortlessly by. That’s what a sluggish website feels like to unsuspecting visitors. We need to shed the stones.

The first step is identifying our current speed situation. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix are like the stopwatch-toting coaches we didn’t know we needed—brutal yet fair. We punched in Lara's URL, fingers crossed, and awaited the digital judgment. Watching those numbers load felt like waiting for exam results. Surprisingly — or not so surprisingly — her score was abysmal. But hope is never lost; it just hides in optimization.

Clean House: Minimizing Plugins​

At the heart of WordPress' charm lies its plethora of plugins. Oh, the temptation! Swapping one more for that extra feature feels like sneaking another piece of chocolate from the box late at night. But too many can weigh down your site like indulgent flavors on a debut bake attempt. So off we went, ruthlessly pruning like gardeners striving for a bloom of speed.

Here’s our method, as nail-biting and tedious as spring cleaning. We began with a simple graph: a list of all the plugins currently installed. Sitting on Lara’s sunny porch, we identified the redundant and the obsolete, like old letters that had long lost their meaning. Deactivate one — test — reactivate — repeat. The mantra became a song, till we were left with only what was necessary.

The Power of Caching: Turning Enemies into Friends​

Honestly, cache is like that mysterious cousin who waltzes in with an extravagant wardrobe—turns heads but also ensures no one else steals your thunder. We learned quickly: caching is indispensable. It stores copies of our site pages, reducing the server’s workload and allowing visitors fast access.

For Lara, we suggested using the well-groomed WP Super Cache — a trusty companion in the caching journey. Installation was a breeze, akin to inviting a helpful neighbor over—we checked all the boxes: Simple, Expert, CDN. Each option carefully scrutinized like a hawk watching over her nestlings.

// Installing WP Super Cache
// Go to Plugins > Add New > Search "WP Super Cache"
// Click Install Now -> Activate

Image Optimization: Cutting Down the Weight​

Pixies danced through the JPEGs and PNGs scattered around Lara’s website, gobbling up unnecessary bytes with gleeful abandon. We joined the dance! With tools like Smush and Imagify, images shed their heavy coats and became agile sprites, flitting through the site with ease. Lara, being an artist at heart, appreciated that her luscious eclairs and fondant trimmings retained every bit of their mouth-watering allure without dragging everything down.

Here's how we tackled image optimization, step-by-step, as if trimming cake layers to perfection:

// Installing Smush for image optimization
// Go to Plugins > Add New > Search "Smush"
// Click Install Now -> Activate

Sort Out the Database: Tidying the Unseen​

Our WordPress database had become a hoarder, clutching revisions and spam comments like it was holding onto family heirlooms. But with clenched fists and hopeful hearts, we rolled our sleeves up to clean house. A tidy database is like the store backroom—unseen, yet crucially neat to ensure everything out front sparkles. Plugins like WP-Optimize swooped in to save the day, organizing with a swiftness that would put Marie Kondo to shame.

Choose a Lightweight Theme: Shedding Extra Layers​

I remember Lara saying, "It’s like wearing a heavy winter coat in the heat of summer," referring to her choice of theme. We had to exchange that bulky cover for something airy yet stylish, something that would let her baked delights breathe. We opted for a lightweight theme, like GeneratePress or Astra, which are like donning a chic, breeze-friendly ensemble at an otherwise stuffy event.

We considered several factors: responsiveness, customizability, and most importantly, speed. Our main objective was to get Lara’s pages to load faster than a customer’s appetite. We trimmed excesses like a master stylist ensuring a sharply tailored suit.

Enable Compression: A Cozy Site Hug​

Compression — sounds technical and daunting, but merely means hugging your content closely to compress information and speed up delivery. Like packing a suitcase with space savers for a long summer holiday. With a little help from Gzip or Brotli, the data gets squeezed tighter, cutting down load times, and improving efficiency.

Implementation was straightforward, and for those who enjoy a little tech magic, it can be done via the .htaccess file in your WordPress root directory:

# Enable Gzip Compression
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/css
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript application/x-javascript
</IfModule>

Leverage Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): A Global Delivery Dream​

Imagine having copies of Lara's bakery near every would-be customer's doorstep. That’s what CDNs achieve: diminishing the distances and lapses between server and user. In our quest to conquer the world (or just speed up a website), we turned to Cloudflare and StackPath.

Enabling a CDN is much like shipping your delicious products efficiently — quick setup, with adequate reach.

Laughable Oversight: Don’t Forget Regular Updates​

Who would've thought that regular updates could play such a pivotal role? Yet, it’s akin to changing the oil in a car we often neglect — small habit, transformative effects. We made a pact right there on the porch, that we’d keep our beloved WordPress site healthy and current.

Through this journey, we realized that much like baking a cake, optimizing a website requires careful consideration of each ingredient. It’s not just about data speeds and scores but about forging connections, quick harmonies, and effortless presentations. Our hands may have been tired, our coffee may have grown cold, but we rested assured that Lara’s website — like our friendships — was built for speed and endurance.

In the end, improving a WordPress site is less about numbers and more about creating a seamless, beautiful experience — just like life’s best moments. Here’s to those moments spent together, tweaking lines of code, sharing laughs, and savoring sweets — here’s to speed, efficiency, and good company.