Most of the people in today’s world prefer to use WordPress for developing their websites. It can provide a convenient and an effortless experience when developing a site. But after you develop the website using WordPress, you might notice that it is not performing as you expected. That’s where you need to think about optimizing the website.

Optimizing a WordPress website is not something difficult to do. The below-mentioned tips can provide an excellent assistance to you with optimizing your WordPress website.

1.     Select the right web hosting provider

The first tip is not directly related towards WordPress, but you should never ignore it. You need to be careful to select a reputed web hosting provider to host your WordPress website. Most of the people tend to go for shared web hosting solutions because of their affordability. However, shared web hosting solutions are not in a position to provide the performance levels that you expect. Hence, you need to go for a dedicated web hosting solution offered by a reputed company.

2.     Use a lightweight theme

The theme you use for the WordPress website can also create a tremendous impact on its functionality and speed. Therefore, you must go ahead with a lightweight theme. In some of the WordPress themes, you will be able to find a large number of dynamic elements. They include social icons, widgets, sliders and many other shiny elements. Before selecting a theme, you should consider whether you really need to use all these functionalities or not. You don’t need to use everything that comes along with the themes for your website. Hence, you need to be careful to select a lightweight theme that matches with your requirements.

3.     Reduce the sizes of images

The sizes of images that you upload to your WordPress website are also in a position to create an impact on its performance and functionality. That’s why you need to think about selecting the optimum image size for your website. In other words, you need to think about reducing the size of your image, without compromising its quality. Several tools are available for you to optimize the image quality in a website.

Adobe Photoshop is a perfect example of such a tool. In addition, you will be able to find many other online tools as well.

4.     Minify the CSS and JS files

You can use the Google Page Speed Insights tool in order to minimize the JS and CSS files of your WordPress website. In here, you will be reducing the total number of JS and CSS calls. In addition, you will be reducing the number of JS and CSS files as well. Hence, you will get the opportunity to improve the overall speed of your WordPress website.

5.     Use advanced caching methods

You can find a large number of WordPress caching plugins. These plugins are in a position to minimize the complexity associated with adding caching elements into the WordPress website. You will be able to combine all those plugins with the assistance of advanced caching techniques. Varnish is a perfect example of such a technique. Then you will get the opportunity to optimize the loading speed of the website effectively.

6.     Get the help of a CDN

People from every corner of the world will visit your WordPress website. The loading speed of your WordPress website will differ from one location to another. That’s why you should think about getting the assistance of a Content Delivery Network. This will provide you with the opportunity to make sure that your website is loaded at optimum speed for people who come from all countries. The CDN will usually take a copy of your website and then place them in datacenters located in multiple locations.

Whenever a person visits your website, the copy stored in the nearest location is delivered. As a result, you will be able to increase the loading speed of your WordPress website effectively. MaxCDN and CloudFlare are perfect examples for CDNs that you can find out there in the world.

7.     Do a database cleanup

Web development experts also suggest that doing a database cleanup can also contribute towards the functionality and speed of the site. This will not just assist you to speed up the size, but you will also get the opportunity to reduce the overall size of your data backups. If you can find any fake users, spam comments or posts of old drafts, you need to take necessary steps to get rid of them during the cleanup. These efforts can assist you to reduce the overall size of your WordPress website in the long run as well.

8.     Remove all the useless plugins

You need to do an audit in your WordPress website to identify whether there are any useless plugins installed in it or not. If you can find any, you need to take necessary steps to get rid of them. Plugins are in a position to bring a lot of junk into your WordPress website. This can increase the utilization of server resources. Therefore, you need to be careful to remove all the useless third party plugins installed within your WordPress website. If you have any scheduling or automating tasks installed within the website, you should get rid of them as well.

Conclusion

Now you have a clear understanding on what needs to be done in order to optimize the speed and performance of your WordPress website. Hence, you can start working accordingly to make your website friendlier to the users. It can also provide a boost to you in search engine rankings. You just need to follow the above-mentioned tips and you will be impressed with the results at the end of the day.