The Holy Grail of websites – how to make your WordPress site faster… Everyone wants a faster site!
There are many ways to do this from a few simple changes you can make to some very elaborate methods that involve a web developer to take an individual approach to your particular site.
Before you go out and hire someone, here is a simple tip that may help you speed up your website:
Reduce the number of widgets in your sidebar(s). This will have the biggest impact if you are using widgets that access other websites for status updates of data feed (for example, Facebook, Twitter, RSS updates from other sites).
You could try to avoid posting videos/slideshows or any other ’embed’ code into your posts/pages. If your homepage has a lot of embedded objects then the web browser has to make many different requests to a variety of websites across the internet, as opposed to just downloading data from your web server. Each external request may slow down the loading time of your website.
You could also try a caching system, there are many available WordPress plugins for this. A simple definition of caching is that your website will create pages in advances so they are waiting for someone to view. Without this, your website has to create the page each and every time. The plugin that I use is WP Super Cache, which can be very helpful: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache/
Great tips to consider to get your site to run faster. Thanks so much for sharing.
Easy to know, sometimes difficult to choose what you want to remove!
Yes, I want to make my website faster! Great tips, Paul! Thank you for sharing this great information with us!
You are welcome, Sherie!
I have a Facebook Widget that shows my Fans photos – does that slow my site down?
Yes, Rhonda…Have you ever been online at Facebook when it seems to just ‘hang’ up. You can end up waiting a few seconds or so before anything happens. There is nothing you can do about it.
Now, imagine someone comes to you site at that moment. If Facebook has a hiccup (or is running slow for a while), that will affect your site becuase as your site is loading, it is waiting for data (i.e., your Fans’ photos) to come from FB!
That was great information, Paul. I went straight over and got this done! Really made a difference on my site’s loading time. Thank YOU for sharing!
The LEARNED Preneur @ NormaDoiron.NET
It is great when you see immediate results like that! Nicely done, Norma!
Thank you so much for the great tips! My site is running slow so I will take a look at it and perhaps delete some widgets. Wishing you a Happy New Year!
Alexandra – you have a LOT of Facebook activity on your page and a lot of things to load! I sent you an email with some load/speed information. Hope it helps!
By the way, check out this post for more info: https://digitalmaestro.com/track-your-blog-load-time/
Hi Paul. I have SO much in my sidebars AND use many large images and videos – not good for site speed I know. It is kind of hard to avoid posting videos when one is a video marketer LOL Any suggestions on how to speed up my site given these limitations? I read a while ago about how to reduce the image size but have NO memory of how to do that.
Great tips Paul.
WordPress is a great asset to business owners looking to take control of their websites. These tips help business owners make their sites more professional.
-AJ
I recommend it all the time! I have been doing a lot of conversions of ‘old’ html sites to WordPress for clients! Thanks, AJ!
Great post! I didn’t really think that that stuff would make a difference. Thanks for sharing!
Great tips! Thanks for sharing.
Excellent advice here. Thank you and now please excuse me while I head off and make a few changes to my own WordPress blog!
Great post Paul. For me cleaning out my cache helps.
Carol –
Cleaning your cache may help YOU experience a faster load, but it won’t help others see speed improvements when they go to your website.
Both are important – you want a pleasant experience as you are surfing the web (and clearing your cache may help that) and you want your visitors to experience fast loading times when they come to your site.
Thanks.