Website Speed Optimization: 10 Killer Tips To Speed Up Your Website

Website Speed Optimization: Did you know that around 47 percent of users on the internet expects a site to load in 2 seconds or less?

And a 1 second delay, i. e. if the site takes 3 or more seconds, can result in:

• • 40 percent of users leaving your site

• • 16 percent drop in customer satisfaction

• 7 percent drop in conversion.

In fact, 79 percent of online shoppers who are not satisfied with the performance of a site are less likely to make a purchase from that site again. Their site loyalty depends on how fast a site loads, says 52 percent of online shoppers.

So, ultimately, it all comes down to user experience. And we all know that bad user experience results in bad business. We don’t want that.

Optimizing your site (website speed optimization) and reducing page load time are, therefore, of utmost importance. So, in this article, we will look at how to reduce WordPress blog load time – 10 killer website speed optimization tips. Read on.

Find Out How To Improve User Experience On Your Blog Here

Website Speed Optimization: How To Speed Up Your WordPress Site

It is not surprising at all that Google considers a site’s loading time as a ranking factor. After all, users should be satisfied with their experience with Google. So, Google cannot afford to show a page in the SERP that doesn’t load fast enough for the users.

This means not only producing the most relevant pages in the SERP but also ensuring that the users do not face any difficulty in accessing them is important.

So, website speed optimization – reducing the page load time and increasing the site speed is very important. This has become more important after Google rolled out its mobile first indexing approach. Let’s see how to do website speed optimization, how to reduce WordPress blog page load time:

1. Choose A Good WP Hosting Service

This is very important. Often due to budget constraints, we go for a cheap hosting service or a shared hosting plan which is already overloaded. While it can work out at the initial stages, but eventually you have to opt for a better WP hosting service, and preferably a managed hosting plan.

Find Out How To Choose A Web Hosting Service Here

2. Reduce HTTP Request To Your Server

This is one of the major reasons behind slow loading of web pages. The more number of elements a page has, the more time it takes for it to load. That’s because an HTTP request is made to fetch each and every component or element of the page. These components include images, scripts, stylesheet, etc.

In order to decrease the number of HTTP requests, you need to optimize the page – reduce its components.

To do that, you have to:

• Remove the unnecessary elements from the page.
• Remove code that are not required. Also, remove unnecessary white space and formatting.

• Combine files into one (if you have multiple CSS and JS files).

3. Delete Unnecessary Plugins

Plugins can pose different types of problems if you are not careful while choosing and installing them, one of the problems being increasing the page load time.

Keep the number of plugins to a minimum. Delete plugins that you are not using. Sometimes, you will have to install and activate a particular plugin for a particular purpose that is just a one-time issue. Make sure you delete the plugin once it serves the purpose.

Also, do not install multiple plugins which serve he same purpose.

4. Optimize The Images

As mentioned above, the different components of a page contribute to the site speed. Images and their size too impact the page load time. Larger the images, the slower it is to load them.

That, however, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include images in your pages. You should. Because images improve the readability of the page. Just make sure you compress them before uploading. You can use Compress JPEG for this purpose.

5. Enable Browser Caching

Enabling browser cache will reduce the page load time for your returning visitors.

When a user visits your website, loading all the components of a page – HTML document, JS files, stylesheets, images, etc. will take some time. After all these elements are loaded, certain elements will be temporarily stored in the user’s system if you have enabled browser caching.

So, the next time the user visits your site, these elements which are already stored in the user’s computer will be automatically loaded without having to make HTTP requests again. This, in turn, will reduce the page load time.

6. Decrease The Number Of Ads

Displaying too many ads in your site can also slow down your site as most of the ads contain unnecessary HTMLs. Third part advertisement networks with external servers can also reduce the speed. Google AdSense, however, provides well-optimized adds.

7. Use Content Delivery Network

CDN improves the page load speed remarkably. CDN uses multiple servers at different geographical locations. When a user visits your website, the content will be delivered from the server physically nearest to the user. This, in turn, reduces the load time. You can read this article on Content Delivery Network for a better idea.

8. Use Good Themes

Themes that are properly coded and managed, as in updated regularly and have proper documentation, reduce the page load time. Never ever go for a theme that hasn’t been updated for a long time. Make sure you read the reviews before choosing the theme for your website.

I would also recommend you go for a custom premium theme based on your need. Because free as well as pre-designed themes will have lots of unnecessary code that will slow down your site.

Find Out How To Choose The Right WordPress Theme Here

9. Keep Redirects To The Minimum

Implementing redirects increases the processing time, thereby reducing the site speed. Reduce the number of redirects in your site. Read this article to get a proper idea about redirects, especially 301 permanent redirects.

10. Reduce External Scripts

Keeping the number of external scripts to a minimum will improve the site load speed. However, this also means you won’t have certain features in your site. Some of the examples of external scripts are external comment plugins, Facebook Like buttons, live chat option, external fonts, etc. Just try to include only those external scripts which your site must have.

Check Out The Top 3 Website Speed Test Tools Here

The entire idea is to make your site as light as possible. And this is where these above-mentioned practices will help you. I hope you have understood the website speed optimization tips properly and you will be able to reduce your WordPress blog page load time.

Find Out Everything About Google AMP Here

For any doubt pertaining to website speed optimization, drop your questions below and I will get back to you at the earliest.