Ways to Speed Up Your WordPress Website and Improve SEO

Let’s be honest: a slow website costs money. Every second it takes your page to load means lost customers; every visitor who clicks away from your site represents an opportunity lost or missed sale/lead.

Think about it. When visiting a website on your phone, how long do you usually wait before clicking back or moving on to another competitor’s site? After three or four seconds have passed, most visitors leave. They simply hit back or head elsewhere instead.

Google recognizes this and cares, too; thus making site speed an integral factor of their ranking algorithm – faster sites receive priority over slower ones in search results – it really is that simple!

Here’s what you’ll learn in this post: We’ll demonstrate how to measure website speed, then discuss simple yet proven strategies for making WordPress faster. Additionally, you will understand why speed matters for search rankings as well as exactly how to fix common speed issues.

Best of all, most fixes don’t cost much; in some cases they may even be free! We provide clear explanations in plain English so you don’t need to be an experienced developer to implement these fixes yourself.

Why Website Speed Matters for SEO

Speed Is an SEO Ranking Signal

Google engineers conducted several tests years ago and concluded that websites with faster load times saw more visitors click and spend longer time on them, prompting Google’s engineers to reward speed with higher search rankings.

Speed has become an essential factor of success online today; sites that load slowly may see their rankings decline while those that load fast can quickly climb the list – Google takes into account speed as one of its primary ranking factors.

Users Stray from Slow Sites

Attentiveness to user behavior reveals an undeniable truth: pages taking more than three seconds to load cause visitors to leave in droves, studies show that bounce rates dramatically increase after three seconds, and by five seconds, most are gone.

What this means for your business: lost leads, sales, and repeat customers. A visitor who had an unpleasant experience will most likely never come back; worse still, they’ll share it with friends who might come visit in the future.

Mobile Is Now Everything

Now more people use mobile devices than computers, Google is aware that mobile speed should take precedence over desktop speed when reviewing websites. Your desktop site could be superfast while slow for mobile visitors – that is a problem!

Google’s mobile-first indexing ranks websites based on how well they perform on mobile phones; desktop speeds matter less. Mobile speed matters most.

Key Web Vitals: SEO Metrics That Really Count

Google uses something called Core Web Vitals as three key measurements of site speed and smoothness; developers and business owners should become familiar with them.

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) This measure tracks how quickly your main content loads – think of it as when visitors can view all the essential pieces on a page – with Google hoping this to happen within 2.5 seconds or less.

FID (First Input Delay) measures how quickly your website responds when someone clicks or types something into it. Slow sites make their buttons seem broken while great websites respond instantly – Google prefers this timeframe of 100 milliseconds or lower for optimal user experience.

CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) measures the stability of your website while loading. Have you ever clicked a button only for it to suddenly move, creating frustration among visitors? That is an indication of a poor CLS that should not occur at all; Google recommends no or near zero movement from their pages.

Speed Enhances All Else

Fast sites do more than simply rank higher; they also:

Google crawls your site more often and indexes faster, bounce rates should drop, and visitors stay engaged longer, leading to the conversion of more visitors into customers and creating user trust and loyalty for your brand.

Once, we saw this in action. A website improved its load time from 5 seconds down to 2 seconds, and conversion rates went up 30-40 percent from this change alone!

How to Measure Your Website Speed

To Check Speed Effectively, Utilize Appropriate Tools

Before attempting any fixes, it’s essential to gain an accurate picture of where things stand. A bit like taking your temperature before treating fever – without measuring things accurately, you cannot hope to make improvements.

Checking speed is easy and free with several tools capable of doing it effectively.

Google PageSpeed Insights

Google offers this free and extremely reliable tool: just visit pagespeed.web.dev with your website address in to access pagespeed analysis.

This tool gives a score between 0 and 100. Green signifies good performance; yellow means acceptable; and red indicates improvement is needed. Below 50 indicates slowness, while between 50-89 indicates average result,s while beyond 90 represents excellence.

Your score for mobile and desktop differ, with mobile being more significant these days; pay particular attention to that number first.

The tool also provides insight into exactly what’s slowing you down, displaying a list of issues with solutions that range from easy fixes to more involved fixes, all providing actionable advice that you can implement immediately.

GTmetrix for In-Depth Reports

GTmetrix is another excellent tool, providing waterfall charts to display exactly when each element loads – enabling users to see which images and scripts are heavy, as well as slow.

Interface designed for beginners – even those just starting out. Similar to PageSpeed Insights, but with additional technical details.

Pingdom Tools

Pingdom makes quick website checks easy: simply enter your URL, hit run, and get a speed score and list of improvements!

