WordPress is a handy software that allows you to quickly create a website. But sometimes it gets (very) slow. That is annoying for your visitors and also for yourself. Why is your WordPress installation getting slow? I would like to explain a little more about that, and I will immediately give you a few handy first tips to make your WordPress faster.
The simplicity of WordPress
WordPress is nowadays the system of choice for creating an extensive website without technical knowledge. WordPress allows you to customize your website with thousands of (paid and free) themes. You can also expand your website with countless plug-ins, you can’t think of it as crazy or there is a plug-in for it.
This way you can easily create beautiful and extensive websites. As your website grows and you install more plugins, your website will slow down a bit. Because the more plugins, the more code your website has to load.
Anyone with PHP knowledge can create an extension to WordPress. All those different themes and plugins are created and maintained by different programmers. They usually do this in their spare time. It is therefore possible that a plugin is suddenly no longer updated, or no longer works optimally with the new version of WordPress that you have installed. Also, the plugin creator may not know all the internal features of WordPress well, causing the code to run slower than necessary.
Choose a good plugin
If you’re looking for a plugin, I recommend looking just a little further than the first one you find. It is very tempting to install the first one right away, but by reading reviews and looking at the ratings you sometimes discover a better plugin than the first result. For example, there are already hundreds of plugins for contact forms only. Also check for updates to the plugin. If no update has been released for more than six months, the plugin may slow down, and it may also contain vulnerabilities that have not been / will be fixed.
Find the delaying factor
Have you already installed a lot of plugins or themes and want to speed up your website? First check which plugins, but also which themes, you no longer need. Some plugins even take a while to process if they aren’t even activated! Therefore, one by one, disable plugins that you think are no longer needed. If your website still works well, then you can simply delete it. Do the same for themes, in practice it turns out that some (especially Premium) templates are so full of features that they are very slow.
keep updating
In addition, keep an eye on the updates for your plugins and update regularly, including WordPress itself. We can’t stress this enough for you! This way you not only receive updates that are good for speed, but you also keep your WordPress installation safe and prevent you from being hacked.
Shrink content
In addition to updating and setting up WordPress, you can also do something about the content of your website. For example, do you use photos taken with a camera or your smartphone? Then try to reduce it first. You can do this after uploading the photo in WordPress. There you can edit and scale (enlarge or reduce) the photo. You can also first upload the photo to Squoosh , where you can create an optimized version for your website.
Have you already tried everything and do you immediately need more information and a faster WordPress website? Then use Best WordPress hosting services Australia. They can research your website and then discuss with you what they have found and what possible next steps are.
Happy developing.