Website Speed Optimization 6 Best Techniques for 2019

Website speed optimization can feel overwhelming. You just want your WordPress site to load faster, and people are talking to you about all this technical stuff like CSS minification, render-blocking JavaScript, and HTTP requests.In this post, were going to make website speed optimization a lot simpler by focusing on just the techniques that offer you the biggest bang for your buck.This is not every single tip to speed up WordPress, but by following the tips in this post, you should get a site thats plenty fast without needing to pull your hair out or become an expert developer. First:💠¡ Two big reasons why your websites speed mattersLets start with the big one, which really doesnt need explaining because you already know the feeling:Waiting for a website to load sucks.Making your website faster can have positive effects on everything from user experience to bounce rate, time on site, and other important metrics.Its not just about making your website better for humans, though. Your sites page load times also matter for search engines. Google uses page load times as a ranking factor in both its desktop and mobile indexes, and slow load times can also make it harder for Google to crawl your site.So whether you care about your human visitors or Google (or ideally both!), website speed optimization is important.📈 How to tell if you have a website speed optimization problemOk, so website speed optimization matters. Now, how do you tell where youre at?That is, is your site slow? Is it in the middle? Is it already lightning fast (congrats then, you can probably stop reading!).The only way to know is to test it. There are tons of great free tools that make it really easy to run website speed tests. Weve written about some of the best speed test tools already, but here are the two most accessible options:PingdomGTmetrixAll you do is plug in your sites URL and the tool will spit back how long it takes your site to load.While theres no hard rule about the c utoff for a fast vs a slow website, a good rule of thumb is that you want your site to load in under 2-3 seconds if possible thats what John Mueller of Google Search fame recommends.🚀 Six website speed optimization tips that make a real differenceIf you found that you have a slow website, nows when we show you how to speed it up.There are a lot of ways to speed up your website weve written about five quick speed tips here, and five more wins for page load times.However, like a lot of things in life, website speed optimization follows the Pareto principle (AKA the 80/20 rule). Thats just a fancy way of saying that a small number of tweaks are going to have the biggest effect on your sites load times.1. Use a caching pluginA caching plugin can make a big impact on your sites load times by serving up static HTML instead of dynamically building a page with PHP on each visit.You dont really need to understand the under-the-hood technical stuff long story short, its not uncommo n to see your page load times cut in half when you move to a caching plugin.Weve collected some of the best caching plugins. And if you want a really simple option to get you started, check out WP Super Cache from Automattic, the same company behind WordPress.com: WP Super Cache Author(s): AutomatticCurrent Version: 1.7.0Last Updated: August 16, 2019wp-super-cache.1.7.0.zip 86%Ratings 30,859,198Downloads WP 3.1+Requires 2. Optimize your imagesAccording to the HTTP Archive, the file size of an average website is comprised of about 50% images. So if you can shrink the size of the images you use on your site, you have a chance to make a meaningful dent in your sites file size.Thats important because:Smaller site file size = faster-loading websiteThe easiest way to optimize images on WordPress is with a WordPress image optimization plugin. For example, Optimole handles compressing your images and serving the proper size based on visitors devices: Image optimization Lazy Load by Optimole Author(s): OptimoleCurrent Version: 2.1.2Last Updated: September 25, 2019optimole-wp.zip 96%Ratings 211,971Downloads WP 4.7+Requires 3. Move to a faster hostSwitching hosts is never fun, but if your core hosting is slow, all of these other website speed optimization tips are just putting lipstick on a pig.So if youre currently using cheap hosting and you find that your site is loading slowly, that might be a sign that youve outgrown your current host.If thats the case, consider upgrading to managed WordPress hosting. While its a little pricier than cheap shared hosting, youll get better performance, and a good managed WordPress host will have implemented server-level configurations to make WordPress load faster.For example, most managed WordPress hosts implement caching for you, which means that you might be able to skip the caching plugin we mentioned in the first tip.To see some good options, check out our post on the best cheap managed WordPress hosting companie s.4. Pick a lightweight themeYour theme is your sites foundation. As such, it has a pretty big effect on your sites load times.On a personal note, moving from a regular theme to a lightweight theme once cut my already-optimized sites page load times by over 40%  by itself.Most lightweight themes are built to work well with page builders and still offer you a good amount of flexibility to design your site.Some good options to consider are:NeveGeneratePressAstraOceanWPThe Neve theme5. Limit WordPress plugin bloatLets first dispel with a myth more plugins does not automatically mean a slower site it depends on what each plugin is doing, and how well each plugin is coded.However, as a general rule of thumb, adding more plugins that are active/visible on the front-end of your site will probably start to have a negative effect on your sites page load times.Unless you have some technical skills, its hard to assess the exact impact of each plugin thats why we still recommend this as a rule of thumb.So if you absolutely need the plugin sure, go ahead and use it. But if you can take or leave a feature, consider leaving it and keeping your site more streamlined.6. Consider a CDN if you have global trafficIf you want to receive visitors from around the world, a content delivery network (CDN) is a great option to speed up your page load times for visitors who are located far away from your hosts datacenter.Why? Because the laws of physics exist! And as fast as the light in fiber optic cables travels, physical distance is still always going to play a role in how quickly your site loads for visitors.Cloudflare is a free CDN option thats pretty easy to get started with, and KeyCDN is another good option.The Optimole plugin we mentioned earlier also acts as a CDN for your websites images, which makes it one of the easiest ways to get started with a CDN on WordPress.Go to topConclusionOnce again, this isnt every single website speed optimization tip. But if you put these six tips into action, you should have a site thats plenty fast, and well under the 2-3 second limit.Remember, you need to:Use a caching pluginOptimize your imagesChoose a fast WordPress hostUse a lightweight WordPress themeBe judicious with the number of plugins you useConsider a CDN if you have global visitors Learn how to #speed up your #WordPress site with the 6 tips that really matter Click To Tweet Do you have any questions about how to speed up WordPress? Let us know in the comments!Free guide5 Essential Tips to Speed Up Your WordPress SiteReduce your loading time by even 50-80% just by following simple tips.