What Is WordPress Page Speed?

What Is WordPress Page Speed? Over 40 percent of the internet is powered by WordPress. The number of websites that use WordPress as a CMS (Content Management System) is on the rise. Although this shows just how amazing the platform is, it also means that there are countless themes, plugins, and technologies which have to coexist. Things would become a nightmare for users if the website begins to bottleneck. One of its major causes can be a lack of optimization for speed. If you are familiar with the fundamentals of performance, you would know how website performance impacts the success of your business.

The best way to improve the performance of your WordPress website is by improving page speed. The main reason why you need to focus on speed is that it is one of the most important metrics that search engines like Google value. Both search engines and visitors prioritize speed. Hence, you cannot overlook its importance.

We live in a time when users have become increasingly impatient. As digital competition increases, only those WordPress websites will succeed that offer a fast speed. Not only can it help improve the retention rate, but it can help boost your Google search engine ranking. This post takes a close look at everything you need to know about WordPress page speed.

There are a variety of reasons why speed is important. The following are some of the most important reasons that will make you realize why you must work towards making improvements.

1. Visitor Experience

Nobody enjoys waiting for a page to load. It is something that everyone can agree with. Besides, as there are already many websites that load within a second, visitors will not wait longer for a webpage to load. According to Google, around 53 percent of visitors leave a webpage if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. This means that if your website takes longer to load, more visitors would leave. A webpage that fails to load properly would guarantee that visitors never come back.

2. Search Engines

Search engines have made one thing clear and it is the fact that website speed is one of the most important factors when ranking a website. The main purpose of a search engine is to help users find a website that provides the information they require without taking too much time to load. As speed influences the experience, it is a top priority for search engines. Thus, websites that focus on speed would benefit from a higher search engine ranking.

3. Ecommerce

Google has also found that a 0.1-second improvement in website speed can increase conversion rates by as much as 8.4 percent. This means that even a millisecond counts when shoppers are considering purchasing something. Online stores must dedicate their resources towards improving speed more than any other website type due to the finding. It shows that shoppers load more product pages if the webpage speed is fast. It would ensure that there is a higher chance of customers filling up their shopping carts. Hence, it is safe to say that speed can help boost sales.

Now that you know more about WordPress page speed, chances are that you are wondering how you can check the speed of your website. It is important that you know how your website performs in order to identify how you can improve speed. This is where WordPress page speed testing tools come in handy. They provide valuable insights into speed and performance. The following are some of the best WordPress page speed testing tools that you need to use.

1. Google Page Speed Insights

A powerful tool that you can use to identify your WordPress page speed and determine major flaws that impact load time is Google Page Speed Insights. It is possibly the best tool that you can use to figure out where you can improve. The tool offers a score and suggests problem areas on the website that you must improve. However, it does not clearly define the specific speed.

2. GTMetrix

GTMetrix is an amazing tool that you can use to take a look at the full picture. It is a free optimization plugin that runs from within the website. It reveals two separate scores which include ones that Google Page Speed Insights also covers and YSlow which is a metric that analyzes mobile performance. As it provides a ton of information, you have to leverage it to learn more about your WordPress website page speed. You can even use it to compare data to identify problem areas and find ways to fix them.

3. Web Page Test

An excellent WordPress page speed checker that you can use is Web Page Test. It is available for free and offers a detailed report of the factors that influence speed. The tool also offers separate scores for First Byte Time, security, and many other factors. The reason why you should use it is that it tells you the exact amount of time it takes for a webpage to load down to the millisecond.

1. Select a Fast Webhost

The easiest way to amplify the speed of your WordPress webpages is by selecting a fast webhost. The fact is that the web hosting company you select has a huge influence on the speed of your website. There are plenty of companies to choose from. Hence, you must consider all your options before committing to one. Always go with a webhost that caters to WordPress websites. It will ensure that you receive the best hosting service for the fastest site speeds.

2. Optimize Media Files

The next thing that you need to do to increase WordPress website speed is to optimize media files. Videos and images are a huge part of a website. However, they impact load time as they are heavy files. But, you can easily optimize the files sizes to boost speed. Make sure that the file size of images is under 150kb. A compression tool will help you shrink the image files. As for videos, it is best that you avoid hosting them yourself. Instead, you should leave that to YouTube or Vimeo and simply embed the video on the website. It will save server resources and amp up the page loading speed.

3. Select a Lightweight Theme

A great tip that will help boost WordPress webpage speed is selecting a lightweight theme. Most newbies have a misconception that they should select a template that offers maximum capabilities and is highly dynamic. However, it could not be further from the truth. What you need to do instead is choose a minimal theme. A minimalist design approach will ensure that you focus on delivering the best experience to users.

4. Avoid a lot of Plugins

In addition to the above, you also need to make sure that you do not use a lot of plugins. Although plugins are amazing and add a ton of features to the website, you must ensure that there are not too many of them. Each plugin uses resources and slows down the website. The more plugins you use the slower your website would become. Hence, it is in your best interests to use only those plugins that are necessary and delete the rest. Moreover, you should never install a plugin that you do not need.

5. Use a Caching Plugin

The next tip that you should consider is using a caching plugin. Caching is an integral process that enables the website to make a copy of the webpage. It means that the webpage would only load once and it would not need to load from scratch the next time the same visitor views the website. A caching plugin will help you make things easier for visitors. There is no shortage of caching plugins. It is best that you use a caching, backup, and security plugin.

6. Disable and Delete Revisions

Every website has to update content to ensure that it is relevant. In order to do this, you must be able to go back and make changes to the post. It is something that must be done periodically. If there is one thing that one must keep in mind, it is the fact that WordPress saves old versions as revision. Although it allows you to revert to the old content with ease, you do not need as many old versions of the same content as they would only occupy space. Therefore, you must restrict the number of revisions stored to reduce the space occupied.