A common query among the internet users is that they need to know how can they enhance the speed of WordPress apps and optimize the plugins. Frankly speaking, this is never a cumbersome process as there are certain skilled tips that work towards speeding up WordPress experience. But, in this context it is crucial to remember that the major consideration you need to take into account is the size of the site you own.

The method you will follow will vary according to that. Anyway, getting back to the context, the tips we have compiled here function differently to suit every WordPress user. While some works in decreasing the website loads, others may adjust the speed and while still others will squeeze the context of a massive website. All these will automatically enhance the speed of WordPress experience.

1. Be careful about plugins

We have a great affection for plugins. Since a new plugin gives a site a brand new makeover, so we keep on experimenting with new plugins very frequently. Majority of us download plugins quite unnecessarily and deactivate them when we find them unsuitable. This act is totally erroneous if you are concerned about the speed of your WordPress. But it is also to be noted that plugins do not directly slow down a site, actually they occupy space in your site when you download them.

As a consequence, if the site has a limited space capacity, plugins jam some of the useful spaces unnecessarily. This indirectly leads to lowering of speed. The better alternative to test the plugins and get hold of the suitable one without compromising on your available space is to be selective about the plugins you download. In case you find one worth viewing, download it on a test site, analyze it and then decide whether to download it on your main site. Never forget to delete plugins you find unsuitable as each time you delete one you gain by a few milliseconds.

2. Cache management

Cache or the catching plugins plays one of the lead roles in determining the speed of a website. These are actually some useful WordPress plugins that gather all the information of the visitor, who visits your site. It stores a flat HTML format of all these necessary information for your future reference. This cache or catching plugin regulates the speed of your website. So, you need to select one that suits the size of your site. But never forget you clear your own cache every time you visit a site, or else it will act adversely and decrease your WordPress speed.

3. Hosting provider must be carefully chosen

Hosting provider is also directly proportional to your WordPress experience. Most of the times, first time WordPress users opt for hosting providers, which are popular ones and have cheap shared hosting facilities. This is an unwise step as it can affect the speed of your site. Thus, it is always recommended that you to do a thorough analysis of the best hosting providers that meet the minimum requirements of WordPress at the least. We suggest that shared hosting often becomes a painful experience and dedicated or VPS hosting is a much better option, especially if you have a bigger and scalable site. Moreover, Linux hosting is convenient to use in comparison to Windows hosting.

4. Optimize the images to be used

The size of the image you use on your WordPress size is also a prime determinant of its speed. It is advisable that you use the maximum space available for uploading an image. Technically, the bigger image six is directly proportional to bigger file size and slow loading time. You can take the aid of image resizing option present in WordPress itself while uploading the same, so that the image occupies the maximum available image space. Alternatively, you can also use image based software like Photoshop, Irfanview, etc. to resize the image according to the specifications before to finally upload them on your WordPress site.

5. Be wise about video posting

Video posting is something that you should do very wisely if speed is one of your greatest concerns. Some sites like YouTube and Vimeo are excellent ones that allow convenient video posting, as they have leverage over the others due to their increased space capacity and faster server. So, if you plan of posting a video footage on your site, we will suggest you to post it on a faster server and link it up with your WordPress site with an URL. But, if you have already posted a number of videos in your site and is suffering from speed constraint, then it is advised that you repost them again on a faster server and follow the similar method of URL linking with your site.

6. Database optimization is mandatory

Database optimization is a healthy practice that spurs the speed of your WordPress experience. Actually, every time you delete comments and unnecessary contents, dead spaces get created in your database. Moreover, regular use of your site often leaves some underutilized space behind. All these need to be resolved by opting for database optimization at least once a month, on a regular basis. You will certainly witness increased WordPress experience. We suggest that you can use a WordPress plugin like WP-DB Manager for this. This performs an automatic database optimization once you set it according to your preferred time. It also prepares database backup during the process.

Alternatively, Cron Job automatic program can also be used, which you can get from the CPanel. This application cuts down the number of downloaded plugins while optimizing the WordPress database.

7. Themes regulate speed

Themes are definitely a great measure in making your website look breathtaking. But, what you also need to know in the process is that themes work as major determinant in regulating the speed of your WordPress site. Themes that have a large number of scripts and images have a delaying effect on the speed of a site. There are logical ways to get the best theme for you. Choose the one that is not image based and comprises of CSS menu. Heavy images need to be seriously condemned. In case if you like a theme but do not prefer the number of images present there or the numerous sidebars, always make it a point to remove them before you install that in your main site. The wisest way is to test the theme once before installing it finally.

