How to Super Charge WordPress for Speed & Fast Page Load

Why WordPress Can Be Slow

WordPress often requires more server resources and database queries compared to static HTML sites. The platform stores information in databases, and modern themes frequently incorporate jQuery and AJAX components that consume significant resources.

Why Site Speed Matters

Visitors lose trust and abandon slow sites.
Google incorporates page load time into ranking algorithms and AdWords scoring.
Poor performance can damage brand reputation.

The industry standard suggests anything exceeding 2 seconds is problematic for user experience.

Primary Speed Factors

Internet connection quality
Web hosting and server resources
WordPress theme selection
PHP script execution
Plugin quantity and quality
Image dimensions and file sizes
External JavaScript usage
CSS file count and size
DNS lookup quantity

Optimisation Strategies

1. Run Speed Testing Tools

Use Pingdom's Website Speed Test or similar tools to identify problematic files. Sort by load time and see which files or scripts are taking a long time to load.

2. Identify Slow Plugins

The P3 Profiler plugin reveals which plugins degrade performance. Social-sharing plugins commonly cause slowdowns and can be replaced with embedded code.

3. Combine External JavaScript Files

Merge JavaScript files, though this risks complications during theme updates. We came across one WordPress site that had over 33 JavaScript files — this is too many.

4. Enable GZip Compression

GZip automatically compresses files, reducing bandwidth and accelerating loading. Check compression status at checkgzipcompression.com, then add compression directives to .htaccess:

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript

Alternatively, enable GZip through the W3 Total Cache plugin settings.

5. Choose Quality Web Hosting

Shared hosting can work for WordPress sites. We recommend WP Engine for optimised performance.

6. Select a Lightweight Theme

Theme selection represents the most critical decision. Avoid feature-heavy themes that bundle numerous functionalities. We recommend the Thesis framework, and suggest developers consider the Twenty Ten/Twenty Eleven default themes as fast foundations.

7. Implement WordPress Caching

W3 Total Cache is recommended as the optimal caching solution. Installation and configuration are straightforward, and it significantly improves WordPress performance.

8. Utilise a Content Delivery Network

CDNs serve static files from geographically distributed servers, circumventing browser limitations on parallel downloads from a single host. MaxCDN integrates with W3 Total Cache for enhanced speed improvements.

9. Optimise Images

Compress images for web use, keeping slider images under 100KB each. Monitor large background images, portfolio images, and lightbox files. Use CSS sprites for background images. The WP-SmushIt plugin automatically optimises images.

10. Optimise Homepage Performance

Minimise widgets and plugins
Limit post displays
Show post excerpts instead of full content
Remove inactive plugins

11. Add Expires Headers

Expires headers inform browsers when static resources require refreshing, reducing re-fetches for returning visitors. Modify .htaccess with:

ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg A2592000
ExpiresByType image/jpeg A2592000
ExpiresByType image/gif A2592000
ExpiresByType image/png A2592000

12. Replace PHP with Static HTML

Converting dynamic PHP references to static HTML reduces CPU processing and database queries. This requires developer expertise.

13. Optimise the WordPress Database

WP-Optimize removes spam, unapproved comments, trash posts, trackbacks, and pingbacks, optimising database performance.

Real-World Example

A client using a logo slider plugin discovered the configuration was requesting non-existent images when the navigation arrows were disabled. Resolving this simple issue resulted in shaving 2.44 seconds from the page load time.

Performance Results

We tested three optimisation stages with corresponding load time improvements, concluding with our own StartaDesign blog achieving 1.17-second load times — faster than 86% of all websites.