Improve website speed - WordPress

The speed of a website is of great importance, from the user experience to our ranking against Google, read the article to learn how it can be improved

Why is website loading speed so important?

The loading speed of our website is very important because, firstly, it is what separates the user's encounter with your website and the first impression of the website. A lot of surfers are also now experiencing this problem of slow sites and impatience is not lacking in any of us and believe that neither is yours. Because waiting too long for a site you're browsing to load for 5 seconds can feel like an eternity in today's digital age. A faster website will lead to more site conversions and less abandonment! Studies have also shown our customers that just improving the speed of the site has resulted in more visits to the site, more leads and at the same time more revenue. It is important to understand that it is true that it is very fun to have the most beautiful site in your niche, but a beautiful site does not necessarily mean a good user experience. Always consider the speed of your website when creating a new website or when upgrading your site. Avoid unnecessary elements that just make you fun in the eyes but often burden the loading time of the website.As you probably understand first I listed why this is so important in the eyes of the user and not Google, since Google wants everything for the benefit of the surfer and that all the sites in its search engines will be to its satisfaction especially in the user experience.In addition, Google has a high importance for the speed of the site for the reasons I mentioned earlier His rating.True, this is just another parameter among the 200 and so ranking of the site, but it is an important parameter that should not be taken lightly for the user and not only for Google!

Checking the speed of the site on Google - what does the report include?

  • First Content Display (FCP) - This is the time when the first text or image is displayed to the viewer.
  • First Meaningful Paint (FMP) measures the time a site takes until it displays the primary content to the viewer.
  • Speed Index - checks the speed until content that is visual for browsing is displayed.And lots of other parameters that you can see after you test your site on the official Google website to check the speed of loading times hereunder.

Recommended tools for testing the speed of website loading?

There are quite a few tools on the net but before you start testing in all of them and get confused keep in mind that each tool gives more or less the same data but the score is presented and calculated differently from one test tool to another.Therefore, I believe that one tool should be adhered to which is reliable and improve according to the test results it gives to your site.Among the tools you can find:

  • The first of course is that of Google itself It is one of the most common tools that check speed with them (and among us it is the tool that counts) - Google Page Speed.
  • Another common tool in this GtMetrix - It is possible to collect a lot of data from there to improve the results. The tool gives a convenient and simple to understand visualization with a neat cascade and detailed detail (please note that when you do a test move the test location to London which is closest to us to Israel).
  • Pingdom This is another relatively nice tool similar to gtmetrix which also has the advantage of choosing the test location but I personally do not use it.
  • Another tool is WebPage Test Which also performs a very thorough inspection and gives a lot of insight into the site.

What are the ways to improve website speed?

There are quite a few actions that will help improve the loading speed of your website and I will list some of them here that you can use.Attention! The site must be fully backed up through the server before performing the operations.

Fast and secure storage server

A storage server is the main thing you need to check before you start improving dozens of things To improve the speed of the site Choose a server that is close to your target audience and a secure fast server that has daily backups and, of course, with fast and efficient service and technical support. Before choosing a server or switching server, keep in mind that it will meet all the needs of your site.Cloudoise Web Hosting Starting At Just $10 A Month! 25% discount for first 3 months! For a free trial

Using the wp-rocket plugin

With this plugin and literally in a few clicks a lot of parameters on the site can be significantly improved to improve its speed. Yes it is a paid plugin (worth every penny) and I personally use it for my website and for my clients' websites. Learn more about the plugin”Of course, beyond what is said about the plugin that actually does this “a few clicks and the site is fast” much much more can be done through a deeper learning of improving the speed of sites.

Using the Cash plugin

In one sentence the purpose of the Cash plugin is to save a version of the site on the server and as soon as the browser logs in instead of reloading the site it displays the saved version thus significantly saving loading time. There are quite a few plugins that will answer this in the WordPress content management system but be aware that not all free plugins do the job properly.

Shrink the images

Every site I go to to improve speed I will always encounter images whose size exceeds any imagination. For customer sites, we do not upload an image that is larger than 100KB. Although there are plugins to shrink images in WordPress, try to upload them in advance to WordPress media that are shrunk and according to the degree of resolution that you will display on your site.You can useTinypng For the purpose of shrinking the images.

Enable gzip compression

This gzip compression means reducing the total size of files sent from your server and saves a lot of time loading the website. Today most storage servers offer it in their package and nothing needs to be done about it, but if you do not have this option from the storage server you must manually add code to the htaccess file.

Clean and shrunken code

It is important to keep the code free of errors of course and to be as short as possible also to shrink the code on the site with html, css, javascript as it will reduce all unnecessary spaces in the code and thus reduce the weight of the page.

Proper use of fonts

I see quite a few sites that for the first time in their lives design their site but do not take into account that they use 10 different font types, thus increasing the number of requests to their server and putting a lot of pressure on loading times.It is correct to use a minimum amount of fonts no more than 3 font types.

UNNECESSARY OR OUT OF DATE PLUGINS

Keeping plugins up to date is important first of all for site security first and foremost as well as for speed as developers are always improving their product.Keep a minimum amount of plugins in WordPress what you don't need just delete Don't save unnecessary plugins that you don't use because they're burdensome as well.Also note that for every plugin you download and run you don't have another plugin that does the same thing Since it can collide and cause problems.

Reduce unnecessary requests

There are certain plugins that are activated every page load on your site and without any real need since it is not used on certain pages.Stopping the operation of the plugin when loading a page that is not necessary will reduce the server requests and thus speed up the page load.A nice plug-in that can help you do this is Plugin Organizer

conclusions

Website speed This is one of the most important parameters for the success of your website no matter what its target as it is the initial action that a surfer performs in his encounter with the search engine. It is enough to perform these actions to improve the speed of your website as it has a critical effect on the first impression with the surfer.

How can we help you?

At SFB we believe that everyone is in their profession but some try to do it alone which is a beauty for their learning and enriching knowledge.We are here to do it for you and improve the speed of your site in the best possible way and in a short time so that you and your surfers can enjoy a fast website and the fruits it will yield you.Just fill in the form and we will get back to you as soon as possible.