The Only 7 Things You Must Know to Improve WordPress Performance

A slow website is a sure way to lose visitors—and fast. When pages drag, users get frustrated and move on. But when your site loads in a flash, visitors stick around, engage more, and are more likely to take action. 

In this article, we’re sharing the 7 essential strategies you absolutely must know to optimize your WordPress site’s performance. These are the key steps to keeping your WordPress site fast, efficient, and user-friendly.

Why WordPress Speed Matters

WordPress performance matters more than you might first realize. A slow-loading site not only frustrates visitors, but it increases bounce rates and reduces engagement. Conversely, a fast-loading site has far-reaching effects beyond just a trivial flicker of user frustration. Indeed, a high-performing WordPress website leads to:

• Better User Engagement—User attention span these days is dreadfully short, so, not surprisingly, a fast-loading website keeps visitors from leaving before they even interact with your content. When pages load quickly, users are more likely to explore multiple pages, read articles, and, well, make a purchase, leading to lower bounce rates and higher retention.
• Higher SEO Rankings—Did you know that Google considers page speed a ranking factor? That means the faster your WordPress speed, the more likely it is that your site appears in search results—and, of course, this enables increased website traffic. On the flip side, a slow site can lead to poor user experience, which translates to higher bounce rates, therefore negatively impacting rankings, and making it harder for potential visitors to find your site.
• Improved Conversions—Website speed directly affects conversion rates, whether that means making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or submitting a contact form. Studies show that even a one-second delay in page load time can significantly reduce conversions. As such, making sure your WordPress speed is optimal means your site will run smoothly, enabling more sales, leads, and user interactions.

The 7 Best Ways to Improve WordPress Performance

Optimizing WordPress performance involves several key strategies. Below are the seven best ways to ensure your website runs efficiently and loads quickly.

1. Enable Caching

Let’s say you’ve just moved to a new city, and you need to find a good coffee shop. The first time, you check maps, read reviews, and navigate unfamiliar streets—it takes a while. But once you’ve found the best spot, you remember the fastest route and go straight there every morning. This is essentially how caching works. Instead of making the server “search for directions” (fetching data and building pages from scratch every time), it remembers the most efficient route and serves a pre-prepared version instantly, making your website load much faster. As you can imagine, this significantly reduces server load and speeds up page loading times.

Caching can work in different ways, though. There are different types of caching to consider:

• File-Based Caching: Stores static HTML versions of pages to serve visitors more quickly. Enable file-based caching through a caching plugin or server-level configuration to generate and serve static HTML pages, reducing load times.
• Dynamic Caching: Speeds up content-heavy, dynamic pages by reducing the need for repeated database queries. Use a web hosting provider that offers built-in dynamic caching or install a WordPress performance plugin to optimize database-heavy pages and reduce repeated queries.
• Object Caching: Keeps database query results stored in memory, reducing the time needed to fetch data from the database. Activate object caching with a plugin or configure server-side caching solutions to store and retrieve database query results more efficiently.

2. Optimize Media

Have you ever gone to a website and had to wait patiently as fancy images and videos load ever so slowly? Surely, on at least several of these occasions, you closed the page and took your business elsewhere. You don’t want your site to be that site. 

Indeed, not surprisingly, large image files like these can drastically slow down your website—and, conversely, optimizing these images should be on your WordPress speed improvement to-do list, as it can mean faster-loading media and a faster-loading site. 

But how can you do this without compromising on quality? Here’s how:

• Compress Images: Quite simply, make those image file sizes smaller by compressing them. You can do this by using a plugin or online tool to automatically reduce image file sizes while maintaining visual quality.
• Enable Lazy Loading: Load images only when they appear on a visitor’s screen rather than all at once. This means that when the user, like in our example above, first lands on your page, they aren’t stuck waiting for every single image to load, but rather only those that they actually see. Enable lazy loading through your theme settings or use a WordPress performance plugin.

• Set Maximum Image Width: Resizing images every time you want to add one to your site can be a real pain, to the point that you might not resize at all (enter the slow-loading problem). The good news is that you can either configure your WordPress media settings to have a maximum width, or use a plugin that allows you to specify that uploaded images do not exceed the necessary display size.  
• Use WebP Format: WebP images offer superior compression and quality compared to traditional JPEG and PNG formats. Convert images to WebP using an optimization plugin or a manual conversion tool.

3. Streamline Frontend WordPress Performance

Images aren’t the only element slowing down your site; the visible part of your WordPress website—how it looks and functions—is built using code for design (CSS), interactive features (JavaScript), and fonts, all which can contribute to site-load time. Optimizing these elements helps your site load more quickly and run more smoothly. Here are a few ways to do so:

