Fast loading websites allow for higher search results as well as happy website visitors, the more happy website visitors you have typically the more customers your website produces. So if your website is loading slow, it is a problem that needs fixing.
There are commonly 3 reasons your WordPress website is running slow. With a few solutions to quickly help your website speed up.
Large image or media files.
When you are out taking pictures and video with your smart phone you see how nice the high definition your phone has especially with the latest and greatest. What you don’t see is how many pixels, or how large a file your picture and video is. Most typical pictures on a post can be anywhere between 300 pixels and 1000 pixels wide (100 pixels equal to about 1 inch). You smart phones typical image can range anywhere from 3000 pixels and 10,000 pixels wide. So unless you take a few minutes to scale your image on an image editing program, your images are a bit overkill for your website.
Most videos are uploaded onto a video channel, the most popular being YouTube and so typically you don’t have a loading problem from videos. If your are uploading your videos to your WordPress website, stop it. There is no need.
The Solution
Either edit your image files and or upload a plugin that will shrink the image size even further when not in use. Even better is using a super powerful plugin (see below).
For videos, upload them to a video channel and then embed them onto your website.
Bloated Plugins
Simply put, plugins are fantastic, but often times we get so enamored with everything every plugin we forget to look at the size of a plugin, along with having features we do not need, or other plugins currently have the same features.
The Solution
Look for plugins that have been updated recently, compare plugin features so that they do not overlap with other plugin features (this may require some side by side comparing), delete old plugins that you are not currently using. Research plugins on WordPress to see if they have any potential problems, and even some plugins can review your plugin usage.
Cheap Web Hosting
No offence to keeping everything under a small budget, but when you pay only $5 per month for hosting, you are sharing a server with many many other websites that can be draining your speed. Now this doesn’t mean you have to have your own dedicated server when you your first start your website, but ask your host provider what kind of hosting your business needs. Not all hosting companies are created equal so do research on hosting companies and find companies with fast speeds, high up time and positive reviews.
The Solution
Not all hosting companies are created equal so do research on hosting companies and find companies with fast speeds, high up time and positive reviews (next to no server down time).
Added Bonus: The Powerful Plugin You Need
One of my favorite plugins to use is W3 Total Cache. It is improves your websites load performance on many levels. Take time to learn about how it works and configure it to your website and you can easily improve performance from both the server side and user side of your website.
Summary
To increase your website speed, first, don’t let it overload you if you are new to this. Simply make a check list and take minutes per day and slowly go through each image file, video, or plugin and add W3 total cache and watch your website speed up. Your clients will thank you for it and you’ll be happier managing a fast loading website that is easier for search engines to find.
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