After your WordPress website has been running for a while, as the number of Posts and Plugins increases, the database also grows larger, and you may feel the website speed has slowed down. So, how can you make WordPress faster? Naiba here shares methods to enhance WordPress performance and speed.
What are the most common reasons that slow down WordPress?
1. One of the most significant factors affecting WordPress speed is the quality of the server.That's right, no optimization can compare to hardware-level optimization. A high-performance server is the most influential factor for website speed. Naibabiji previously used a server with a 1-core, 2GB RAM, 1Mbps configuration.
Tencent CloudLater, during a promotion, we switched to a Tencent Cloud server with a 2-core, 4GB RAM, 5Mbps configuration, and the website speed improved noticeably. If your server configuration is low, upgrading the configuration when conditions permit is the quickest and most effective way to enhance website speed.
2. Not enabling caching for the website.WordPress itself is a dynamic website program. If you don't install caching, every user visit will trigger dynamic loading, causing increased server resource usage. After installing a caching plugin, when users access your website, data will be read directly from pre-cached static files, which is several times faster than accessing dynamic files directly.
3. Loading too many images.Some friends who have just learned to build websites have no concept of how to upload images properly. It's common to see beginners' websites uploading original camera or phone photos that are several megabytes in size. Such images directly impact website speed. Especially for websites with limited bandwidth, a large number of big images can saturate your website's bandwidth, making it very slow for others to open.
Specific methods to optimize WordPress performance and speed
1. Upgrade server hardware when conditions permitAt the time this article was published,
WordPress's recommended hardware configurationis PHP 7.3+, database MySQL 5.6+ or MariaDB 10.1+. The basic memory requirement for these two database versions is 1GB or more, so it's better to choose a server with 1GB or more of RAM.
2. Install a caching pluginCaching is divided into page caching and database caching. For page caching, it is recommended for beginners to directly install
WP Rocket, the most effective, but it's a paid plugin; you can use the free version
WP Super Cache, etc. For database caching, Memcached or Redis are commonly used, but this caching requires a VPS or managed shared hosting to enable; ordinary shared hosting does not support it. Additionally, you can enable
nginx caching。
3. Use a lightweight theme with simple codeA high-quality theme typically has relatively high code quality, while some purchased premium foreign themes often have more complex code and come with many accompanying plugins, which can slow down the site if ordinary users don't know how to optimize. So the simplest method is to use a lightweight theme. This site currently uses
Astra Pro Theme。
4. Remove slow-response pluginsIt's not that installing more plugins will definitely affect website speed. However, if your server configuration is low, too many plugins can indeed have some impact. When the server configuration is sufficient, too many plugins themselves won't significantly affect website speed, but the quality of the plugins and some API calls from the plugins can impact website speed, which requires specific investigation. The simplest way is to deactivate plugins one by one and then determine which plugin, when enabled, slows down the website.
5. Use CDN accelerationCDN can indeed speed up a website, but if you are using a foreign server, you cannot use domestic CDN services, so the improvement is not obvious. For domestic users, you can choose Tencent Cloud CDN, Alibaba Cloud CDN, as well as Qiniu and Upyun's CDN or object storage. Relatively speaking, Qiniu and Upyun's object storage is simpler; just install a plugin. Related tutorial:
Tutorial on Using Upyun to Speed Up WordPress Websites_New Plugin Version 6. Reduce website image sizeSome novice users upload original images directly when posting articles, with each image possibly several megabytes in size, causing the website to lag. We can reduce image resolution, compress image size, and then upload them.
7. Paginate commentsIf there are many comments on your website, it's best to paginate the comments. If necessary, you can
disable the comment avatar feature。
8. Use post excerpts on the homepage and archive pagesThe default WordPress theme outputs the entire post directly on the homepage and archive pages, so your website page loads the full content of several posts at once, including images and other resources, causing lag. Using excerpts avoids this issue. If you don't know how to do it, just use a plugin:
How to Display a „Read More“ Button on WordPress Homepage Posts 9. Do not upload video and audio files directly to WordPressUnless there's a specific reason, it's not recommended to upload videos and audio directly to the website backend. Although they won't auto-play by default, when someone plays them, they will consume your website's bandwidth, and when the bandwidth is full, the site will lag.
10. Paginate long articlesIf an article is too long, you can paginate it for display.
11. Reduce External Resource RequestsFor example, if you reference images from other websites, and those sites are slower than yours, it will undoubtedly slow down your website's loading speed.
12. Reduce Database QueriesEnabling data caching will result in a noticeable improvement.
13. Limit Post RevisionsFor the method, refer to:
What is the Windows revision version? How to disable auto-save 14. Regularly Optimize the DatabaseNaibabiji usually uses plugins to help:
7 WordPress Database Plugins: Cleanup, Optimization, Reset, Repair, Search 15. Use Lazy Loading for ImagesAlso known as lazy loading, you can use
a3 Lazy Loadfor settings (WP Rocket also supports it), and news suggests WordPress intends to make this a standard feature.
16. Use the Latest Version of PHPTypically, newer versions of PHP improve performance, but consider your actual situation to avoid incompatibility with the latest PHP version for your Theme or Plugin.
8. Use post excerpts on the homepage and archive pagesThe default WordPress theme outputs the entire post directly on the homepage and archive pages, so your website page loads the full content of several posts at once, including images and other resources, causing lag. Using excerpts avoids this issue. If you don't know how to do it, just use a plugin:How to Display a „Read More“ Button on WordPress Homepage Posts 9. Do not upload video and audio files directly to WordPressUnless there's a specific reason, it's not recommended to upload videos and audio directly to the website backend. Although they won't auto-play by default, when someone plays them, they will consume your website's bandwidth, and when the bandwidth is full, the site will lag.10. Paginate long articlesIf an article is too long, you can paginate it for display.11. Reduce External Resource RequestsFor example, if you reference images from other websites, and those sites are slower than yours, it will undoubtedly slow down your website's loading speed.12. Reduce Database QueriesEnabling data caching will result in a noticeable improvement.13. Limit Post RevisionsFor the method, refer to:What is the Windows revision version? How to disable auto-save 14. Regularly Optimize the DatabaseNaibabiji usually uses plugins to help:7 WordPress Database Plugins: Cleanup, Optimization, Reset, Repair, Search 15. Use Lazy Loading for ImagesAlso known as lazy loading, you can usea3 Lazy Loadfor settings (WP Rocket also supports it), and news suggests WordPress intends to make this a standard feature.16. Use the Latest Version of PHPTypically, newer versions of PHP improve performance, but consider your actual situation to avoid incompatibility with the latest PHP version for your Theme or Plugin.
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