WordPress Website Speed Optimization Guide
I’ve been working with WordPress and building websites for clients since 2007. In that time, I’ve seen a lot of changes, but one thing has become more critical than ever: website speed.
It might seem like a purely technical detail, but it’s not. Your site’s loading time is a massive factor in your user’s experience. A slow site can silently kill your business by driving away potential customers before they even see what you have to offer.
In this article, I’ll walk you through why slow websites are bad and my updated step-by-step guide to get your site running faster.
Table of Contents
Slow Websites Are Bad
A slow website has real consequences for your business and your search rankings.
I’ve covered this topic in detail in my article about why website speed kills, but here’s the quick version: slow sites hurt your search rankings, test customer patience, damage mobile experience, and directly reduce conversion rates.
Now let’s get into the practical steps you can take to fix these issues.
My Process for Speed
When I analyze a site, I follow a specific process to identify and fix speed issues. Here’s a breakdown you can follow.
Analyze Your Site
The first thing I do is run the site through analysis tools.
You’ll want to bookmark these:
These tools will report on your “Core Web Vitals,” which are the key metrics to focus on.
Understand the Vitals
There are three main vitals I look at:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This is the time it takes for the largest element above the fold to load. If you have a big hero image or banner, this is usually it.
- Total Blocking Time (TBT): This is usually caused by CSS or JavaScript that keeps something else from loading until it is finished. To fix this, I use the waterfall view in WebPageTest to find items that are render-blocking and then try to remove or delay them.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This happens when you go to a page and things move around while it’s loading. To find out what’s moving, I use the Core Web Vitals test at WebPageTest and click on the CLS number in the report. It will highlight exactly which items on the page are shifting. Once you know, you can do things to stop it, like setting a static height for the div that contains a slow-loading image.
Check the Waterfall
To reduce loading times, I go to the waterfall tab in GTmetrix and sort by file size. The goal here is to remove or reduce the size of the top items.
I really do not like seeing anything larger than 150kb, but sometimes you can’t get around it. The culprit I see on most sites is usually image size.
Optimize Your Images
This brings me to the most common problem. If you have a big backlog of unoptimized images, a service like Shortpixel on an unlimited plan can be a lifesaver.
Using it won’t be the absolute best solution, but it’s much better than redoing all of your images manually. For new images, you can see my article on using Squoosh here.
Use the Right Plugins
My first step on an unoptimized site is to use an optimization plugin like Perfmatters. Using the settings in these types of plugins can usually knock out 90% of the problems.
A word of caution: read about the settings and understand what they do. Don’t just apply them all.
I also put a site on Cloudflare and make sure to connect the Cloudflare plugin with the API. If you don’t, Cloudflare won’t update site changes when you make them.
And if you’re on Ezoic? You need to use Leap, but your long-term goal should be to get off Ezoic.
Of course, speed is not the only maintenance concern. Outdated plugins also create security risks, which I discuss in Keeping WordPress Sites Secure.
Test on Desktop and Mobile
Finally, always check your site on both desktop and mobile. Make sure everything still looks right and is loading properly.
If your mobile menu doesn’t work after making changes, it is probably a JavaScript file. Find the related JS file in the waterfall and add it to the exclusion section of “defer Javascript” in Perfmatters.
Conclusion
In the end, website speed touches every part of your online presence. It affects your user experience, your Google rankings, and ultimately, your bottom line. A fast, responsive website is a sign of professionalism and respect for your customer’s time
If you’re struggling with a slow website, my companies specialize in helping clients build and optimize sites for peak performance. Let’s talk about how we can make sure your site is an asset, not a liability.