Today’s post is a guest post courtesy of Matt Banner. Matt is a digital marketing expert who focuses on helping people learn how to successfully start and grow online blogs. You can follow him on Twitter @blastyourblog.
Optimizing a WordPress website is about more than just tweaking a few settings. It’s about creating the ideal user experience from the moment your customers arrive, to the moment they leave. One of the most important improvements you can make is to increase your website speed.
Users will leave your site by the dozens if the page doesn’t load fast enough. Not only this, but one of Google’s top ranking factors is page speed. By optimizing your website loading speed, you’re benefiting more than just your user experience. It benefits every aspect of your website’s success.
3 Ways to Increase Your Website Speed Today!
Increasing your website speed doesn’t require a complete overhaul. Instead, it’s all about making simple and easy tweaks to your site. Here are three quick tips:
- Keep an Eye on Your Plugins
Slow speed is a silent killer. Something as simple as your plugins can be the cause. When installing new software, always ask yourself if it’s absolutely needed. If so, make sure the reviews and the feedback don’t reflect bad or heavy coding as this is worse than installing too many plugins.
- Optimize Your Images
The size of your images files absolutely reflects the speed at which they load. A great way to keep the quality while keeping the bytes low is to use a plugin called WP Smush.it. This will ensure that your images pop up quickly and don’t slow down the overall speed.
- Utilize a Caching Plugin
A strong caching plugin can cut down the resources and time needed to load your pages. The most highly recommended one by far is W3 Total Cache.
Bring on The Speed! (Infographic)
Your entire success is tied to how you optimize your website. The infographic below is designed to help you understand and utilize top tools for increasing your website speed and ultimately your conversions and traffic.
How are you speeding up your WordPress website? Let us know in the comments below!