Test from different countries to gain a better understanding of how speed differs by region; perhaps your website loads quickly in America but not so fast elsewhere in Europe.

WebPageTest for Advanced Analysis

This tool goes deep. It shows filmstrip views of how your page loads frame by frame – you can witness exactly when images or text appear and when interactive features take effect on the page.

WebPageTest offers more technical detail than its peers; however, PageSpeed Insights will give a good foundation. When ready, use WebPageTest if you want to delve further.

Chrome DevTools’ Lighthouse

No separate website is necessary to check speed; Google provides one right inside Chrome itself. Launch Chrome, press F12, and navigate to the “Lighthouse” tab to start measuring.

Just two minutes are all it takes to run an audit and get a detailed report with scores and recommendations, all built right into your browser, completely free and powerful!

Understanding Your Results

All these tools may seem overwhelming at first, but their design follows a universal pattern.

• Green scores (90+) indicate you’re doing well with your website’s load times, so continue doing what you’re doing!

• Yellow scores (50-89) represent room for improvement on your website, as there is still work to be done on it. Visitors may experience slight slowness while search rankings could benefit.

• Red scores (under 50) signal real problems: your site may be slow, users are leaving before visiting fully and Google may penalize it – all indicators that it is time for action.

Review your recommendation list, starting by fixing those at the top. These usually provide maximum improvement with minimal work investment.

Proven Ways to Speed Up Your WordPress website

Select a Reliable Host Provider

Here is a harsh truth no one wants to face: your hosting matters more than anything else. Building a fast site on slow hosting simply isn’t possible.

Take hosting as the foundation of a house: without it, nothing else matters.

Be wary of cheap shared hosting plans. Avoid $2-per-month deals. These $2 plans may sound tempting, but be wary. These servers host hundreds or even thousands of sites, all sharing resources; when one site gets traffic, it slows down all others as yours does too – your site doesn’t get dedicated resources either!

Consider Managed WordPress Hosting. These companies specialize exclusively in WordPress hosting, having optimized their servers specifically to support it and offering automatic updates, security features and performance tools such as caching.

Good options include SiteGround, Kinst and WP Engine – while these may cost more, you will certainly notice an immediate difference in speed!

What should you look out for? Ask your host these questions:

• Do You Offer SSD Storage (instead of Traditional Hard Drives)?
• Do You Include a Content Delivery Network with Your Plan?
• Do You Offer Server-side Caching?
• And What Is Your Uptime Percentage (it should be 99.9% or Higher)?

One more thought – If your hosting plan is already affordable, upgrading is one of the fastest ways to see speed improvements – oftentimes switching can cut load time in half!

Use a Lightweight Theme for Success

Your WordPress theme forms the backbone of your site, and one with excessive code could slow everything down significantly.

Many popular themes come equipped with many features you will likely never use, adding extra code that could potentially slow your site down significantly. Simply put, it adds extra cost.

What should you choose instead? Lightweight themes designed for speed. These designs only include what is essential – no extraneous bits. No bloat.

Good choices of themes to consider are Astra, GeneratePress, and Neve. These options include:

Fast out of the box and compatible with all page builders. Easy customization & still professional looking

The design is both elegant and minimal. No flashy animations or unnecessary features; just a solid basis upon which to build.

Switching themes could reduce load times by up to 1-2 seconds, making a noticeable, impactful change that’s also straightforward and pain-free.

Install Caching Plugin

Caching is like making a copy of your website so when visitors come, they get the cached version instead of having to rebuild from scratch. Caches load much quicker.

Think of it this way. Imagine you are a baker. Every time someone requests bread from you, you produce it freshly from flour and water – this takes time! Or alternatively, you could bake all your loaves at once and slice it individually for each customer – much quicker.

Caching plugins serve a similar function. They create static copies of your pages that don’t require WordPress to run PHP code or query its database every time someone visits, rather it simply serves the copy.

Difference between browser cache and server cache

Your browser cache saves copies on each visitor’s computer for faster loading time during subsequent visits, but only applies to returning visitors.

Server cache (page caching) stores copies on your hosting server so that each visitor receives a quick copy, whether this is their first visit or their tenth.

Use both types to your advantage; install a caching plugin for server caching and then enable browser caching in your plugin settings.

Popular cache plugins:

• WP Rocket is one of the easiest solutions to set up, offering CDN integration and being one of the best overall solutions.
• W3 Total Cache is free option but powerful; additional configuration may be required; whilst for those hosting with LiteSpeed servers it integrates seamlessly.

Start out using WP Rocket as it is user-friendly and most settings should work out of the box.

