Looking for awesome WordPress speed tips?
These are the same tips I use to get 100% GTmetrix scores and <2s load times on nearly every one of my posts. Even this post has a XYZ page size, 462 requests, and still loads in about <2s. You’ll learn everything from optimizing plugins, images, server response times, CDNs, and external resources like Google Fonts, Analytics, YouTube videos, and even domain prefetching.
If you have questions or need help, drop me a comment or you can also hire my WordPress speed optimizer to help you improve scores + load times with before + after GTmetrix reports.
Use GTmetrix as your tool of choice.
It gives accurate load times and has extensive recommendations like which images need to be optimized, which plugins are slowing down your WordPress site, time to first byte, CDNs, etc.
Google PageSpeed Insights is only good for measuring server response times which should be <200ms. Otherwise, it’s pretty useless and there are many articles out there explaining why.
Pingdom is the most accurate tool for measuring load times, but their recommendations aren’t as great as GTmetrix. (for example, it doesn’t say which specific images need to be optimized).
Without further ado, here are my top 15 WordPress speed optimization tips:
1. Avoid Known High CPU Plugins
“It’s not the number of plugins, it’s the quality,” said everyone
If you’re using any of these slow plugins, consider replacing them with a faster alternative.
*Most slow WordPress plugins include social sharing, statistic (analytics), sliders, portfolios, page builders, calendars, chat, contact forms, related post, sitemap, Wordfence, WPML, WooCommerce, and any plugin that runs ongoing scans or processes. These can be identified using Query Monitor or GTmetrix Waterfall.
- AddThis
- AdSense Click Fraud Monitoring
- All-In-One Event Calendar
- Backup Buddy
- Beaver Builder
- Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps
- Broken Link checker (use Dr. Link Check)
- Constant Contact for WordPress
- Contact Form 7
- Contextual Related Posts
- Digi Auto Links
- Disqus Comment System
- Divi Builder
- Essential Grid
- Facebook Chat
- Fancy Gallery
- Fuzzy SEO Booster
- Google Analytics
- Google Language Translator
- View Full List Of 65 Slow Plugins
How To Find Your Slowest Plugins
You can either use Query Monitor, or go through your GTmetrix report to see if the same plugin is showing multiple times in your PageSpeed and YSlow tabs. Also check the Waterfall:
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This article was written by Tom Dupuis and originally published on Tom Dupuis.