How to Improve your WordPress Site Speed

Why is WordPress Site Speed so Important?

Do you know just how important your site speed really is?

In today’s fast-paced business environment your customers’ expectations are higher than ever. The average user expects a website to load in under 2 seconds. Yes, just 2 seconds!

Site speed is one of the few things that Google has officially announced as a ranking factor. This means that your WordPress site speed, both on desktop and mobile, is vital to your success.

The Effects of WordPress Site Speed

Google first emphasised site speed in 2010, and since then its impact has only increased. A slow website speed can influence your SEO giving you a lower search engine ranking which in turn can lead to fewer new and returning customers.

According to a report by Radware, a 2-second delay during a transaction can lead to abandonment rates of 87%.

A slow website can impact brand loyalty. Visitors want results fast, regardless of where they get them and as a result, a slow website may damage a brands reputation.

If Amazon slowed their loading speed down by even one second, they could “lose $1.6 billion in sales” each year. This statistic by FastCompany proves that site speed directly impacts sales and conversion rates.

Increasing your site speed will not only prevent your search engine rank and sales from dropping but you will gain a competitive advantage as users have no problem leaving a competitors site in favour of a faster and better performing website.

Moreover, increasing your WordPress site speed will improve your customer satisfaction which is vital to every and all business.

How to Check Site Speed

There are some free online tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights that allow you to check the loading speed of your website on a desktop and mobile. The online report will highlight where the issues are and give advice on what can be done to improve your WordPress site speed.

Some improvement suggestions, however, may be more technical than others and could require support from your website host.

It is best to be proactive with your website speed. Check it regularly instead of waiting for your search engine ranking and site traffic to drop.

How to Improve Your WordPress Site Speed

Your WordPress site speed can be improved significantly by spending time on the basics such as; optimising images, updating plugins and themes and reducing external HTTP requests.

Furthermore, you can better organise your content by breaking down long posts and comments into multiple targeted pages and embedding video links.

However, the most effective way to improve your WordPress site speed is to invest in a good WordPress Hosting solution. This is due to the capabilities that they have such as:

• SSD storage systems which allow websites to load quickly and efficiently. This also helps to reduce latency from when a visitor clicks on your site to the moment their requested content appears.
• The use of a content delivery system (CDN) means website content loads quickly to all of your visitors regardless of their geographical location.
• Regular updates of the WordPress core, themes and plug-ins that are used on your website, ensures that it not only runs efficiently but that it avoids security breaches too.
• Consistent monitoring of your website’s loading speed to check it is consistently fast. This also allows the host to flag and fix any speed issues that may occur at any time.

A reliable host can help you to reduce your website size without lowering your quality. WordPress site speed is not something that can wait to be improved.

Need more guidance on how you can improve your WordPress Site Speed? We can help.

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