How to Increase WordPress Site Speed Load Time
Having a website that loads fast is important both from a user perspective and experience, as well as from Google’s perspective. It can also help improve your SEO results.
However, WordPress sites can sometimes load slowly and certain WordPress themes, child themes, and plugins can slow down a site’s load time. Here are a few simple tips to speed up your site’s load time.
WP Rocket is a popular caching program that can help speed up a WordPress site’s load time (I use WP Rocket for the sites I develop and manage. I have NO financial interest with this product.) I’ve found that this WordPress plugin has helped me speed up my sites, especially since some of the themes and plugins I use can be kind of “heavy”.
Recently, WP Rocket rolled out a new version of their plugin. The big news is that the new feature will increase PageSpeed score for your site.
Here’s what WP Rocket says about the upgrade:
“Update now, because v3.7 introduces a crucial new feature that will increase your PageSpeed score in the blink of an eye: Delay of JavaScript Execution Time.
This feature loads JavaScript files only when the user visiting a page needs them: this behavior has a huge positive impact on your website’s performance.
When you enable this option from the File Optimization tab, WP Rocket will tell you what scripts you can safely delay (e.g., Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn Pixel, etc.).
By delaying this kind of JavaScript file, we obtained a fantastic 65% reduction in loading time (from 2,6s to 0,9s) and an 87% improvement in the mobile PageSpeed score!
And that’s just one of the new features that version 3.7 brings with it.”
I encourage WordPress web site owners/developers to try this plugin with the new upgrades and then test the results using a popular program such as GT Metrix, Pingdom, etc.
A few other plugins I’ve had success with in speeding up my website load time are PhastPress. Another great plugin for image optimization is Smush.
If this doesn’t speed up your WordPress website’s load time, the next step would be to use WP Faster.org
I’ve used their service for a number of my websites and have recommended them to clients, and have had very good results by using them. (Again, I do NOT receive any financial compensation by recommending them.)