WordPress is an efficient and fast blogging platform, but with some simple tricks, you can make it even faster. It will reduce the load on your Web server and allow your blog to handle spikes in traffic. A fast blog also improves the experience of your readers and helps with SEO.
Implement caching
Installing a caching plug-in such as WP Super Cache or WP-Cache will speed up your blog by creating static pages and saving them on the server. Now, whenever a user requests for a page, the cached version will be shown, reducing the number of queries handled by the server. You will be amazed how fast your blog is served by implementing caching.
Prune plug-ins
WordPress plug-ins consume resources of your server which has to handle requests from them. Review the list of plug-ins installed on your WordPress. How many of them are significant for your blog? Uninstall all unnecessary plugins, including the ones that are used rarely. It will reduce the load on your server, thus, improving its performance.
Stay updated
Don’t let your WordPress or plug-ins get outdated. Evolution is not limited living organisms; even WordPress and plug-ins become wiser and efficient with every new version. Sticking with an older version means losing the advantage. You should also update your web server’s PHP. Currently, PHP 8 is the stable version that also improves your website speed.
Optimize images
An image can be worth more than thousand words, but they are pricier than plain text. Use image manipulation applications such as Photoshop and GIMP for optimizing images for the Web. Don’t use a large image because it’s available. Instead resize it according to your need. Also, it makes no sense to save images in 100% quality JPEGs. Keeping the quality between 85-90% will have no significant impact on quality, but reduce the size of image drastically. If a PNG image is too big in size, try saving it in JPEG.
Choose a light theme
When choosing a theme, go for a simple and stylish one. Less images means lighter webpages. A theme may be heavy on your server even if it has few images and looks minimal. If it has a lot of features and settings on pages, it might be making just too many queries for showing a page. If you can look under the hood, check if it’s making lots of PHP and HTTP requests. Avoid such themes.
Customize WordPress
Don’t overload your homepage with a large number of posts. Customize your WordPress blog in such a way that the pages load effortlessly. Making the homepage to show a large number of posts will slow it and annoy readers.
Disabling trackbacks and pingbacks wont affect your blog’s functionality, except that it won’t communicate with other blogs over the Web.