We all know that nobody likes a slow website. In fact, more than half of internet users will leave your website if it doesn’t start to load within 5 seconds. That is a lot of pressure! Especially when considering that the average load time for websites is 11 to 14 seconds. That means most of us out there are not making our websites quick enough for the average internet user, plus missing out on potential sales and conversions!
Making your website fast can be tricky. There are lots of different elements of your website that can effect your load time and sometimes it can be tricky to work out what to do. In this article we will be breaking down how you can check your website speed and what you can do to speed it up!
How To Check Your Website Speed
We have been testing website speeds for years, and we have used just about every platform available. We think the best platform you can use is Google PageSpeed Insights. This gives you all the information you need, plus it is FREE! You can check out a breakdown of what is loading on your site and how long it is taking to do so.
You can test you website now for free by clicking here and entering your site’s URL.
Now that you have tested your WordPress site, let’s take a look at what you can do to speed it up!
Compress Your Images
One of the biggest forms of files on your website is images, especially uncompressed images. You may be aware that images come in all sorts of file types, with each file type representing something about the image. For example, PNG image file types are great for high-quality, glossy images, however they are huge in size when compared to the smaller JPEG file format. By compressing your images to JPEG you can reduce file size by as much as 80%. By reducing the size of your web pages you can decrease your site load time dramatically, turning your WordPress site into a fast site in no time. There are hundreds of plugins you can use on WordPress to compress images. We think reSmush.it is the best plugin you should choose for your website. This plugin is completely free, and you can set it up to automatically optimise any image you upload to your site. You can even choose the percentage of compression you are looking for! This step is important to get right as it also controls the quality of the appearance of your image. Too much compression will result in a poor quality image, too little will result in a slow site. It is a fine balance and every site is different, however we find that somewhere between 80 and 92 is a great range for most websites. This plugin makes compression easy and will probably shave a few seconds off your website load time.
Minify CSS
If you have used a website builder plugin in your WordPress site then there is a good chance that your site is being slowed down by the structure and combination of the CSS and JavaScript on your site. If you are unfamiliar with CSS and JavaScript, they are essentially the forms of code operating on your site to make it look and work the way that it does. Within this code there is usually spaces and unnecessary characters and lines. These elements slow down the process of you site being loaded by web users. Fortunately, there is some good news! You are able to minify the CSS and JavaScript on your website by combining them and eliminating these spaces, lines and unnecessary characters. Minifying this code speeds up how browsers load your site, giving your WordPress site a faster overall load time. The only hard part is choosing what plugin to use.
There is a great WordPress plugin called Fast Velocity Minify which helps to minify CSS and JavaScript on WordPress sites. It works by merging WordPress CSS & Javascript files into groups of the least amount files as possible. This plugin works great and we have found it works in reducing the load time of almost any website. Before installing the plugin it is important to make sure it is compatible with your version of WordPress, the theme you are running and any other related plugins.
Clean Out Unused Files
When you are building your site you will often upload images and other files that may never make it onto your visible site. You may also have replaced some images over time as well. Any of these processes can result in loads of unused files and images stuck on your WordPress site. The problem with this is that these unused files and images will sit on your site taking up space and increasing the time it takes to load your website. That means it may be time for a clean! You are able to do this manually within the WordPress Media Library, however we think life is much easier when it is automated.
The best plugin to use for cleaning out your WordPress site is Media Cleaner. This free plugin scans your site for unused images and files and moves them to a temporary recycle bin. Here you can review them to make sure you are ready to delete them from your site. The plugin is great and will save you time when cleaning your site. Plus it is bound to speed up your WordPress site.
What Do You Think?
What do you think about our tips on how to speed up your WordPress site? Having a fast WordPress site is crucial to the success of your business, so this should definitely be on your list of priorities! By trying some or even all of these steps you will be able to turbo-charge the speed of your website. If you have any questions about WordPress sites you can get in contact with our team by clicking here, or reach us on our Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn pages.
