Improving Page Speed In WordPress
In the digital world, page speed is crucial for user experience and SEO performance. Did you know that 57% of customers abandon pages that take longer than 3 seconds to load? This guide by John Locke explores essential strategies to improve your WordPress site’s speed. From optimizing hosting and images to leveraging caching plugins and CDN services, unlock the secrets to a faster website that not only meets customer expectations but also ranks better on Google. Discover actionable tips that make your site competitive in speed and performance.
Improving Page Speed In WordPress
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Presentation Transcript
Improving Page Speed In WordPress By John Locke
Why Focus on Page Speed? • Customers expect it: 57%abandoment rate after 3 seconds • Google grades you on it: Page speed is a search ranking factor • Competitive advantage: Page weight is going up
How Fast Are Your Pages? • http://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
Start With Hosting • Shared hosting – You get what you pay for • VPS Hosting: Works for most businesses • Dedicated hosting: For heavy traffic
Optimize Your Images • Images are usually over half the page weight • Too-large images add unnecessary download time • Serve small background images on mobile first • {display:none} still downloads assets! • Retina.js for HDPI devices
Check Your Theme • How many HTTP requests are being made? • Can you consolidate these better? • Beware Theme Options that look for Google Fonts that don’t exist
Page Caching • Plugins: W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache • Takes a snapshot of page assets, serves those to browser • If you use a CDN, check recommended settings • You can minify files as well
Minify Files When Possible • Minification: removing white space and bytes • W3 Total Cache > Minify > Help [add CSS and JS files manually] • Careful with RSS feeds, min.js files • Can be done manually as well
GZIP • Compresses files before downloading to browser – like a Zip file • Usually taken care of with caching plugins • You can check at GZipWTF.com
CDNs • Content Delivery Network – External servers • Allows for multiple HTTP requests at once • Amazon (AWS), Max-CDN, Akamai are examples • Jetpack Photon also (but images lose some SEO)
DNS Prefetch • Read this article on front-end performance • Saves time by looking up DNS for external files • /* Syntax looks like this: */ • <link rel="dns-prefetch" href="//www.google-analytics.com"> • Use sparingly – still a HTTP request
Follow-up Article http://www.lockedowndesign.com/improve- page-speed-in-wordpress/
John LockeLockedown Design http://www.lockedowndesign.com @Lockedown_ /lockedowndesign /lockedowndesign /in/johnjlocke /user/johnjlocke /lockedown
