When it comes to WordPress sites, we’ve all got the need for speed. But our web developer members actually have the tried & true methods to best accomplish this, and we’re passing these on to you.
We’ve dipped into the collective wealth of experience that our web developer members have, and compiled the results of their top picks for getting blazing fast site speed.
In this article, we’re going to share their recommendations, along with the details of what makes these efforts so effective in real (online) world use.
Here’s what we’ll be looking at:
Since this is all about speed, let’s hit the ground running!
The Benefits of Boosting Your Speed
Most of us buy into “the faster, the better” motto, but might not fully understand why that is, or how to get there.
The benefits of WordPress performance optimization are numerous, and we’re going to examine each one carefully.
Creating and Growing Your Engagement
Countless studies have shown slow sites are the number one reason people will leave without interacting.
People are simply unwilling to wait around while their cursor spins. We’re talking a matter of seconds – as in two or less. According to Google, that’s how fast your website should load.
Everyone knows there are endless choices for online activity, so they won’t hesitate to bounce without a second thought.
Getting and Handling More Traffic
Greater speed is directly related to more traffic, which means the potential for interactions and conversions to climb exponentially is higher.
If you’re lucky enough to get visitors to your site – established ones coming back, or new ones getting their first look – you’ve got to set things up so the inevitable increase on your resources doesn’t negatively impact anyone’s experience.
Upping Your SEO Rank
There’s a lot that goes into SEO, but site speed is definitely a big factor.
Google’s search ranking algorithms consider site speed a signal, and page performance is also a search engine ranking factor.
Ergo, the faster your site, the more likely you’ll rise in the SERPs – an ideal goal to reach for.
Recommended Tools and Services That’ll Get You Going Faster
As mentioned above, we spoke to the web dev experts in our member collective to get their thoughts on site speed.
They shared their combined knowledge on the subject, as well as specific tools and services they use to get (and keep!) their sites operating at peak performance.
Let’s see what they had to say.
Caching & CDNs
Caching topped the submissions, and with good reason.
Caching minimizes the number of queries that are sent to your server, which means page performance, load time, and user experience all improve.
Additionally, when your site’s data is cached closer to user locations, it consumes fewer resources, thus lessening the load on your server.
Content delivery networks
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This article was written by Janette Burhans and originally published on WPMU DEV Blog.