How to Increase The Speed of Your WordPress Site for Better Conversions

Don't lose Google Search Rankings, traffic and sales all because you simply need to increase the speed of your WordPress Website.

Like most internet users, you aren't going to stick around for a WordPress website that takes too long to load. In all probability, you'll abandon that site and move on to the next one.

According to surveys done by Akamai and Gomez.com, nearly half of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less, and they tend to abandon a site that isn't loaded within 3 seconds. 79% of web shoppers who have trouble with web site performance say they won't return to the site to buy again and around 44% of them would tell a friend if they had a poor experience shopping online.

Website owners who don't take this seriously, will end up losing potential subscribers. And if you're worried about your search rankings, you could end up losing those too.

These experts go on to explain that if pages of a particular website load quickly, it goes a long way in enhancing an online browser's experience. Your customer is likely to spend more time reading the contents of your site. That is the reason why search engines like Google consider page loading speed to be a critical factor when they allocate ranks to websites on their result pages.

You know that when your Google Search Rankings begin to fall, your site will NOT be in a position to attract relevant online traffic. Ultimately, this is going to adversely affect your bottom line.

These six tips are super simple and will increase the speed of your WordPress site: 1. Select a reliable host

When you are going to launch your website, you may assume that shared hosting can help you save cash without compromising on the quality. This would be an incorrect assumption that can prove to be even more expensive in the long run. Your potential online subscribers can experience slow page loading speeds and constant disruptions during peak internet traffic. Shared hosting solutions such as this are notorious for getting website IPs blacklisted because someone on the server has done something spammy that affects the whole block. For a few bucks extra per month it's totally worth investing your time and money in searching for a proper host with an excellent reputation in the market. One such host would be WP Engine, specifically designed for WordPress websites.

2. Use only caching plugins

Caching plugins go a long way in improving the time it takes your website to load. These are not very difficult to use, and you can get some really good ones free of cost from WordPress.org. They play an instrumental role when it comes to speed up your WordPress site. These plugins are simple to install and use on your site.

Here are two of the most well reviewed WordPress Caching plugins:

At the top of the list is WP Super Cache: the most downloaded caching plugin on the market. According to the official WP Super Cache page, it has been installed over a million times. Also, it's free, easy to use and requires little to no configuration.

With more than 900,000 downloads, W3 Total Cache is the second most downloaded caching plugin on the market. If you're looking for a free caching plugin that offers a boatload of customization options, you've found it.

3. Reduce and optimize the size of your image files

You may not be aware that your image files can take up a considerable amount of space. It may be one of the reasons why it takes so long for visitors to download your website. Experts say you should take necessary steps to reduce the size of your images files. WordPress has convenient tools like WP Smush.it and Tiny PNG, which enables you to compress the size of such files.

4. Take steps to reduce HTTP requests

Whenever an internet user goes through the pages of your website, the web server sends specific files to this person's browser. These typically include an image, Javascript and cascading style sheet (CSS) files. These files reduce the overall speed of your website. Minimizing the sizes of such files goes a long way in enabling you to improve the time it takes for your online users to download your site. You can achieve this goal by installing W3 Total Cache, which allows you to combine your Javascript and CSS files into one.

5. Make use of content delivery networks (CDN)

The internet users who browse through your website may do so from different locations around the world. You are aware that the time it takes from them to download your website will differ according to how away they are from your host site. However, you can easily overcome this problem by opting to hire a content delivery network service. The function of this service provider is to upload a webpage an online user wants to browse from its nearest datacenter. It increases the speed of your WordPress website regardless where an internet user wishes to view it. Great hosts like WP Engine (mentioned above) come equipped with blazing fast CDNs ready to go.

6. Declutter your WordPress Database

You need to take necessary steps to erase unnecessary data, spam comments, and drafts of the contents you post on your site. It is also essential for you to reduce the file size of your backups and deactivate plugins you are currently not using. By decluttering your database, you can reduce the time it takes for an internet user to download your WordPress website.

The six tips listed above will certainly help you to increase the speed of your WordPress website. Moreover, many leading WordPress developers state that executing such steps shouldn't take too much of your time and effort, but implementing these optimizations may not be for everyone. Whether you do it yourself or hire a developer for assistance,  these steps are essential to attract more subscribers and enhance your website's search engine rankings.

Source: How to Increase The Speed of Your WordPress Site for Better Conversions