Seven practical tips for speeding up a slow WordPress site: caching, image optimisation, plugin clean-up and server settings.
A large share of your visitors arrive on a phone over mobile data. A page that opens a few seconds late is enough to make them hit the back button. These are the causes of slowness we meet most often on WordPress sites, and how to fix them:
- Use page caching: LiteSpeed Cache or a similar plugin serves a ready copy instead of rebuilding the page on every visit.
- Upload images as WebP and at the size they are displayed; do not show a 4000-pixel photo in a 400-pixel box.
- Delete plugins you do not use. Each plugin may load its own CSS and JavaScript on every page.
- Lazy-load images that are below the fold.
- Keep your PHP version current; newer versions run the same code noticeably faster.
- Clean the database regularly: old revisions, trash and expired transients pile up.
- Test your cache rules. A misconfigured cache causes more problems than speed; redirects and pages that need a session must not be cached.
Measure first, then change
Before changing anything, take a mobile measurement with PageSpeed Insights and measure again after each step. That way you see which step really helped.
If you cannot find out why your site is slow, the TMC Web team can do a free preliminary review.