Please check out the first part of our blog.
Importance of Fast Hosting:
The performance and quality of the server you host your site on can make or break your business.
We’ve worked with customers that swear by these cheap shared hosting, but after showing them the results of switching to a premium provider, they were amazed at the difference and could never go back! They saw a noticeable improvement in the speed of their website, not only on desktop devices but mobile as well.
If you’re still wondering why hosting is so important? Well, you’re only as fast as your slowest loading factor. If you host a terrible provider, it doesn’t matter how awesome your website is! It will take forever to load, and customers will leave before even giving you the chance to convert them into leads or sales.
Allocate Sufficient Server Resources:
Server resources refer to the amount of CPU, RAM, and storage space allotted on your server. Every WordPress installation needs a minimum of these three core resources to function properly.
If your site is experiencing a slow loading time, this could be due to insufficient server resources or an overloaded server struggling to meet demand. Unfortunately, if you are on a cheap shared hosting plan, your website will be sharing server space with many other websites and have to compete for every bit of resource available.
How VPS Hosting May Cost Less than Shared Hosting:
You might think that upgrading to a VPS is expensive, but that’s not always the case! A VPS gives you the option to customize the resources allotted to your site, and you only pay for what you require.
Recent research done by Google found that 53% of mobile visitors to a website will leave if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. You should consider that when calculating how much to spend on hosting.
Set Up WordPress Caching Efficiently:
Caching is a way to store the HTML content of your pages, so it doesn’t have to be regenerated every single time. It can take the load off your server and vastly increase your site’s loading speed by serving the cached pages instead.
- WP Rocket, When it comes to premium WordPress caching, there is no better tool out there. WP Rocket allows you to set up caching for your site in minutes with a few simple clicks.
- Sure, there are some free plugins out there that you might want to try. They require some backend customizations on your part and don’t provide much control over how to set it up. But for the price of a Cup-of-Coffee Once A Month, WP Rocket is a much better option.
- W3 Total Cache, If you’re looking for a free caching plugin to speed up your WordPress site, W3 Total Cache is your best option. It has the most comprehensive features and settings to fine-tune your site’s caching.
Some better hosting companies include a premium caching plugin for free as part of their hosting plans—another reason not to skimp on your hosting in the long run.
Use Cloudflare or Other CDN (Content Delivery Network):
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of servers distributed across different geographical locations. When users try to access your website, they will automatically be routed to the nearest server closest to them based on their location.
This means, if you have a lot of visitors from Germany and Australia accessing your site, they will get served from a server in Germany or Australia.
- Cloudflare, Cloudflare is the most widely used CDN globally, and its free version doesn’t require a credit card to set up. You’ll need to change some settings on Cloudflare before it starts working properly with WordPress. You will also want to install the official Cloudflare plugin for easier integration with WP Rocket or other caching plugins.
- Paid Cloudflare plans are mainly for larger sites, and their costs may not suit WordPress blogs. In that case, you might want to consider an alternative such as KeyCDN.
- KeyCDN, If your site has outgrown Cloudflare, or you’re just looking for a more premium CDN, we recommend KeyCDN as the best alternative. Their plans are affordable, and you will see results immediately after switching over.
Use a Plugin to Optimize Images:
Images take forever to load on a WordPress site and can be the number one reason your blog or website is slow.
Several plugins will compress all of your images automatically as you upload them:
- WP Smush, This plugin offers compression, optimization, and intelligent size scaling for JPEG and PNG files. It’s free, but you can get even more features if you upgrade to the pro version.
- ShortPixel, is a powerful and easy-to-use WordPress plugin that automatically optimizes your images with just a few clicks. It only needs to be set up once, and it will optimize all of your images as you upload them.
Several DIY methods optimize your images manually, but plugins are much easier to use.
Install SSL Certificate and Use HTTP2 Protocol:
If you’re wondering how serving your pages over an encrypted connection can speed up your WordPress site, we’ll explain.
It will not only encrypt the data transmitted between you and your website visitors, but also speeds up their browsing experience.
The new HTTP2 protocol allows browsers to download multiple files simultaneously in parallel. So if you have a large site with lots of images and videos, it will drastically reduce the amount of time it takes for your pages to load.
Enabling SSL on your WordPress website is really easy these days, so there’s no reason not to do it! It can be done on any hosting company, and it’s absolutely free.
Upgrade to the Latest PHP Version:
Most people don’t know that you can update your PHP version within your cPanel dashboard. You only need to enable it once, and your WordPress site will automatically upgrade to the latest version of PHP.
It’s a straightforward process that many beginners may not know, and it can improve your website speed by almost 30%!
If you can’t find this option in your hosting dashboard, you can always contact the hosting provider’s support team, and they can do it for you.
Cleanup Your Plugins and Themes:
The WordPress plugin directory contains over 50,000 free plugins, and it’s pretty easy to get carried away and install a lot of them on your website. The same goes with themes.
While some plugins are handy and will improve the functionality of your site, others may cause it to run slow if they’re not coded properly or not updated regularly.
If you have a few minutes on your hands, take some time to go through your plugin list and delete any plugins you’re not using.
Also, try to use a lightweight theme that doesn’t include dozens of unnecessary features or short codes. You can always add new themes later if needed, so there’s no need for it when you first launch your website!
Professional WordPress Speed Optimizations:
Many of the features and optimizations mentioned above can be done independently. But if you’ve tried everything, and you’re still experiencing speed issues, it’s time to bring in the professionals.
We’ll work with you to discover the root cause of your WordPress website speed issue. We’ll give you a clear explanation of why your site is slow and how to fix it.
Our average turn-around time is between three and five business days. So, you can rest assured that your site will be running smoothly again in no time at all!
What to expect from Our Speed Optimization Service?
We’ll run through our detailed checklist to identify the root cause of your website speed problem.
Next, we will compress all images on your site using lossless compression, so they load as fast as possible without taking up so much storage.
Then, we will review your plugins and troubleshoot any speed issues as required.
We’ll check your code and fix any bugs that are causing your site to load slowly. We can also install Cloudflare for you (optional but recommended).
Next, we will migrate your DNS hosting to secure the new host with SSL enabled.
Once complete, if necessary, we will help you set up WordPress caching.
This is an all-inclusive service! We’ll not only optimize your site speed, but also fix any issues that may be slowing down your website. Once the optimization process has been completed, we can migrate your site to a new host (if required) and configure Cloudflare for you (optional but recommended).
If you’re looking to speed up your WordPress website, our team of experts is standing by, ready to help you out! You can either book a one-on-one optimization session or go with our premium service here.
