{"id":432,"date":"2022-03-20T20:20:38","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T09:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/?p=432"},"modified":"2022-03-20T20:20:48","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T09:20:48","slug":"how-to-speed-up-your-wordpress-website-with-simple-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/how-to-speed-up-your-wordpress-website-with-simple-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"How to speed up your WordPress website with simple tools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Back in March, 2017, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesempost.com\/google-mobile-first-index-page-speed-ranking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Google let<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesempost.com\/google-mobile-first-index-page-speed-ranking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"> u<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thesempost.com\/google-mobile-first-index-page-speed-ranking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">s know<\/a> that page speed is a factor in how your website ranks. It&#8217;s not the most critical factor, but as Google aims to give users the best experience possible, so they keep coming back, part of that means getting answers to user questions quickly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So if your website is slower than another site that also answers their question, chances are, your website will take a back seat in rankings. Speed also impacts how quickly Google adds new content to their search index. Slower site, slower crawl, slower index. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bringing it back to the user experience, it isn&#8217;t just a benefit for Google it&#8217;s also a benefit for you. If you are selling something, even if it&#8217;s just written content like free blog posts, speed is essential. <strong>People buy more <em>AND<\/em> read more on fast loading websites.<\/strong> So having a snappy site can help to generate more organic traffic through better rankings, and that&#8217;s what you want, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tools To Test Your Speed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Your site speed will vary on every internet connection and in every country. So much so that some of these tools will give different results running a test moments apart with no changes to the site. That&#8217;s why I would recommend using all of these tools to get a more complete and accurate picture of what your site is doing, and what you can improve. Keep in mind though, that some things can be complicated or expensive to improve, so you might not be able to do everything all at once. It&#8217;s also important to remember that getting a score of 100\/100 on tools like Google PageSpeed Insights is virtually impossible, just aim for the highest score you can get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/speed\/pagespeed\/insights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Google PageSpeed Insights<\/a><br>Test mobile and desktop speeds and get recommendations from Google on what can be improved.<\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/tools.pingdom.com\/fpt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Pingdom Tools<\/a><br>Test your speed from different locations with similar improvement recommendations as PageSpeed Insights.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/gtmetrix.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">GTMetrix<\/a><br>Runs a few different speed tests and displays them really nicely with a comparison to the average scores of other sites tested on their platform. It also gives you a great breakdown of recommendations.<\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.webpagetest.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">WebPageTest<\/a><br>Can take a little longer to run depending on the queue, but gives you an amazing breakdown of everything that is loading and the impact. It is a bit more technical oriented though.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">WordPress plugins to improve site speed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wordpress.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">WordPress<\/a>, one of the simplest and quickest things you can do to improve site performance is install a caching plugin. There is an assortment of free caching plugins available like <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-super-cache\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WP Super<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-super-cache\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"> Cac<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-super-cache\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">he<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/w3-total-cache\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">W3 Total Cache<\/a> as well as tools like <a href=\"https:\/\/en-au.wordpress.org\/plugins\/autoptimize\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Au<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/en-au.wordpress.org\/plugins\/autoptimize\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">topt<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/en-au.wordpress.org\/plugins\/autoptimize\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">imize<\/a> that works well with WP Super Cache to reduce the size of your HTML, CSS and JavaScript files. Depending on your website, you may notice some things look a little odd, especially if you start reducing files with tools like Autoptimize and the minification settings in W3 Total Cache, so be prepared to do some troubleshooting if anything is a little odd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>W3 Total Cache and Autoptimize have paid upgrade options, and there are a number of paid caching solutions as well, like <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"WP Rocket\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/wp-rocket\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">WP Rocket<\/a> and <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"NitroPack\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/nitropack\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">NitroPack<\/a> that aim to make optimisation much easier than any of the free plugins. I particularly like <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"NitroPack\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/nitropack\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">NitroPack<\/a>. It does a great job, is very cost-effective, and makes a remarkable difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are tight on funds though, the free options can still make a massive difference. Just be prepared to do a little more work than you would with <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"NitroPack\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/nitropack\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">NitroPack<\/a> or <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"WP Rocket\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/wp-rocket\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">WP Rocket<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"NitroPack\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/nitropack\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">NitroPack<\/a> does offer a free base plan that will optimise your website for the first 5,000 visitors in a month and provide 1GB of CDN bandwidth in a month, so if you aren&#8217;t sure about how much of a difference this plugin could make on your site, you can try it out for free. <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"NitroPack\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/nitropack\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\"><strong>Try NitroPack for free here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Image optimisation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You may also want to look at optimising your site images, either before uploading them, or using a plugin once they are on the server. This is another reason I like <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"NitroPack\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/nitropack\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">NitroPack<\/a>, it handles all the image optimisation seamlessly for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"EWWW Image Optimizer Plans\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/ewww-image-optimizer-plans\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">EWWW Image Optimizer<\/a> is an excellent tool for reducing image sizes in WordPress. I\u00a0suggest it for low budgets because it comes free to get you started. It also offers paid upgrades to compress your images further and speed up loading times even more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The free plugin runs solely on your server\u00a0and may require a little more configuration to get working if your hosting provider has some settings limited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another great option is <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"ShortPixel\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/shortpixel\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">ShortPixel<\/a>. I&#8217;ve had a lot of success at getting high-quality images with high compression rates using their cloud-based service. Their plugin is free, and you get 100 images processed per month at no cost. If you need more than that, then you pay a small monthly fee or purchase once-off image credit packs. So if you don&#8217;t have stacks of images, they are a great competitor to <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"EWWW Image Optimizer Plans\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/ewww-image-optimizer-plans\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">EWWW Image Optimizer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Something else to be aware of is AMP, a technology driven by Google with the purpose of improving mobile performance. In essence, it&#8217;s a slimmed-down version of your website without any extra bits that can take longer to load. It is similar to a printable view. The idea is that it will be ultra-fast for mobile devices with dodgy connections. WordPress has an <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/amp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">official plugin<\/a> to generate AMP blog posts, but you will probably want something like the Yoast SEO plugin to get greater control over SEO in AMP form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What else?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a range of things you can do to improve site speed, from caching to image optimisation and much more. You could also consider using a CDN &#8211; again, included with <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"NitroPack\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/nitropack\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">NitroPack<\/a> and <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"WP Rocket\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/wp-rocket\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">WP Rocket<\/a> if you go the premium optimisation plugin route. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you use <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Jetpack\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/jetpack\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">Jetpack on WordPress<\/a>, then you can run your images through the free Photon CDN. You could also try <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudflare.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Cloudflare<\/a>&#8216;s free and paid options, or a paid service like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maxcdn.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">MaxCDN<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another option that we often tend to avoid due to the hassle factor is your web host. They can play a huge role in site speed. Is their server fast enough to handle your site and the amount of traffic you are getting? Is it physically located close enough to your primary market? Is the server itself optimised to run as efficiently as possible? A lot of hosts now offer WordPress optimised hosting like <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Hostgator Managed WordPress Hosting\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/hostgator-managed-wordpress-hosting\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">Hostgator&#8217;s Managed WordPress platform<\/a>, some are dedicated solely to making WordPress as fast and simple to manage as possible, like <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Cloudways\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/cloudways\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">Cloudways<\/a>, and <a class=\"thirstylink\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Kinsta\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/go\/kinsta\/\" data-shortcode=\"true\">Kinsta<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in March, 2017, Google let us know that page speed is a factor in how your website ranks. It&#8217;s &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"How to speed up your WordPress website with simple tools\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/how-to-speed-up-your-wordpress-website-with-simple-tools\/#more-432\" aria-label=\"More on How to speed up your WordPress website with simple tools\">Read more<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","_wordproof_timestamp":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[44,57,56,55,37,58,31,59],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":442,"href":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wphowto.club\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}