8. Front page posts should be avoided

Incorporation of long scripts, heavy images and posts on the front page of your WordPress site will definitely affect the speed of your site. The technical reason behind this is that more data and heavier images on the front page will make it take longer time to get loaded. So, it is better to use shorter excerpts in the front page and avoid the longer ones and heavier images totally. Also ensure that the number of posts is minimal for the front page.

Reserve these heavier contents for the other post pages that follow after the landing page. But also ensure that you keep a balance while posting them in the other pages as well, so that load on a particular page can be avoided and speed of loading can be kept uniform in nature all throughout.

9. Disallow options of hot links

Hotlinks are extremely detrimental for the speed of your WordPress experience. This option gives another user the benefit of displaying an image that you put on your site. He does this by creating an inline link. Most of the times, these image users embed the images on your site in the process, thereby making use of the image link you have used to host the image on your site. The consequence is decrease in the bandwidth, which affects the speed of your site vehemently. Ensure that such a practice of hot link creation can be prevented totally. This will restore your site speed and WordPress optimization experience.

10. Regular trash cleaning

In order to enjoy speedy WordPress experience be regimented in cleaning up the trash once every month. If you keep on deleting a post and never clean the trash regularly simultaneously, it will use up your available space and decrease your site speed. WordPress provides both manual as well as automatic options for cleaning your trash regularly. While the automatic option needs to be turned on so that trash cleaning is done as per the schedule you fix up, manual trash cleaning is also advised once in a while.

Manual trash cleaning is best when you assume that the trash can of your site is overfilled on a particular day. In such a situation, manual cleaning is wiser than waiting for an automatic, scheduled date. Always make it a point to have your backup before you run a command. From among the various options available for cleaning the trash, we suggest you some. You can avail of the MySQL database and run the subsequent command.

Alternatively, you can make use of the WordPress plugin named ‘Better Delete Revision’ to revise the contents and delete them. The third option is that you can turn off the revision and prompt the WordPress command not to save any data.

11. Avoid too much of communication

This tip is specially meant for those who have big blogs and larger sites that generate quite a lot of traffic per day. The trackback, pingback, comments, posts, etc. are some of the options the traffic is allowed to enjoy in sites they visit. This turns out to be a catalyst for lowering the site speed. In case of smaller sites with lesser traffic, this is generally not a grave problem. But, if you are a big site owner and experience decrease in speed, then this can be one major trigger. So, do not discourage traffic, but disallow much communication on your site.

This will not use the available space on your site and never stand in the way of your website speed. Go to the dash board of your WordPress site and turn off the options that allow extensive communication on your site. We are certain the speed of your site will increase after this.

12. Compress files and images or combining them

Heavier images and long scripted messages are a bane for the speed, especially of a larger website. Thus, compression is a technique you can apply in this case to enhance the speed of a WordPress site. A technical tip is that compress the JS and CSS files to improve the loading time. This will actually act in decreasing the overall size of the page. Combining of the JS ad CSS files is another alternative you can opt for in order to optimize WordPress experience. This practice helps in amalgamation of multiple files into a single one, thereby leading to reduction in the number of HTTP requests on your own server. WordPress also comes with an inbuilt combining plugin known as ‘wp minify’. You can avail of this too for combining the JS and CSS files into a single one. Images on WordPress site also need to be compressed for the same reason; which is reduction in the number of HTTP requests on the web server. Some of the useful plugins available for this job are WP SmushIT, CSS Sprite, etc. You need to use any of them as per your convenience.

13. Ensure code cleanup

Although this last tip is a challenging task for a non programmer, following this tip definitely serves in enhancing your WordPress speed. Ensure that you clean up the code regularly. This will create lesser HTML requests on your page and lesser embedded scripts too. Some browser ad-ons work effectively in helping even a non programmer carry on with the task. These are Firebug and YSlow. As you use them, they will in turn prompt you on the areas that contain unnecessary codes that need to be modified. But you should be aware of the fact that the code should be validated by means of W3C standards.

This is a uniform standard followed by browsers all over the world while rendering a website. It is solely dependent solely upon the type of HTML contained in a particular WordPress site, which gets automatically detected from your very first HTML page. Thus, it helps the ad-on in running a dedicated manner of code clean up.

There are several methods of enhancing the speed of your WordPress and optimizing its plugin experiences other than these. We have mainly discussed here some of the tips that are convenient to follow even by a non programmer. They have been created keeping in mind different user profiles. But as we said, they are not at all exhaustive methods. So, it is solely your own discretion and rationality to follow the method that suits your case.

Image Credits

• White Speedometer Illustration