For users on the internet, every second counts. Many people want to view as much as they can when they are browsing. Research suggests that the average page load time can influence a user’s decision to use or leave a specific page. If a page takes too long to load, more people will opt elsewhere. A 1-second delay in page load time could result in 7.5% loss in conversions, over 10% fewer views and just under 20% drop in customer satisfaction. This might harm your business’s competitiveness.
Since Google has incorporated page load times into SEO ranking, slow pages could affect your visibility and performance as well. Here are some tips to help reduce your WordPress site load time.
Choose your Plugins wisely
Many experts claim that a large number of WordPress plugins will reduce your site’s efficiency. However, plugins are designed to help boost the performance of your WordPress site. Can such an important tool be harmful to your site? Plugins are coded differently and are used for different purposes. Great plugins should offer you all the functionality without any of the additional challenges. You should consider what plugins you have and which you may need. Delete any plugins not in use, as well as those that do not really add great value to the design and operation of your WordPress site. You should also make sure that your plugins are up to date and fully developed. You should also consider replacing your plugins with better available alternatives.
Static HTML can be better than PHP
For advanced optimization measures, you may consider replacing PHP with static HTML where needed. It is designed to help cut down page load speeds, which will significantly improve the performance of your WordPress site. It may require some technical know-how, and can result in optimization problems if not handled correctly.
Try out Lazyload for your site’s images
Lazyload is designed to reduce the total page weight with every click. Usually, when a user clicks on your site’s address, the browser loads all the content. If there are many images, this can be bulky and might result in increased load time. Lazyload reduces the number of images loaded with the first click to only those within the browser window. When the user clicks on your site’s link, only the first set of images will be displayed. As they descend down the website, any additional images will load when they are brought into the browser’s scope. This will prevent the loading of any unnecessary image data, which will reduce overall page size and subsequently the total page load time.
Control your gravatar images
Gravatar images refer to the globally recognized avatars that are popular with WordPress sites. Changing the gravatar image can provide a personal touch to your site. However, gravatar images are largely unnecessary. In order to improve your page load speed, you should consider doing away with the gravatar image. You can disable the gravatar image through the site, under the settings-discussion tab of your dashboard.
Optimize your database too!
For long term users, WordPress has stored a lot of irrelevant data within the user database. This includes post revisions, orphaned metadata, trash, spam comments and transient options. They increase the overall size of the database, which may affect site performance.
Optimizing your database helps to reduce the size of the database, this results in improved performance. It helps improve backup and restore efficiency, as well as reducing any lag due to a less cluttered database.
Before optimizing your database, remember to carry out a complete backup of your WordPress to avoid any unintentional loss of data.
Optimize your images automatically
Image size can determine overall page load speed. WordPress sites that have more images are likely to experience slow loading times. Images increase the total page outlay, which may affect overall speed. You can optimize images manually or through automated plugins. Manual image optimization is only ideal for WordPress sites with few images. This may involve using smaller images, or compressing them through available online tools. You may also choose images with specific extensions for specific purposes.
For batch optimization, choose automatic image optimizers. This will reduce the workload and ensure that all images on you WordPress site are optimized, reducing any likelihood of a slow load.
Hire out optimization services
You may have a few challenges affecting some of the measures listed above. A number of them are technical, and not easy to enforce if you do not have the skill. Even where plugins are available, you will still need some advice on how to choose and manage the plugins effectively in order to avoid any complications.
You can overcome any additional challenges by hiring out WP optimization services to a specialized service provider such as WPFIXS. The team offers remote website optimization and management, as well as unlimited support in case any changes such as minor updates affect your website. To prevent future occurrences, these service providers carry out detailed research to identify all aspects of the problem, as well as institute permanent measures to correct any lags and slow loading sites.
Final thought
These methods should help provide some respite for users with slow WordPress sites. They can help reduce the average load time and boost customer satisfaction, which will positively impact your business. The methods listed above are easy to carry out manually, but may be tedious for site owners with a large number of images or content.
If you are unable to optimize your site manually, there are a number of plugins available to help do this automatically. You can also hire out WordPress speed optimization services to professional service providers, ensuring that you benefit from a comprehensive optimization arrangement. Hiring out these services will guarantee better performance than when done manually, since the experts carry out thorough research and assessment to protect you from the same problem in future.