18 tips to speed up your WordPress site in 2022

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1. Switch to a reliable server

Quality server hosting is often half the battle when it comes to WordPress page speed optimization. Ideally, its capacity should correspond to your traffic volume, so that at peak hours the server can bear the load and won’t crash.  This is not the case, though, of shared hostings, which often provide one server for hundreds or even 

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1. Switch to a reliable server

thousands other sites, and at peak traffic periods just can’t give clients all the resources that they need. Thus, if your site has a rather large audience, make sure to splurge on a good quality hosting, especially given that it doesn’t usually cost that much.  Also, when choosing one, look not only at its price but other parameters

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1. Switch to a reliable server

influencing the performance as well, such as RAM (random-access memory), CPU cores, and so on.

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2. Upgrade WordPress version

When was the last time you upgraded WordPress?  The platform releases updates every few months to decrease vulnerabilities and help sites perform better, so keep up and regularly check for upgrades. They’ll provide your blog with extended functionality, higher security, and less bugs.

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2. Upgrade WordPress version

Pay attention that WordPress always has two releases—the latest one, which is likely to have bugs, and another, more stable one, with some of the bugs already fixed. To ensure WordPress performance tuning and avoid deficiencies, go with the second one.  If you’re still wondering “Why is my wordpress 

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2. Upgrade WordPress version

site slow?” remember to update other platform components as well, such as the theme, plugins, etc.    By failing to do so, you’ll only increase your site vulnerability.

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3. Remove unnecessary plugins

Webmasters often use too many plugins, increasing backup size and cluttering the site files. To avoid WordPress slow loading, run thorough review and remove non-essential plugins. Instead, you can download one premium plugin such as WP Rocket with all 

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3. Remove unnecessary plugins

necessary functions or integrate third-party tools that will help automate some tasks. For example, use free social media management tools to schedule and manage posts on Facebook or Instagram. Or, integrate one of these marketing platforms to set up your email marketing campaign.

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4. Switch to a lighter theme

Themes greatly influence the overall site performance and can also be a reason for your WordPress site running slow. The more dynamic elements your theme has, the higher the page size, and the slower it loads. What you can do is carefully check the theme before installing or switching to a lighter one. 

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4. Switch to a lighter theme

Any of default WordPress themes will run smoothly, but you can also check a list of the best WordPress themes for affiliate marketing, with necessary integrations.

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5. Optimize images

The next step to make WordPress faster is to reduce the size of media files on your site, as they increase page weight and slow down the loading speed. Rather than getting rid of all pictures that make your site so appealing, be sure to reduce their size, which can enhance WordPress page speed optimization. 

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5. Optimize images

You can use compression tools like JPEG Optimizer, Optimizilla, Kraken.io, or install one of image optimization plugins such as Optimole, WP Smush, Shortpixel or Imagify, to name a few. Optimization is especially important for images above the fold. Even if you enable lazy loading,

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5. Optimize images

these media files will load as usual, which can slow down the page.

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6. Embed videos

Embedding will also make WordPress site load faster, as videos won’t take up your server space. Uploading them, on the other hand, can increase backup size, cost bandwidth and lead to your WordPress site loading slowly. 

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6. Embed videos

Embedding allows for simply displaying the video on your site, while the file is hosted on a separate server and doesn’t slow down the site performance. Where can you upload videos? While the most popular platform today is YouTube, you can also try Vimeo, SoundCloud or other solutions.

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6. Embed videos

Upload your video to a dedicated platform, copy its URL and paste it to the relevant post, so WordPress will automatically embed the video instead of storing it in the database.

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7. Enable lazy loading

If you’re asking “Why is my WordPress site so slow?” even after optimizing media files, it’s time to enable lazy loading. This feature allows for downloading only the elements that the user will see on their screen, while other files will be loaded when the user scrolls down the page.

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7. Enable lazy loading

Lazy loading is applicable to images, videos, iframes, comments, and other page elements. To enable this feature and speed up WordPress sites, install dedicated plugins like Lazy Load by WP Rocket. Note that some themes lazy-load files by default, starting from WordPress 5.5, 

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7. Enable lazy loading

and if that’s not your case, set up the feature manually.    Remember that lazy load won’t reduce the size of featured images and other files above the fold, so make sure to optimize them anyway.

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8. Choose a fast DNS provider

To avoid WordPress slow loading, you can also upgrade your DNS provider. DNS stands for Domain Name System and is often referred to as a phone book of the internet, hosting records of IP addresses and domain names, tied to them. So, every time a user types in a site’s name, the DNS provider checks 

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8. Choose a fast DNS provider

the IP address for this domain to send the user to. This process takes time, and free DNS providers are often slow to respond. What you can do is switch to a more reliable service, for example, Cloudflare. It runs very fast and is free to use.

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9. Use caching

Caching allows for temporary storage of file copies, which helps deliver them to visitors more efficiently. And if you’re looking for tips on how to speed up your WordPress site, caching can make it two, three, or even five times faster.  So, how does it work? Instead of generating a page for

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9. Use caching

every time a new visitor opens your site, caching tools make a copy of this page and then serve its cached version to all future visitors. To avoid WordPress slow loading, make use of one of the dedicated plugins such as WP Rocket, WP Super Cache,  W3 Total Cache, Cachify, etc. Caching is also provided by some hosting 

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9. Use caching

services such as SiteGround or Hostinger.

