A slow website or page loading speed is one of the main reasons consumes abandon sites. In fact, most will hang round for more than 5 seconds! It is for this reason that you must ensure your site is optimized, and especially for mobile use.
If you are using a WordPress website, one of the most popular and easiest to use of all, there are ways to ensure it loads and operates as fast as is possible. We want to tell you three ways that you can speed up your WordPress site quickly and efficiently, so let’s get started.
Image Compression
There are a number of image compression plugins available for WordPress, and digital marketing expert Blake Akers explains what he and his team have done for clients.
‘Over the years, we’ve tested many different solutions for compressing images for web upload. Kraken, Smush and ShortPixel are the leading names in this space and all three work really well. However, if you don’t train your team to also be aware of container sizes and start off with the right resolutions these tools will only take you so far. Start with images less than 1400 pixels before compression and you’ll get better results than you would simply downloading whatever resolution your camera provides by default.’ – Blake Akers
Images can take up a great amount of space and will slow your site down if not compressed. This is the first step you should take to speed up your site. Choose the package that you find easiest to use and start right now, and you will see the difference.
Cache Optimization
Before we talk about optimizing your site’s cache, you should know that there are tools you can use to check your page and site’s loading speeds. These are useful for keeping on top of sites when you notice yours begins to slow down. Now, what do we mean by optimizing your cache?
A tool such as W3 Total Cache – one of the most popular examples – will enable cached pages to be delivered to a visitor’s browser very quickly. Consumers appreciate this as they are taken to where they want to be faster than if they simply land on your home page.
We recommend that you instal such a tool to improve the efficiency of your site loading speed.
Database Optimization
The final tip we have for ensuring your WordPress site is operating as efficiently as possible is optimizing your database. Over time this will become full of saved drafts, comments, and other spam that you don’t need.
WP-Optimize is an example of an easy-to-use tool that you can activate manually – perhaps once a week – or instruct to clean up the database automatically.
The above three tips will help speed up your WordPress site. Remember that while this is attractive to your visitors it is also important as large numbers of bounces will lower your rating on the search engines. Keep up to date with site optimization and all will run smoothly.