How to optimize the speed of WordPress?

This is even more annoying when visitors use mobile devices. By making a few small changes, WordPress can be sped up significantly. The optimization not only ensures higher speed, but also makes the page more friendly for search engines.

Measure the current page speed

Before the WordPress site is optimized, the current state must first be determined. For this purpose, the performance of the website is analyzed in detail and the slowdowns are scrutinized.

The following tools are suitable for this purpose:

• WebPage Test
• GTmetrix
• Pingdom Website Speed Test

The performance tools provide information about the loading time and give the owner an overview of the size and number of requests. In the clearly arranged Waterfall view, all files that are important for the website structure are displayed. Thus, the need for optimization can be determined in a short time.

Speed up WordPress - this is how!

1. Images should be compressed

Many WordPress users still use very large image files. If the image size is reduced, the loading times are also shortened significantly. For image optimization, either classic image editing programs like GIMP or Photoshop and online tools, like smush.it or compressor.io, can be used. Smush.it is available as a plugin for WordPress and can optimize all uploaded images in one pass:

• WP Smush.it

2. Reloading the images

Lazy load means that the images on the web page are loaded only when the visitor scrolls to the image area. This is a good way to speed up the page load. The Lazy Load can be included either as a WordPress or as a JQuery plugin

• Lazy Load Plugin for JQuery
• Crazy Lazy für WordPress

3. Plugins should be checked

There are a large number of plugins for the CMS WordPress, but most of them have a negative impact on the loading time. If the user wants to speed up his WordPress site, he should first delete all unused plugins. For any other plugin, a leaner alternative can be sought. It is best to use as few plugins as possible.

4. Speed- und Caching-Plugin verwenden

Caching plugins, such as W3 Total Cache, WP Fastest Cache and WP Super Cache, significantly increase the performance of the WordPress site. Several plugins were tested and W3 Total Cache was the most convincing. Besides the caching options, the speed plugins can also make many important settings:

• Compression of the code
• Merging JS and CSS files
• Gzip compression
• Use of an Expiry header
• Activation of Keep-Alive
• Use of a CDN
• Asynchronous loading of different scripts

Alle Einstellungen können auch manuell durch die .htacces-Datei vorgenommen werden

5. Hosting

When it comes to hosting, a suitable tariff should be chosen. With inexpensive packages, website operators share a server and this increases the loading time. Many hosters have specialized in hosting Wordpress with special packages.