Now, imagine how your visitors feel when they get to a website only to encounter the same thing. Only this is online and the expectation is that there should be absolutely no wait. No waiting to access your site. No waiting to see your images or videos. No waiting to open that new blog post they\u2019ve been dying to read.<\/p>\n
So, let\u2019s get down to brass tacks here.<\/p>\n
If we\u2019re talking consistent speed enhancements, there are a number of things you need to do to speed up your WordPress site<\/a>. That said, if you\u2019re looking for a quick<\/em> fix and you know there\u2019s something currently plaguing your site\u2019s load times, then here are 16 quick tips to speed up your WordPress site right now<\/em>.<\/p>\n You can never have a site that runs too fast. (Can you imagine anyone ever complaining about that?) That\u2019s why these tips are always good to keep around since they won\u2019t take much time at all to implement and can easily be done on top of other speed\/performance enhancement tasks you regularly do.<\/p>\n When building WordPress sites, a caching plugin is one of the first ones you should install. It will cut out the need for your server to send the same information over and over to browsers that they already have (that is, so long as your site doesn\u2019t change too often). So, if a caching plugin has somehow fallen through the cracks, then this is the easiest quick (and permanent) fix you can put in place to speed up your site.<\/p>\n I\u2019d recommend you start with the Hummingbird plugin<\/a> from WPMU DEV.<\/p>\n Updated:\u00a012\/20\/2018 – Smush Pro<\/a> now includes WebP compression, automatic image scaling and 10GB of CDN storage on our 40 Tbps servers with 45 share points around the world. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Is Google Analytics telling you that your site has gone global<\/a>? If you\u2019re beginning to reach people located in far-flung locales, then it\u2019s high time you got your site running on a CDN<\/a> to ensure that you\u2019re delivering the fastest loading speeds to every single visitor regardless of where they\u2019re located.<\/p>\n Image compression is something you should never do manually when there are plugins like Smush Pro<\/a> to do it for you automatically. Once the plugin is installed, it never hurts to run a regular scan on your media library to ensure that all images have been good and smushed.<\/p>\n Plus, the free version of Smush<\/a> was voted the best plugin in the free WordPress.org repository in 2017. It doesn’t get any better than that.<\/p>\n If you have an image-heavy website, but traffic is kind of slow right now, you may need to give those images a break. Of course, the tips above will help ease some of the weight from having that many images on your site, but you still may want to consider lazy loading<\/a>. Lazy loading will keep your site from populating those images up until the very moment your visitors scroll to them, sparing your server the unnecessary strain.<\/p>\n Are there any elements of your WordPress site that may be a bit excessive? If so, think about ways to create a more minimal and streamlined experience with fewer animations, images, or maybe even widgets (you could always ditch that sidebar<\/a>!)<\/p>\n There are a number of ways to prevent unauthorized users from stealing images<\/a> from your site. Did you know, however, that hotlinking isn\u2019t just bad for copyright purposes, but also for your site\u2019s speed? Whenever someone uses an image from your site simply by linking to it, they\u2019re putting all the strain on your server instead of their own since yours hosts the image.<\/p>\n You can use your SEO plugin to disable hotlinking and prevent that from happening.<\/p>\n Obviously, I\u2019m not saying that you should get rid of the video content<\/a> on your site. However, if you\u2019ve uploaded actual video files to your site in the past, I\u2019d suggest you pull them down, upload them to your preferred video service provider (like YouTube<\/a>), and embed them instead. It\u2019ll put less pressure on your server and speed things up.<\/p>\n Of course, the goal of having a blog on your WordPress site is to regularly publish content to it. However, with every new piece of content you add to your site, there\u2019s more data you\u2019re adding to the server. That\u2019s not to say that you should blog less frequently; instead, you should find ways to lighten up your blog a bit.