3 Things Slowing Down your WordPress Website
Website traffic is hard enough to come by without losing your audience due to a slow-loading website. There are a variety of things that can slow down your WordPress website, and today I want to talk about a few of them, plus what you can do to address the issues.
Your Web Host
Arguably the most important decision you’ll make for your website is what web hosting company you’re going to trust your content with.
Most bloggers choose to utilize a shared server because it’s a more affordable option. A shared server involves several hosting accounts and any number of websites with a finite number of available resources (such as script usage or traffic). The downside to this is that your “neighbors” may use up too many resources and cause the server to crash. That’s why it’s important to choose wisely and to steer clear of companies that are known for server stuffing.
That’s why for shared hosting, I can’t recommend Siteground enough. Not only are they affordable, but they have a gleaming reputation for well managed shared servers. On a personal note, I have tested one of my websites hosted with Siteground against Host Gator, a hosting company I previously used – and there’s just no contest. The website loads several seconds faster per page when hosted with Siteground.
Bad Plugins
It’s so important that you utilize only up to date, well-coded plugins. Some experts will tell you that you should limit the number of plugins you’re using. While that is generally a good rule of thumb, it’s actually more complex than that. Two well-coded plugins are better than one poorly-coded plugin.
How do you know if a plugin is good? If you aren’t well versed in coding, that’s okay! The best thing you can do for yourself is to learn how to research plugins – read up on what it is they claim to do, check out the approval rating from other users, and most importantly… ask around for recommendations!
Further Reading: 10 Must Have WordPress Plugins
Oversized Images
If you’re like me, uploading high-quality images for your portfolio pages or your webshop is really important to you. Unfortunately, the larger and higher quality your image is, the longer it can take to load. You have to find a middle ground and only upload the size you need. The best thing that you can do for your website is to determine what size image the space calls for and upload an image that size. This may mean resizing images before uploading.
You can also optimize your images with plugins like EWWW Image Optimizer, or WP Smush to get even better results and faster loading images with little to no visible reduction in image quality.
Pro Tip: Never upload images directly from your phone. Those files are huge.
Have a suggestion not listed?
What tips do you have for others looking to speed up their website? Comment below!