Optimize Your Images Now

Images are typically the largest files on any website, and unoptimized images can add several seconds to your load time if they’re left as is. That can make a dramatic difference.

Most people upload images directly from their camera or phone directly onto the web, where these large files were intended for printing and not viewing online.

Compress images in order to reduce file sizes without altering their aesthetic quality. A good compression tool should reduce file sizes by 50-84% allowing your images to load more quickly while maintaining their look.

How to Compress Images:

Use online tools like TinyPNG, ShortPixel or Imagify to quickly upload an image and download a compressed version – it’s that simple!

Use a WordPress plugin that automates this process – such as ShortPixel or Imagify’s. Simply upload an image, and the plugin automatically compresses it for you in the background without you needing to take any further steps.

Use WebP format in place of JPEG or PNG images.

WebP is an emerging image format with smaller file sizes than JPEG or PNG, supporting by most modern browsers; older browsers will switch automatically back to JPEG when needed.

Converting files from JPEG to WebP can reduce file sizes by 25-35% – giving real performance gains!

Most image compression tools feature WebP conversion options or can convert automatically through plugins.

Use lazy loading for images below the fold.

When visitors first arrive on your page, they only see the top portion – any images below the fold aren’t visible and forcing your visitor to wait will just lead them down an endless rabbit hole of images they can’t see anyway! Why make them wait when there may already be plenty available online?

Lazy loading offers an efficient solution. By waiting until a visitor scrolls below the fold to display images, lazy loading reduces your initial page load time drastically.

Most caching plugins offer lazy loading; simply enable it in settings to activate this feature.

Use of Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Imagine having a website in New York. A visitor from Australia tries to visit, and their request must travel across an ocean. That takes time.

A CDN provides an efficient solution, by storing copies of your site on various servers worldwide and providing Australian visitors with instantaneous access.

A Content Delivery Network, or CDN, is an international network of servers. When someone visits your site, the CDN delivers content directly from its nearest server – thus reducing latency (the delay between data traveling from source to target).

Why This Matters

• Faster content delivery worldwide
• Less burden on your main hosting server
• Better performance for all visitors
• Protects your site from some attacks

Popular CDN providers:

• CloudFlare offers the easiest setup process with its free tier and strong reliability,
• BunnyCDN is less costly while still providing great performance and providing superior customer support,
• StackPath may be used by larger websites for greater cost.

Start off right with Cloudflare; their free plan provides enough power for most websites. Setup takes no more than 15 minutes.

Combine and Minify CSS and Java Script

CSS and JavaScript files provide instructions to browsers about how to display websites. Sometimes these files contain extra spaces, line breaks and comments that help developers but don’t do much good for browsers.

Minifying is the process of eliminating unnecessary data in files to make them smaller, so that browsers download faster and your site loads more quickly.

Think of it like this: by eliminating packaging from a box, its contents remain identical yet its size decreases, shipping faster.

Combining files can make things much faster. Imagine having 10 JavaScript files; browsers must request each individually. By merging them into one file, however, just one request needs to be processed which makes for much quicker loading times and performance gains.

Popular plugins to do this:

• Autoptimize. Free and powerful. Good for beginners.
• Asset CleanUp. More control over which files load. Good for advanced users.

These plugins are simple to set up; most settings work automatically.

Warnings should always be considered when merging files; sometimes this causes issues on a site. Make sure your website functions normally after adding these plugins and test each element, from buttons and forms submitting properly, to checking button functionality and forms submission. If something breaks, disengage combining for that specific file.

Enable GZIP Compression

GZIP works like creating a ZIP file of your website. When a visitor requests the page, their server sends back a compressed version which their browser automatically decompresses.

By compressing files by 50-70%, file sizes can be drastically reduced and page download times become significantly faster.

Good news – most hosting providers already enable GZIP by default and you don’t need to do anything further!

Are you wanting to check GZIP is enabled on a website? Use GIDZipTest! Simply input your URL, and it will notify you if GZIP is present or disabled.

If it is disabled, contact your hosting provider and have them turn it on – this is a straightforward server setting!

Some WordPress plugins can add GZIP compression if necessary; however, you often don’t have to worry about this aspect.

Redirect Reducing and Fix Broken Links

Every redirect adds delay. Here’s why. When someone clicks a link, the server responds with “go to this other URL instead,” forcing their browser to make two requests instead of one – thus increasing waiting time significantly.

If there is a series of redirects (URL 1 redirecting to URL 2, which redirects to URL 3), the delay increases exponentially.

