Last Updated on Mar 12, 2020 by James W
Especially for ecommerce sites, slow page loading time is really very intimidating issue. About 80% of the cases when performance of the site disappointed the buyers, most shoppers don’t enter these sites again. Delay of even a second can reduce satisfaction of customers by 16%. When it comes to rank websites, Google also considers speed of sites in their algorithm. If you r website is loading too slowly, then it is sure that your page rank will fall down and attract less visitors’ traffic. So, have a look on some simple tricks to enhance page load time of your website and make it even better.
Caching Plugin is a Must
If you have static pictures, JavaScript and CSS which rarely change on your site, then your website can become snappier with side caching on your browser. Caching refers to storing some parts of your website. Hence, they are loaded only for first time, not every time you visit the site. For loyal visitors, caching is very helpful. It is also helpful for web users who often explore several web pages on your website. For most WordPress sites, W3 Total Cache or W3TC is a well-known caching plugin. Several popular WP sites like Smashing Magazine, WPBeginner, Web Designer Depot and Mashable use this plugin. In the overall performance of the site, it provides 10x more improvements once it is properly configured. Also, you won’t have to hire a server expert to set up this plugin because it is super intuitive and user-friendly.
Choose Your Host Wisely
A lot of web hosts are there to run WordPress and are optimized for that. WordPress has some suitable server settings, though it is not all picky. A lot of web hosts comply with basic guidelines. Selecting an appropriate web hosting provider is not all about opting for storage space. A lot of cheap hosting plans are designed to manipulate the buyers by promising for plethora of server space at very affordable price as they understand you won’t be able to occupy and use all the allotment. Hence, you should also ask for –
- Processor type and speed
- Bandwidth
- Domains and databases provided
- Which MySQL, PHP etc. versions installed
You should search for the web host which is providing more than blogging platform and CMS with WordPress. A lot of share hosts are using and running on Apache server. Make sure the web host providing WordPress which is capable to run on NGINX. It can boost the speed of your server by changing request’s structure of your server. NGINX also empowers several sites like WordPress and Hulu.
Shorten Size of Images
Basically, images come in larger sizes on the websites. They can take a lot of page load time if you don’t compress them. Fortunately, a lot of tools are available to compress images. These tools are WPMU DEV supported with which they can strip Meta data of the image and remove all the colors which are unused from indexed pictures. You might be suffering from slow loading if you are using plenty of images on your website. In order to combat this isuue, you can install a plugin named jQuery Image Lazy Load. It loads images only when a new visitor comes in your site. When user scrolls down, it starts loading images on the page. It will not only accelerate the page load time on the page, but it also save bandwidth for those who are not likely to scroll till the bottom.
Minifying White Space from CSS, HTML & JavaScript
Where possible, you should minify CSS, JavaScript and HTML codes in order to remove white spaces and tabs from codes. Codes can become more readable with tabs and white spaces for servers, browsers and humans and they can execute with no error. You can use plugins like W3 Total Cache, WP Minify to manage it automatically in runtime.
Reducing Objects on HTTP Requests
All the time, when someone enters into your site, a corresponding file is sent to the browser, which includes CSS files, images and JavaScript references. In case you have 2 CSS files, one HTML file, 8 images and 5 JavaScript files, it contains 16 files in total which should be loaded. You can reduce HTTP requests by cutting down the objects count in the pages of your site. Hence, it will speed up the page load time and render a page faster. All you have to simplify your website’s design and then combine CSS and scripts. In W3TC, minify includes adding JavaScript and CSS files in a way to combine both of them in one file.
Enhance Database Tables
You can explain enhancing database tables with the example of changing engine oil in your vehicle or defragmenting your system. It can help your database run flawlessly by freeing up the space. You can manually optimize your database tables by using a plugin or MyAdmin. You can repair, backup, optimize and recover your database with that plugin. With an optimization and database cleanup tool, you can delete comments in spam folder, post revisions and unapproved items and comments stored in trash.
Bottom Line
In order to accelerate the page load time, these are simple and most effective ways. By optimizing your WordPress site, you can find a huge difference in page load speed and engage users with your content and stick along. With these tricks, you will get happy visitors and faster site.