• Minify CSS and JavaScript: Reduce unnecessary whitespace, comments, and code optimizations helps files load faster.
• Combine CSS & JavaScript Files: Reduce the number of separate file requests minimizes HTTP requests and improves loading speed; a plugin or manual file bundling can achieve this. 
• Optimize Fonts: Limit the number of font styles and weights used, and host fonts locally if possible to decrease load times. Google Fonts, for example, can be self-hosted to prevent extra HTTP requests. Meanwhile, the SiteGround Speed Optimizer plugin, for example, lets you preload fonts that are required immediately so that you can speed up your WordPress performance.
• Use a Theme Optimized for WordPress Performance: A well-coded, lightweight theme reduces unnecessary CSS, JavaScript, and bloat, leading to faster page speeds.
• Updated WordPress and Plugins: Even if you have an optimized theme, it’s worth noting that regular updates of your theme and plugins can optimize WordPress performance. That’s because these updates can speed up WordPress and improve functionality, reducing the chances of slowdowns due to outdated code or plugins. To address this, enable automatic updates, manually update regularly, or opt for managed WordPress hosting so that your plugins and WordPress Core will always be up to date. 
• Split Posts, Products, and Comments into Pages: Breaking up long articles and large comment or product sections prevents excessive content from loading all at once. You can enable pagination in your website settings to break up long posts, pages, and comment sections, preventing excessive content from loading all at once. Meanwhile, for products, many eCommerce platforms, including WooCommerce, allow you to enable pagination or infinite scrolling to manage large product catalogs efficiently.

4. Manage Resource Usage

Think of your WordPress website like a closet—over time, it fills up with things you don’t need, like old files, spam comments, and outdated settings. If it gets too cluttered, it takes longer to find what you’re looking for. Cleaning up and organizing your website’s database regularly helps it run faster and more efficiently. 

There are many ways you can help optimize your resource usage—and here are some great ways to do some website spring cleaning:

• Clean Up Your Database: Over time, your website stores unnecessary data, such as post revisions, spam comments, and expired plugin settings. Consider using a plugin to regularly clean up and optimize your database.
• Enable GZIP Compression: GZIP shrinks website files before they’re sent to visitors’ browsers, reducing load times. Most caching plugins have an option to enable GZIP compression, or you can manually add a compression rule to your .htaccess file.
• Avoid Uploading Media Directly to WordPress: Uploading large media files (like videos, PDFs, or backups) directly to WordPress can bloat your database and slow down your site. Instead, use external services like YouTube for videos or cloud storage for large files to keep your website lean and fast.
• Limit Post Revisions: WordPress automatically saves multiple versions of your posts, which can be nice, but ultimately it clutters your database over time. To prevent this, set a reasonable limit on stored revisions, such as five, using your wp-config.php file, or simply by using a speed-optimizer plugin.

5. Monitor WordPress Performance

WordPress performance is not a static feature—it can fluctuate due to various factors such as changes in traffic, updates to content, or technical issues. That’s why regular monitoring is essential for staying ahead of potential WordPress performance problems and ensuring your site continues to load quickly and efficiently.

• Test Web Speed Regularly: To keep your site running at its best, it’s important to test its speed periodically. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or Pingdom offer valuable insights into your website’s performance, highlighting any bottlenecks or areas for improvement. These tools measure overall load times and provide specific recommendations, making it easy to take actionable steps toward faster performance.
• Monitor Core Web Vitals: While testing website speed is essential, Google’s Core Web Vitals focus more on user experience—how fast and smooth your website feels for visitors. Core Web Vitals measure metrics like loading speed (Largest Contentful Paint), interactivity (First Input Delay), and visual stability (Cumulative Layout Shift). Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse help you track these metrics, ensuring that your site not only loads quickly but also provides a seamless experience for users, which is crucial for SEO rankings.

6. Use a CDN

A content delivery network (CDN) speeds up WordPress website performance by distributing copies of your content across multiple servers worldwide. So when a visitor accesses your site, the content is delivered from the nearest server, reducing loading times and providing a smoother experience.

Many managed hosting providers, such as SiteGround, include built-in CDN options as part of their services. This offers several advantages, including easy setup, seamless management, optimized performance, enhanced security, and integrated support—all without needing a separate service. Alternatively, you can implement a CDN independently, allowing you to use any provider regardless of your hosting platform.

7. Pick Your Web Host Carefully

This list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning web hosting, as a good hosting provider directly impacts your website’s performance. You could enthusiastically tackle all the above steps, and then a slow or unreliable host could simply negate all your optimization efforts. When selecting a hosting provider for WordPress performance, consider the following:

• Speed and Reliability: Choose a host with fast server response times and high uptime guarantees to enable consistent performance.
• Optimized Hosting for WordPress: Managed WordPress hosting offers performance-focused optimizations, such as caching and server configurations, that speed up WordPress and improve security.
• Scalability: Select a host that can seamlessly handle traffic spikes without causing slowdowns, ensuring smooth performance during peak times.
• Latest PHP Version: The latest PHP version improves processing speed, improving security, and supports better performance for dynamic WordPress websites.
• DNS-Level Website Firewall: A DNS-level firewall reduces server load and mitigates potential threats before they reach your site, leading to a faster, safer user experience.
• Content Delivery Network: As we discussed above, a CDN improves load times by caching and distributing your content across multiple servers worldwide, ensuring that visitors receive it from the nearest server for faster delivery.

Take Action Today to Speed Up WordPress Performance

Improving WordPress performance isn’t just simply about speed—it’s about enhancing user experience, improving SEO, and increasing conversions. By implementing the seven must-knows above, you can rest easy knowing that your site is running at peak efficiency.

Here at SiteGround, we work hard to make sure that your WordPress site performs at its best, and with as little effort on your side as possible. Our high-performance hosting and free Speed Optimizer plugin make this possible, working together to ensure your site runs smoothly and efficiently.