Locate and delete unnecessary redirects:

– Old Domain Redirects. If you recently changed domains, remove old redirects after six months. Its Broken Links (links leading to pages which no longer exist – fix or delete as necessary). Tracking URL Redirects – Some shortened links use redirects instead of direct links when sharing.

Take advantage of Screaming Frog to identify all redirects on your website, helping you determine which are necessary and which might just slow things down.

Also keep an eye out for 404 errors (pages that no longer exist), attempting to repair links if possible or delete references if the page no longer exists.

Limit Plugins and Remove External Scripts

WordPress plugins can be an efficient and timesaving addition to your website, but each plugin adds extra code which could slow down its speed.

At times, certain plugins can be too heavy. They add bulky code that runs across every single page. In short, their overhead becomes an obstacle.

Be honest about which plugins you need.

Do You Actually Use That Plugin Or Is It Sitting There inactive? mes – Are You Realistically Utilizing That Plugin, Or Just Sitting There Passively?

 – Are Your Plug-ins Up to Date? Will The Code Load On All Pages Or Only When Needed?

Audit your plugins. Delete those you aren’t using – that can unlock speed boost.

Remove unnecessary external scripts

External scripts include analytics, tracking codes, ads, and chat widgets – each generating its own request which adds a request and causes delay.

Does your analytics really need to load in five different ways, or does your ads network require three tracking codes? Most likely not.

Review all that you own and only keep what is essential and useful to your needs and usage.

Keep Your System Updated On A Regular Basis

Old versions of WordPress, theme updates with bugs and plugins with code that slows things down are all factors contributing to their slow performance.

Updates can provide solutions to these problems by speeding up processes and plugging security holes.

Make it a habit. Check for updates every month. Update WordPress, theme and plugins as soon as available.

Some updates can break things, though this is rare and most hosting providers keep backups so if something breaks you can easily roll back.

An update may pose some risks, but they’re worth taking to increase speed and security.

SEO Benefits of a Fast Website

How Speed Affects Rankings

Speed doesn’t just impact user experience – it has direct ramifications on search rankings too! Google uses speed as a ranking signal.

Sites with faster load times tend to earn higher rankings while slower ones receive lower rankings – it’s measurable and consistent.

Lower bounce rates signal increased engagement

Remember when we said slow websites drive visitors away? Google keeps tabs on this, too. When bounce rates decrease significantly, this indicates that people like your site and stick around longer; staying longer, reading more content and returning frequently.

Google rewards websites that load quickly with higher rankings, as faster sites typically have lower bounce rates – meaning users stay longer to explore your content rather than leaving in frustration.

Mobile speed can have an enormous effect on SEO

Google places high value on mobile search experience. More searches occur via phones than computers now.

An Internet site that performs quickly on desktop but poorly on mobile is problematic. Your rankings could improve for desktop, but that means losing half your potential traffic from mobile.

Speed improvements on mobile can dramatically boost your rankings on that platform.

Core Web Vitals can improve your SEO score

Are You Familiar With LCP, FID and CLS Metrics From Google Ranking Algorithm? When these metrics improve, your rankings improve as a result.

Websites with high Core Web Vitals scores will rank higher, while those with poor scores will fall lower on the ranking list. It’s that straightforward.

Your site gets crawled more frequently

Google has a limited crawl budget. When it comes to larger websites, especially, Google can’t crawl all pages every day.

Sites that use less of their crawl budget will allow Google to spider more pages quickly and index new content faster, while updated pages get reindexed quickly as well.

For large sites that contain thousands of pages, this can be especially crucial.

Advanced Optimization Strategies

Use A Lightweight Page Builder

Some page builders add lots of unnecessary code, resulting in beautiful pages but slow websites.

If you use a page builder, select one with light weight capabilities – Elementor Lite is superior to Elementor Pro; Beaver Builder may be lighter. Or alternatively use WordPress’s integrated Gutenberg editor as an option.

These lightweight solutions make fast pages. You won’t lose functionality; only some extra weight.

Optimize Your Database Now

Your WordPress database holds everything, such as posts, pages, settings and user data. However, over time it becomes cluttered with unnecessary items.

Unused revisions, trashed posts, orphaned data and spam comments all clog up your database and slow down queries.

Utilize plugins such as WP-Optimize and Advanced Database Cleaner to keep your database running more quickly by clearing away junk.

Do this every four months; it only takes five minutes, but the speed increase is well worth your while.

Host Fonts Locally

Google Fonts are convenient, but they’re hosted elsewhere – which adds additional connections that slow loading speeds. By hosting them locally instead, additional traffic may be reduced and additional requests fulfilled more efficiently.

Download fonts to your server and host them locally so browsers can fetch them faster.

