WordPress is the world's simplest and most powerful content management system (CMS) and blogging platform. According to BuiltWith, 2645 10 000 best websites use WordPress. So if you already use WordPress, then congratulations!
However, if you want your WordPress site to perform better, then it is better to optimize it. Optimizing your WP site not only increases traffic and page visitors, but also improves user experience and helps SEO. Below you will find six amazing WordPress optimization tips to take your website to the next level.
1 - Choose a suitable website host
Your optimization techniques don't go very far if you've chosen the wrong hosting plan for your site. Managed WordPress hosting plans are recommended to keep your site up to date and relevant at all times. What's more, the services WordPress hosting the best managed ones include advanced security options and automatic backups.
However, it is best to avoid shared hosting plans as they slow down your website load time. And considering that almost half of internet users abandon a website that doesn't load within three seconds, slow speeds can drive visitors away before your page even loads.
2 - Always choose good quality themes
Much of the performance and speed of your site depends on the theme you choose for your WordPress site. Currently, there is no shortage of WP (WordPress) themes on the internet. In 2014 alone, 123 free theme downloads were made on WordPress.org.
That said, choosing a random theme for your website is the biggest mistake you can make. You should always choose something that is both reliable and flexible.
Select responsive designs because their smooth performance makes them very popular with search engines. At the same time, beware of beautifully designed themes that have bad coding and use too many images, slowing down your site in the process.
Thus, the safest option is to opt for premium WordPress themes. While these themes don't come cheap, carrying an average price tag of $ 40, that's money well spent when you consider how a premium WP theme benefits your website.
3 - Choose the plugins carefully
The number ofWordPress plugins in the official directory is 40 and counting. But the installation of all this is not essential in the optimization process. Start by determining what the purpose of your website is and what you need to achieve the goal. Next, install the right extensions to fill this gap. WP Rocket et WP Fastest Cache are some of the good extensions that increase the speed and performance of your WP site. Remember, extensions are a major reason why WordPress sites get slow over time. So, delete unnecessary ones and keep the extensions that your site is actively using.
4- Keep your images and videos optimized
It is not recommended to fill your web pages with countless images. Not only does this practice reduce the loading time of your website, but it also affects performance. One solution to this problem is to compress and resize the images. Online tools like Optimizilla et JPEG Compress can help you compress the file sizes of your images without losing quality. Likewise, you must apply all strategies to optimize your videos properly.
If necessary, you can also use sprites. This is a CSS technique that uses an image to present different design elements on your web page. So instead of loading lots of small images, the WP site ends up opening just one. However, not all themes support sprites, so be sure to do this during the optimization process.
5 - Optimize your landing page
You need to optimize your WP site's landing page if you want to improve overall speed and performance. The landing page is where internet visitors land on your website. So, it is very important that there is no delay while loading on this page. While the process of optimizing your landing page can be difficult without the proper know-how, you should read more etiquette rather than full articles, use article snippets, remove inactive extensions and gadgets. and limit the number of posts on a particular page.
6- Start using a CDN for your site
A discussion of WordPress optimization wouldn't be complete without a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Wondering what it is? Well, simply put, a CDN is a network of servers that clone copies into caching your website on each of its location nodes.
This means that when a visitor tries to connect to your website, the cache is served by the closest server location instead of your website's main physical server. Results: Significantly reduced loading times. Now, you have to be careful when choosing the right CDN for your site, but Amazon CloudFront is a good choice. Not only does this increase web speed, but it also decreases the load on your server.
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Enough of the theory - now go ahead and put the aforementioned six tips into practice on your own website. You should start to notice the results within a few hours.
