Do you want to reduce the loading time for your WordPress website? This guide will take you through that and ensure that you have speeds as low as 2 seconds. The importance of loading time for websites is that they are not cumbersome to use for your users. For most users looking for information on your website, time is imperative as they know exactly what they need. Therefore, if they find that your WordPress website has a low loading speed, they will seek information elsewhere. Loading time is one of the reasons most website users lose traffic. Essentially, what you need is traffic on your website to improve business once traffic is improved. This guide will provide tips on how to improve loading speeds for your website.
WordPress websites vary in their application. For instance, some are:
- Blogs
- Membership website
- WooCommerce website
- Learning management system
- Corporate WordPress website
As such, to consider loading speeds on these websites, you first need to test the speed of the websites. To do so, run a speed test on your WordPress website using one or more of these tools:
Once you have performed a test, screenshot the results and save to use once you have improved loading speeds for your website.
Before you begin to work on increasing loading speeds, be sure to make a backup for your WordPress database.
For some of the tips given below, some are applicable with no technical knowledge. For others, you may require a developer. Use as many tips as possible to ensure you get to at least 1 second loading time on your WordPress site.
Utilize Latest PHP-7.0+
This contains a single change alone that can boost the speed of your WordPress site by at least 1.5 times. Most WordPress sites still use PHP 5.6 which is a lower version of PHP. The latest version is PHP 8.x which offers a noteworthy boost in performance.
Naturally, the PHP element is managed by your web hosting company. Therefore, you can ask for customer support or check your PHP version manually. If your version of PHP is below 7.0, you need to contact customer support for help with migrating your website to boost your loading speeds.
Choose web hosting that is WordPress optimized for speed
Most times, WordPress web site owners choose a WordPress hosting company referred by their developer. At Solent CIS we offer business hosting with top quality premium servers. If you have a WordPress business website a cloud server is great for your professional website hosting purposes.
Our website hosting provides various advanced and unique features that will reduce loading time for your website some of which are:
- Premium DNS
- CDN
- PHP 7.x or 8.x
- Built-in optimising cache
We utilize genuine cloud infrastructure with SSD SAN storage for hosting your WordPress website which provides unrivalled speed and reliability with award winning 24×7 support. Therefore, when looking for WordPress hosting for an eCommerce site, use the above recommendations.
Avoid numerous WordPress logins
WordPress gets its power through plugins. However, if you use an excess of 30-40 plugins on your website you slow your loading speed. Try and limit the number of plugins you need to the most essential and use the database cleaner plugin to help. Also, get custom codes for the features you need from plugins instead and this will limit the number of plugins you need.
Optimize images to allow fast loading
The goal for images on your website should be:
- Efficient data compression
- Highest quality
- Smaller file size
Images may be what makes your website alluring to your users. Nonetheless, too many images will slow down the loading speed. Therefore, you need to choose only relevant images for each page. You do not need photo-intensive sites.
As such, you need to use the optimization of speed for your photos. Use these tools.
- A CDN
- The proper image formats
The right image format helps reduce image size. Change of format from .png to .jpg will provide at least an 80% reduction in size.
You can also contact us for a graphic designer in our team to help you compress images on your website.
There are many plugins available for WordPress that can help you optimize images by doing the following:
- Converts images in .png to .jpg
- Use Webp image format
- Use compression of images
- Compress old images using one click
- It provides compression when you add new images to your site
Other ways to improve loading speed and slow down delay to one second include:
- Using a server that is closest to the location of your audience
- Avoiding too many scripts and advertisements
Finally, keep in mind who your WordPress website visitors are. The audience requires a fast working website that provides information fast. The user experience will be great if you reduce the loading time. Therefore, use the above tips to ensure you retain your present traffic and get additional traffic owing to a comfortable user experience.
If you need help with your WordPress website, please get in touch today.