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10. Clean up database

Why is WordPress so slow despite all optimization tricks? Perhaps, you haven’t cleaned up your database yet! This is the place where all the site data is stored, including configuration settings. Sometimes, it gets packed with too much information, some of which is no longer needed but could slow down WordPress speed. 

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10. Clean up database

For example, it can be spam comments on your blog, old post drafts, fake user accounts, and so on. By deleting such data, you’ll also make your site backups smaller in size and faster to implement. In this tutorial by WordPress, you’ll learn how to clean up your database and optimize site performance.

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11. Optimize CSS files

CSS files (Cascading Style Sheet) control how HTML elements are displayed on the page: size, fonts, color, spacing, etc. They are stored as a plain text, which can be edited in any text editing program. Minimizing CSS files will allow you to greatly improve the site performance. 

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11. Optimize CSS files

Many webmaster tools like Google PageSpeed Insights display the size of CSS and JS files on the site, so you’ll know about the issue when auditing your site. How to optimize WordPress through CSS files? First, you can edit CSS manually on web development platforms like ColdFusion Builder or Dreamweaver 

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11. Optimize CSS files

(they offer advanced features in comparison with a simple text editor). Second, install a dedicated plugin, for example, Autoptimize, which will help reduce not only CSS but also HTML and JS on your blog.  Depending on your protocol, you can also combine CSS files to increase WordPress speed.

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11. Optimize CSS files

HTTP 1.1 loads files consecutively, so each next file starts loading only after the full load of a previous one.    You can combine scripts to short the load time. On the other hand, HTTP 2 loads files simultaneously, so combining them won’t affect the speed much.

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12. Set up JS files loading

Just like CSS files, JavaScript code can also be optimized to speed up WordPress sites. Here is what you can do: – If you’re using jQuery Migrate and there are no issues with it, simply disable the tool to not overload the script. – Reduce the size of JS files. In this case, you’ll need to remove 

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12. Set up JS files loading

whitespace and comments. – Defer JavaScript loading. Thus, more important content like HTML will be delivered first, followed by JS files. Please note that optimizing JavaScript might break stuff on your site, so make sure to test its functionality following the changes.

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13. Use a content delivery network (CDN)

A content delivery network (CDN) is a grid of servers all over the world helping deliver your site’s content faster. Basically, when a user opens your site, they’ll be directed to the nearest server with your site’s caching files so it can load quicker.  If your visitors are somewhere close in proximity to your hosting server,

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13. Use a content delivery network (CDN)

then using a CDN won’t influence the loading speed so much as if they were located quite far away, so sites with a global audience will benefit the most. Some of the most popular CDN platforms are Cloudflare and MaxCDN.

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14. Reduce database calls

While it’s very convenient to store all site information inside a database, the calls that the site makes can take up a lot of server resources and slow down loading. There are a few ways to reduce database requests. First, make sure you’re using a well-coded WordPress theme that makes only effective calls.

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14. Reduce database calls

For this reason, it’s better to install one of WordPress default or premium themes. Second, you can use one of the caching plugins, so the server won’t have to call the database for the same information. Finally, it’s possible to reduce database calls manually, but it requires knowledge of PHP scripts.

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15. Display blog post excerpts

Displaying full posts on your homepage or archives is disadvantageous for two reasons. First, the page is overloaded with information, so it will take longer to display all elements.  Second, as readers will see the whole post right away, they won’t need to actually open it, which will 

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15. Display blog post excerpts

decrease your site’s page views and visit duration. To prevent this, be sure to display excerpts rather than full posts. Just go to your WordPress dashboard, open “Settings,” then “Reading” and choose “Summary” instead of “Full text.”

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16. Turn off pingbacks and trackbacks

Another potential solution is to shut off pingbacks and trackbacks. These elements alert the site owner about the latest backlinks. While it’s useful for marketing, one can track links in Google Webmaster Tools or other programs instead of clogging your site’s dashboard. 

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16. Turn off pingbacks and trackbacks

This function can also make your site more vulnerable to DDoS attacks. To turn off pingbacks and trackbacks, click “Settings” and then “Discussion.” There, you can disallow link notifications and make WordPress faster.

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17. Break comments into pages

How to speed up WordPress sites that have plenty of comments? While it’s a benchmark of audience’s engagement, too many of them can reduce site’s loading speed. What you can do is split comments into pages, so when a user opens a post, they won’t have to wait until all the comments are loaded.

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17. Break comments into pages

Open your WordPress dashboard, click “Settings,” then “Discussion” and select “Break comments into pages.” There, you can also choose the number of comments to be displayed per page.

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18. Enable GZIP compression

Just like you compress files to save space on your computer, GZIP compression allows for decreasing the bandwidth for your site and improves its loading speed.  The software will compress files on your site, so when a visitor opens it, their browser will have to unzip these files first. 

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18. Enable GZIP compression

You can compress your site with dedicated plugins such as PageSpeed Ninja or Enable Gzip Compression.

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