Watching a webpage load back in the dialup days was… character building. Remember watching an image appear before your eyes row by row? Nowadays, we’re accustomed to fast internet and faster webpages.

If your website or blog takes more than a couple of seconds to load, your audience will be out of there and onto a competitor website before you can say “5G”. According to Google, more than half of the visits are abandoned if a mobile page takes over 3 seconds to load. As a result, page speed also has an impact on your Google ranking.

Increasing the page speed of your website or blog will help to draw a larger audience, and to make sure they have an optimal experience that will keep them coming back. Follow out guide to find out what’s slowing your WordPress website down and how to fix it.

Tips to Increase The Pagespeed of Your Website or Blog

1. Edit Your WordPress Plugin Collection

Plugins are awesome. They let you search engine optimize your website, keep it secure, and customize your website in all sorts of ways. But they have a downside. Each plugin slows down your website to a greater or lesser extent. Unfortunately, some of the most popular plugins are the worst offenders!

The solution: Sniff out the plugins that are slowing your site and get rid. Here’s what you have to do.

  • Start by testing your pagespeed with Google PageSpeed Insights
  • Deactivate plugin.
  • Test your pagespeed again. Has it increased?
  • If so, ask yourself “Do I really need this plugin? If so, are there any alternatives I can try?”
  • Remove plugin if appropriate.
  • Repeat with other plugins.

2. Streamline (or “Minify”) Your Code

CSS and Javascript files are nicely organized and formatted so that developers can see what they’re doing. But all these extra linebreaks, tabs, and spaces slow down your webpage.

Standard practice for pros is to “minify” the code by removing everything unnecessary before your webpage goes live.

If you’re confident at editing Javascript and CSS files, go to town and cut that code down!

3. Move Your JavaScript Files To Their Rightful Place

JavaScript files have a pesky way of preventing your page from loading correctly. The technical term for this is “render-blocking”. If you use Google PageSpeed Insights, you might come across this phrase.

Put in simple terms, if JavaScript appears too early in the code, or in the wrong place, it can stop the browser from reading it properly.

Enlist the help of a developer to fix the problem. Or if you’ve got a strong foundation in coding, move the Javascript code that you don’t need to render the page to the end of the body tag. This article by Hubspot is a great and easy-to-follow resource to guide you through the process.

4. Optimize Your Images

Bigger isn’t better when it comes to images on your website. Many people are under the impression that a bigger image is a sharper image. Not necessarily! Most desktop screens are less than 2000px wide and most mobile screens are less than 700px wide.

If you exceed those dimensions you’re not improving the quality of the image but you are slowing your pagespeed!

Go through your existing images and make sure they fit standard desktop dimensions and no more.

5. Update, update, update

Sure, it feels like you’re constantly being bombarded with updates. But it’s time to stop pretending than they’re optional. They’re necessary if slightly unpleasant part of your routine, like doing the laundry or checking the news in 2020.

WordPress, themes, and plugins all need to be updated, ideally immediately when you are notified about the updates. Not only is it likely to improve your page speed, but it’s also important for security.

Do What You Can

Try to make as many of the changes to your WordPress website as you comfortably can. Unless you’re a confident coder, you might need some help with some of the steps. If that’s the case, we’ll be more than happy to talk with you and see if we can help you increase the pagespeed of your WordPress website or blog. Feel free to get in contact.