As a WordPress development agency, we design and develop our client’s WordPress websites with page loading speed top of mind. Google recommends that websites load no longer than 2 seconds, otherwise you signifcantly risk users bouncing off.

Here are our top 7 tips to get the most of your WordPress’ page loading speed.

1. Choose a reliable web host

The key to a fast website starts with a reliable web host provider. As your site grows, you’ll need sufficient online storage to house all your website’s files. As your website receives more users and consumes more bandwidth, you’ll be tasked with potentially upgrading your web hosting server to cater to the additonal bandwidth demand. Selecting a local web hosting provider is key to scaling success.

2. Invest in a good CDN provider

Another aspect you’ll need to consider in setting up your website is your geographical demographic of your website. If you’re focusing on a target audience near the area of your server, then the loading times of your WordPress website will definitely be faster.

However, say you wanted to expand your services to target a different city or country? You’d now need to consider whether your site files are being served promptly to where your new target audience are situated.

This is where a CDN comes into play. A CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a geographically distributed server. A CDN can help reduce the geographical distance from your server to your target area, making your website faster. Most CDN providers will have servers scattered all across the globe, allowing for optimal delivery of your web files.

3. Update your website constantly

Much like a house, your WordPress website will require consistent updates and maintenance. You will need to constantly update it to make sure that your WordPress’ version and plugins are up to date. This prevents potential common WordPress exploits from occuring, protects you from potential hacks or allows various functionalities across your website to perform as it should.

By keeping your WordPress website up-to-date, you’re essentially providing it the best chances of loading as fast as possible.

4. Install a WordPress caching plugin

There are many ways to ensure that WordPress website loads blistering fast. A reliable caching plugin lies at the heart of fast WordPress websites. Cache plugins offer an effective way to speeden up your website without any significant investment. Cache plugins make a copy of your site so that every time someone types in your web address, the copied version is served. This allows for faster delivery of your pages without having to pull every single page component upon every load.

For much bigger sites, having a closer copy of your content can drastically save on your page loading speed.

We recommend testing the following and seeing what best works for your website: WP Fastest Cache, WP Rocket or WP Super Cache.

5. Limit the image sizes in your website

Images, if uncompressed can signifcantly add to extremely high WordPress page loading times. It’s important consider what images are absolute necessary and which images can be removed or compressed to further reduce their file sizes. We recommend using TinyPNG to compress your WordPress images and significantly reduce your page’s sizes to improve page loading speed.

6. Install only necessary plugins to your site

WordPress plugins can be very helpful in adding extra functionalities to your site. However, in some cases, plugins can also be a double-edged sword. Many WordPress plugins will serve their functions and purpose, but they may also contribute largely to how fast your website loads.

The rule of thumb is that if you don’t absolutely require the plugin, then it’s best to deactivate it or remove it altogether. Additiionally, ensuring that all your plugins are compatiable with one another and frequently updated is key to a top-performing WordPress website.

7. Clean your site database regularly

A database cleanup means more free space. Organise your database and regularly optimise your database of any unnecessary information that is not core to the operation of your site. More often than not, we see very large websites with a ton of WordPress post and page revisions that are stored in the database. This adds to the extra bloat and can be easily removed to improve page loading speed.