If you want to build and run a successful website, there are few things more important than speed. That’s because sluggish load times can negatively affect your Core Web Vitals and turn away visitors. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons your website may be running slowly.
The good news is that your site’s appearance doesn’t need to be one of those factors. When you implement a lightweight WordPress theme with superior speed scores, you can keep users on your pages longer and more easily achieve your end goals.
In this post, we’ll discuss how your theme affects your site’s speed and overall performance. Then we’ll cover five of the fastest WordPress themes on the market right now. Let’s get to it!
How your WordPress theme affects your site’s performance
Designing your website can be challenging, because it needs to be both beautiful and functional in order to succeed. On top of that, your site needs to be fast.
Data show that 25 percent of visitors will abandon a website that doesn’t load in four seconds, and just a one second delay will likely upset 16 percent of users. What’s more, a slow site can negatively affect your search engine rankings.
Fortunately, there are many ways to improve your website’s speed and reduce your bounce rates, from cache-management to image optimization. One of the easiest ways to ensure that your site is running smoothly is by choosing a speedy WordPress theme.
Your theme’s files typically include elements such as graphics, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and more. Each of these elements occupies space on your site’s web server. Bulky designs that require lots of bandwidth tend to make your pages load slower. Therefore, a lightweight WordPress theme is typically ideal.
In order to test your site’s current speed, you can use tools such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom. If you suspect that your theme is bogging down your site, keep in mind that there are some risks associated with large-scale design modifications. As such, you should do your research on how to change your theme safely before you opt for a new one.
5 fastest WordPress themes for your website in 2022
Now that you know why it’s important to have a super-fast website, let’s explore five of the swiftest WordPress themes available today. Keep in mind that your site’s speed scores may be different from our tests, since many other factors also impact performance.
1. Twenty Twenty-Two
Twenty Twenty-Two debuted this year alongside the latest version of WordPress. It’s one of the first block themes, and it supports Full Site Editing (FSE).
This theme’s color scheme uses plenty of earth tones, since it’s inspired by the diversity and adaptability
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This article was written by Will Morris and originally published on ManageWP.