WordPress is the most popular website software in the world, so it\u2019s easy to think superior WordPress performance is a given.<\/p>\n
How we wish this was true!<\/p>\n
It takes some effort to reach a level of WordPress performance optimization that has impact. This requires skills many business owners don\u2019t have, and guess who they turn to for advice? You, the developer.<\/p>\n
WordPress performance optimization is your responsibility as a web developer.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, here are five tips to help you assist clients in achieving their WordPress goals.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll cover WordPress performance optimization through:<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s dive in!<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t emphasize it enough: without security, a website may shut down altogether or become so compromised that performance becomes a real problem. Downloads may become impossibly slow, pages might not appear, or, even worse, visitors might become\u00a0hacking targets<\/a>\u00a0themselves.<\/p>\n Several security firms have developed excellent WordPress plugins (e.g.\u00a0Sucuri<\/a>) to block hackers from accessing user logins, databases, files, and file-management tools. If you\u2019re looking to up-level your security measures, take a look at\u00a0how to secure your WordPress website<\/a>.<\/p>\n And speaking of, GoDaddy recently began offering\u00a0Premium Website Security, powered by Sucuri<\/a>, to make ironclad protection more accessible and affordable.<\/p>\n Related Article:\u00a010 Things You Must Review on Your Website on a Regular Basis<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Speed is\u00a0everything<\/em>\u00a0on the web. Whatever your clients\u2019 sites are providing, they\u2019d better be delivering quickly!\u00a0Kissmetrics famously declared in an infographic<\/a>\u00a0that every second counts when waiting for a page to load:<\/p>\n Page abandonment increases almost immediately, with 25 percent of web users dropping off after four seconds. After 10 seconds, the number approaches 50 percent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n WordPress developers have created numerous plugins to cache, minify and compress website data. First, go to\u00a0Google\u2019s PageSpeed Insights<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Pingdom<\/a>. These free tools analyze mobile and desktop sites for optimal performance and make recommendations for improvement, which include suggestions for caching, compressing and minifying code.<\/p>\n Basically, it lets a website store data to use to respond to search requests. Caching tools create static files for each page and post. Servers store them to more quickly deliver content to users who have entered a search. Static files load more quickly \u2014\u00a0WordPress says several hundred times more<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 than new pages and posts.<\/p>\n WordPress can only do so much to influence browser caching, although some plugins can be optimized for certain browsers. Packages like Google Analytics or Clicky (to name two of the most popular) can help determine the browsers visitors most often use. You could get some information this way to tweak the caching plugin you select.<\/p>\n Popular ones include WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, WP Rocket and Wordfence. All have free and paid packages. The WordPress enterprise host wpmudev is calling them the\u00a0best caching plugins you never heard of<\/a>.<\/p>\n Certain very large files, particularly images and video, can take a long time to download and run. Compression tools like\u00a0Smush<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0BJ Lazy Load<\/a>\u00a0improve WordPress performance and speed by reducing image sizes as they are uploaded, or downloading content before loading images.<\/p>\n Many experts who spoke at WordCamp Phoenix in 2016 also recommended compressing images before uploading with Photoshop or other image-optimization tools, even if you\u2019re using a compression tool.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There are two tools for video compression:\u00a0lossy<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0lossless<\/strong>. A lossy tool will decrease the video quality during compression, while a lossless one won\u2019t. But lossless files will be much larger and load more slowly.\u00a0The LazyLoad for Video plugin<\/a>, for example, puts clickable previews in place of embedded videos to speed up WordPress performance.<\/p>\n Look for minify settings on the caching and image-optimization tools discussed above. Set them to minify items like inline\u00a0JavaScript<\/a>\u00a0and CSS files that remain static. This alone will fix a lot of WordPress performance issues and alleviate slow download. WPBeginner.com recommends\u00a0Better WordPress Minify plugin<\/a>, and goes through\u00a0setup instructions<\/a>\u00a0that are pretty standard to most other caching\/minifying tools.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll see update notices for WordPress software, plugins, and themes as soon as you log in. Make sure to tell clients they should promptly download updates. These often include security patches and revisions that boost WordPress performance.<\/p>\n In fact, using old,\u00a0outdated themes and plugins<\/a>\u00a0can seriously compromise a site even if you update WordPress itself.<\/p>\n Just be sure you have a backup plugin in place so the last version of the site can be recovered if something goes wrong.\u00a0Check out this easy-to-digest rundown of the best plugins for backing up WordPress websites<\/a>.<\/p>\n A lot has been written about\u00a0Content Delivery Networks<\/a>\u00a0(CDNs) and\u00a0Google\u2019s Accelerate Mobile Pages (AMP)\u00a0<\/a>to speed up WordPress performance. CDNs have their own servers to speed up delivery of cached content based on a user\u2019s location. If you decide to use a CDN, you will have to change the name server in the domain manager.<\/p>\n Before you use a CDN like Cloudflare, first check with the site host to see if they have suggestions to speed up the site and if they partner with the CDN you\u2019re considering.<\/p>\n WordPress is so user friendly that many users don\u2019t even realize there\u2019s a database behind it! Do your clients a favor and use a plugin like\u00a0WP-Optimize<\/a>\u00a0that will optimize the WordPress database. Set it to save only a certain number of page and post revisions, or define a timeframe in which revisions are deleted.<\/p>\n We hope these tips on WordPress performance have been valuable to you!\u00a0At Mode Effect<\/a>, we specialize in\u00a0developing WordPress<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0WooCommerce ecommerce websites<\/a>. When we both build and maintain WordPress and WooCommerce sites for our clients, performance is always front and center so clients\u2019 sites function at top performance for their customers.<\/p>\n2. Cache\/minify and use compression plugins<\/h3>\n
What\u2019s page caching?<\/h4>\n
What\u2019s file compression?<\/h4>\n
What\u2019s minifying?<\/h4>\n
3. Perform updates promptly<\/h2>\n
4. Check with site host before using CDNs and Google AMP<\/h2>\n
5. Keep the WordPress database optimized<\/h2>\n
Keep your clients\u2019 WordPress performance in tip-top shape<\/h2>\n