How to speed up a WordPress site for your clients

Did you know that a site loading in 1-3 seconds is three times better at getting people’s attention compared to one taking 5 seconds to load? Every second matters, because if your site is slow you might be losing potential customers. Visitors expect websites to load in the blink of an eye, and they won’t hesitate to hit “back” if a site takes too long to load.

Improving the speed of your clients’ WordPress sites isn’t just a matter of convenience – it’s a fundamental necessity for online success. As, Einar, our CEO at White Label Agency highlights: “…page speed correlates with a higher ranking, so you don’t want to ignore it.”

Fortunately, assessing page speed is easy and quick, with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights. If your sites are ranking slow, check our tips below to speed them up.

At White Label Agency page speed is something we know a lot about. As the world’s leading WordPress outsourcer to digital agencies, we’ve produced over 10,000 websites. We put great focus on providing our clients with lean and fast websites that perform well for customers and search engines alike.

Quality hosting boosts speed

To know how to speed up a WordPress site, choosing a quality hosting provider, like WP Engine, is a smart move. Your hosting provider is the foundation of your website. WP Engine is known for its speed and reliability. They have servers optimized for WordPress, so your website loads quickly and smoothly. Plus, you don’t have to worry about sharing server resources with other sites because WP Engine provides managed hosting, ensuring your website gets the attention it needs. With managed hosting, you can focus on creating and managing your website content, while WP Engine handles the backend operations. You need to pick a hosting provider and a plan that matches your needs for bandwidth and performance.

Fewer plugins, faster speed

Don’t forget the important step of removing unused plugins for high-quality websites. Unused plugins, even if they’re inactive, can still have a significant impact on your site’s speed. They consume server resources, increase the complexity of your website’s code, and may even introduce security vulnerabilities. These plugins might add extra CSS and JavaScript files that need to be loaded. Additionally, if the plugin developer doesn’t regularly update them, they could be incompatible with the latest WordPress versions, causing potential conflicts and errors. So, don’t let those unused plugins drag your site down, make sure the site gets the digital tune-up it deserves.

Compress your sites for speed

So, understanding how to speed up a WordPress site is crucial for providing an optimal user experience, you can achieve this by reducing the size of your web content through GZip compression. With this tool, your website reduces its size by 70%. This acceleration improves user experience, as faster-loading websites are favored by search engines. To implement GZip compression on your WordPress site, you can use plugins or server configurations, and it’s an effective way to enhance your site’s performance.

Load images sparingly

If the client has requested a website with a lot of visuals then Lazy Loads is the best way to do it. Images load as the visitor scrolls, creating a seamless user experience. For that purpose, a3 Lazy Load and Lazy Loader are helpful plugins. Also, optimizing the images makes them perfectly sized and formatted for the web. Seize this opportunity to speed up your webpage without causing delays.

Lighter themes for faster sites

To accelerate the performance of your site, a light and efficient WordPress theme is key. These themes come with fewer unnecessary elements, scripts, and styles that can bloat the website, which significantly decreases the loading time of your website pages. Themes containing various dynamic elements such as widgets, sliders, and sidebars might slow down your hosting server’s response. Compared with pre-built, custom-made themes integrate only the plugins and features you need, reducing unnecessary elements. They are producing careful optimization of images specifically for your content. See our article on tips for picking lighter themes.

Use comment pagination

Did you know that the comment section requires loading time as well? Comment pagination knows how to speed up a WordPress site. It makes your pages load faster because they don’t have to load all the comments at once. Instead of showing all the comments on a single long page, it splits them into smaller pages with a few comments each. It contributes to the efficient browsing experience. WordPress offers built-in support for comment pagination, ensuring that your site remains responsive and loads quickly even with an extensive comment section. You can get this done by heading to Settings > Discussions.

Speed your websites today

There’s a lot you can do to speed up a website. And there’s a lot at stake too. Not only do faster sites rank better on Google, but they also appeal to site visitors, helping your end clients convert traffic to customers.
At White Label Agency we know how to speed up a WordPress site. If you’d like to partner with an outsourcing agency that ensures your websites engage their audience and rank in SEO, partner with us. We provide web development and design services on individual projects and through dedicated rental, and a host of related services including maintenance and content creation. Contact our sales team today to find out how we can help your agency grow.