3 Foolproof Tricks for Faster WordPress Speeds

They say numbers don’t lie and if this is so, then the internet is the future of business marketing. There are over 3.62 billion internet users today and most of them are using the platform to shop. A recent TechCrunch study shows that 79% of Americans shop online. In addition, a similar Pew Research Survey shows8 in 10 Americans are now opting to shop online. If your business is not visible online, then you are fast hurtling towards inexistence in your niche. In fact, you are lucky to have survived this far.

A WordPress (WP) website is a crucial tool for you to leverage the growing numbers of internet users. It is now possible to compete with even larger brands in your niche because your WP website gives you a broader global reach. To stay competitive, you have to provide the best user experience to your site’s visitors. One of the most important factors in determining the quality of user experience is your site’s loading speed.

You might have the most attractive web designs around but if it takes a lot of time, you will experience low conversion and high bounce rates.51% of America online shoppers say slow speed is the main reason they abandon shopping carts while 39% of people will stop engaging with a website if the images are not loading. A recent study that brought together major online players such as Google and Amazon says a single second delay in page load time results in 7% loss in conversions, 16% decrease in customer satisfaction and 11% fewer page views.

It is obvious that speed should be a priority in WordPress website management. Lucky for you, it is possible to optimize your site’s speed using the following tricks from the ultimate guide to faster WordPress speeds. Take a look:

• Install a WordPress Caching Plugin

One of the best things about WP pages is the fact that they are dynamic. These pages are built on-the-fly when someone visits. WordPress has to run a process to find what the visitor needs and this could take time. To limit this, browser caching is recommended where a site stores files in the user’s local computer. The next time the same visitor comes to your site, the loading will be faster as there will be no need to request for data from the server.

• Minify JavaScript and CSS

It is a common practice to add JavaScript and CSS code when customizing your WordPress site. This allows you to get that personalized look, a feature that makes WP websites so popular. However, the two elements make your site slower and this is why you need to use lightweight plugins to minify them.

• Use Lazy Load Plugins

It is now common for website owners to use many images from bottom to bottom. After all, research shows such content converts better. The problem is that browsers first load all images on a page before showing everything. Using lazy load plugins optimizes content management by loading images as the user scrolls. The content does not all load at once, which would otherwise impact on loading speeds.

Of course there are many other ideas to enhance WP website loading speeds; they include avoiding hot linking on your site, disabling obsolete WP features such as pingback and trackback, image optimization by reducing file sizes, cleaning up your database, and limited use of plugins among others.