This can be especially helpful on slow connections or for international visitors.

Preload Key Resources

Inform the browser of which resources are most essential and allow it to begin downloading them early so they’ll be ready when needed.

Key resources for web fonts, your logo or hero image and essential JavaScript files include.

Add preload directives in your website’s header; most caching plugins allow this through their settings.

Lazy Load Videos and Iframes

Videos and iframes are heavy. If your page features YouTube videos, that’s an external request and increases page loading time.

Do not load it until someone needs it; when someone scrolls near your video, then load it.

Lazy loading is the process by which plugins support caching for faster performance and save storage space by only loading data when required. Simply enable it, and you are good to go.

Use DNS Prefetching for External Resources

When using external resources (analytics, ads and fonts), DNS lookups can slow things down significantly; prefetching speeds this up significantly.

Each small act adds up.

Most caching plugins handle this automatically; simply check your settings and enable it.

How to Maintain Speed Over Time

Monitor Speed Regularly

Optimize for speed over time as new content and plugins are added, or else risk gradual degradation in performance.

Use PageSpeed Insights to test your speed regularly and monitor any fluctuations or slowings; if it seems slower, investigate.

Keep a simple spreadsheet handy to monitor these numbers: Your PageSpeed scores (both mobile and desktop), actual load times in seconds and Core Web Vitals scores, along with their trends and potential issues that might arise early.

Review Plug-ins Quarterly

Review your plugins every three months and pose the following questions.

Are You Utilizing this Plugin Regularly and Are There Performance Implications? (Bottom Line)? (bottom Line)

Remove unnecessary plugins, update outdated ones and replace heavy ones with lightweight alternatives.

Optimize Images Before Upload

Simple! Every time you upload an image, compress it before leaving it up to an external plugin to take care of.

TinyPNG or Imagify takes just 30 seconds and reduces load times significantly.

Check for Slow Pages in Analytics

Some pages load more slowly than others; perhaps because a specific one contains too many images or too much script.

Check your Google Analytics. Pay special attention to page load times of over 3 seconds on every page; any pages requiring attention require immediate action.

Pay them a visit yourself, identify what’s hindering their productivity, and find solutions.

Employ Uptime Monitoring

Your site might occasionally slow down; perhaps during peak hours when servers struggle or when scripts act up unexpectedly. In either instance, uptime monitoring could help keep an eye on things so as to spot potential issues quickly and manage downtime effectively.

Utilize a monitoring tool such as UptimeRobot – this software checks your site every five minutes from different locations, alerting you if speed drops or the site goes offline.

Early identification and resolution are keys to speedy solutions.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Avoid Overusing Animations and Sliders

Fancy animations may look beautiful, but they slow pages down significantly and heavy sliders create issues.

Every animation running in a browser involves code which consumes processing power and thus slows everything down.

Try keeping animations minimal and sliders simple or forgoing them entirely.

Don’t Neglect Mobile Performance

Desktop speed won’t matter much if mobile speed is poor; your mobile traffic will fall dramatically and SEO for mobile search will suffer significantly.

Test on real phones instead of just your desktop browser to gauge how it performs over slow connections.

Use Third-Party Scripts Carefully

Every external script (analytics, ads, fonts or chat tools) adds another request and each adds time to load your page.

Limit yourself. Only keep what is truly needed, while discarding what is no longer used.

Do Not Install Multiple Caching Plugins

One good caching plugin can do the trick. Two caching plugins conflict, slowing you down instead of speeding things up.

Opt for just one, utilize it fully, and don’t add another one.

Don’t Forget to Update

Outdated WordPress versions are slow and insecure. Outdated plugins and themes are the same.

Make updates a monthly habit. Your site will thank you.

Conclusion: Start Improving Your Speed Today

Here’s the bottom line. A fast website is a better website. Faster sites rank higher. They convert more visitors. Users like them. Google likes them.

Speed affects everything. Search rankings. User experience. Conversions. Customer satisfaction.

The good news? You don’t need to fix everything at once. Pick one or two things and start.

Maybe switch to better hosting. Maybe install a caching plugin. Maybe optimize your images.

Test afterward. Check your speed. See the improvement. Then pick the next thing.

Speed improvements compound. One fix helps a little. Two fixes help more. Three fixes help even more. Eventually, your site becomes fast. Really fast.

And when your site is fast, everything gets better.

Need help with this? Don’t know where to start? Consider reaching out to an expert wordpress development company. They can audit your specific site. They can recommend exactly what will help most.

But honestly, most of what we covered here you can do yourself. Pick your first step. Do it today. Your future customers will appreciate the faster site.