<\/p>\n One of the ways you can do this is under WordPress\u2019s Reading Settings. You can:<\/p>\n Blog comments can also contribute to the sluggishness of a website, which is why some people actually turn off WordPress comments<\/a> completely. Of course, it\u2019s up to you to decide whether or not comments feeds are causing too much strain and, then, whether your blog would do just fine without them.<\/p>\n You need to give people a way to share your content on social media, but that doesn\u2019t mean you need a plethora of WordPress plugins running concurrently to add social capabilities to your site. Just find one reliable and lightweight social media plugin<\/a> that does everything you need and go with that. This way, you\u2019ll have fewer plugins as well as fewer social media icons and data counters strewn about your site slowing things down.<\/p>\n Every time someone arrives at a broken URL, not only does it create a bad user experience, but it also sends an unnecessary request to your server. Use the Broken Link Checker plugin<\/a> to ensure that you\u2019re made aware of bad links on your site and that visitors are automatically redirected to working URLs.<\/p>\n There are a number of areas on your WordPress site where you may have files just chilling out, taking up space, and forcing your site to slow down as it accommodates them. Things like:<\/p>\n Schedule time once a month to go through and do a clean sweep of unnecessary, outdated, or excessive files. You can use a plugin like WP-Optimize<\/a> to keep your database clean, too.<\/p>\n While it would be wonderful to create a page or post, publish it, and then have that be it, there\u2019s always a reason to edit your content more than once. However, with every new save, more data is added to your server. So, what you need to do is cut down on the number of revisions stored in your database (not on how many revisions you can actually make). There is a WordPress plugin called Revision Control<\/a> that can help with this.<\/p>\n When was the last time you updated your plugin set? If the same plugins have been sitting on your WordPress site for a year, it may be time to look around to see if there are newer, more agile options you can swap out that can accomplish the same thing.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re currently mulling over the decision to switch to a new WordPress theme and<\/em> your site\u2019s speed has left something to be desired, now might be the perfect time to make the change. Divi, Elementor, and Beaver Builder can help you develop websites in a flash while also ensuring that you\u2019re building a high-quality website.<\/p>\n In general, anything you can do to limit the amount of HTTPS server requests that get sent between your visitors\u2019 browsers and your server is ideal. The fewer files your server has to deliver, the faster a website will load on your visitors\u2019 screens. Be sure to read up on how sprites, CSS minification, and more can help.<\/p>\n Remember that amusement park analogy from before. You can\u2019t reasonably expect visitors to patiently wait for your site to load after more than a few seconds when they don\u2019t even know if the payoff inside it is worth it. They may assume that the long wait is indicative of even more waiting once they get inside (or any otherwise shoddy experience), so don\u2019t give them a reason to abandon your site before they\u2019ve had a chance to see or interact with it.<\/p>\n16 Tips to Speed up Your WordPress Site Fast and Easily<\/h2>\n
1. Use a Caching Plugin<\/h3>\n
![\"Hummingbird](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Hummingbird-Plugin-1.png\")
<\/div>\n2. Add a CDN<\/h3>\n
3. Compress Your Images<\/h3>\n
![\"Smush](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Smush-Pro-Plugin.png\")
<\/div>\n4. Be Lazy with Your Images<\/h3>\n
5. Simplify the Design<\/h3>\n
6. Prevent Image Theft<\/h3>\n
7. Delete Videos<\/h3>\n
![\"Embed](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Embed-Videos.png\")
<\/div>\n8. Use Blog Excerpts<\/h3>\n
![\"WP](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/WP-Reading-Settings.png\")
<\/div>\n\n
9. Disable Comments<\/h3>\n
10. Rein in Social<\/h3>\n
11. Fix Broken Links<\/h3>\n
![\"Broken](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Broken-Link-Checker-Plugin.png\")
<\/div>\n12. Clean Up Your Files<\/h3>\n
![\"WP-Optimize](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/WP-Optimize-Plugin.png\")
<\/div>\n\n
13. Cut Back on Revisions<\/h3>\n
14. Use Faster Plugins<\/h3>\n
![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/WordPress-Plugins.png\")
<\/div>\n15. Replace Your Theme<\/h3>\n
![\"Upfront](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/upfront-themes.jpg\")
<\/div>\n16. Limit HTTPS Server Requests<\/h3>\n
Wrapping Up<\/h2>\n