How Do I Optimize A WordPress Site's Performance?

Do you know making websites isn't as troublesome as you feel like? You're mistaken if you think coding is the only way to develop a website from scratch. There is various free content management system software available on the internet that one can use to build a website. But what is a content management system? One may call it CMS. To create and modify digital content, people use CMS. We will not get into the technicalities of the software, but WordPress, Shopify, and Joomla are the most widely used CMS in the world. In this article, we will talk about optimizing a WordPress site. But before discussing that, we must know what WordPress is capable of doing. So let's check it out.

What is WordPress?

It is open-source software that people use as a content management system. Technically, the programming language used in WordPress is PHP, and the database management system is MySQL or MariaDB. The CMS has a gallery of templates to start with, and these templates are known as WordPress themes. It also has a library of plugins to make working on the system more accessible. The UI is very user-friendly. One can find loads of tutorials on how to use the system online. 

The system's release date goes back 19 years on 27th May 2003. The two developers were American and English, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, respectively. It is one of the most renowned CMS in the market, with a market cap percentage of 60.8% and powering more than 14% of the top websites in the world. Each month around 70 million new posts go live using WordPress. Available in more than 196 languages, people primarily use the system as a blogging tool.

A Quick Summary About Website Optimization

Websites require optimization for greater visibility to internet users. The process of optimizing a website to rank in the search engine results pages (SERP) is known as

Search engine optimization (SEO). There are different ways of performing SEO. 

• First is the on-page optimization. It deals with the optimizations that directly relate to the web page and the website. It includes proper positioning of header tags, using alt tags for images, keeping the keyword density in check, keeping the 'look and feel of the website good, etc.

• The second is the off-page optimizations. These optimizations deal with those the website owner does outside their website. It includes backlinking, guest posting, social media posting, directory submission, etc.

• Lastly, we have technical SEO. People do these optimizations to keep the website fast and active. These include improving page speed, using more petite video, good quality images that don't have a considerable size, robots.txt, sitemap inclusion, etc.

The basics are now complete. Now, it will become easier for one to understand how to optimize a WordPress website. So, let's jump straight into it.

What Are The Top Ways To Optimize Your WordPress Site in 2022?

There are many reasons why one should optimize one's website. Things like easy readability, ranking on SERP, faster loading speed, and user-friendliness are some of the top reasons people optimize their websites. But how can one do all these? Let's learn about them.

• Image Optimization

The images one uses on one's website must be of good quality. The viewer should relate to the 'image' while reading the text. Optimizing images also means lowering the size of the image but not compromising on the resolution. 'Images' with low memory size make the website's loading speed fast. Faster loading speed positively affects user-friendliness. There is various software that one can use to optimize images.

• Themes and plugins

The website should use high-quality themes and plugins. It doesn't matter how many plugins one uses, but their role in optimizing the website matters. Essential plugins that one must keep are the ones that make the security system of the website better and helps in SEO and e-commerce. WordPress themes also play a role in the loading speed of a website. Use 'themes' that popular websites use. Don't believe in the 'themes' saying itself 'optimized' or 'fast-loading .'Most of the time, they aren't both. One must choose the plugins and themes wisely. 

• Database Optimization

It is reorganizing the databases to reduce the database space and increase efficiency. There are various plugins that not only optimize and repair the databases but also delete unused databases. But database optimization is a technical thing and requires experience. A novice person may find it very difficult, and deleting required databases may cause a disaster. Keeping a backup is always a responsible thing to do before undertaking such risks. Database optimization helps in loading up the website faster.

• Hosting plan

A good quality hosting plan is the need of the hour. It helps in several crucial factors like site speed, performance, and scalability. The servers must be fast, or it would extend the waiting time for the website to open up. Good quality web hosting companies have negligible downtime. It is also crucial because one wouldn't like to open a site and find that it is down. Businesses can lose potential customers due to this thing. While taking up a plan, one should keep an eye on whether or not the program includes SSD-based storage, a built-in optimization solution, sometimes a free SSL certificate would be great, and many other things. 

• Updating themes and plugins

Many times people ignore the updates that the themes and plugins give. These updates help update the security patch, bring loads of new optimizations to the table, increase the website's performance, and brighten the look and feel of the overall website. One should keep in check whether or not the site is using the latest version of PHP. Excellent performance leads to great efficiency, and one should never compromise on efficiency.

• Caching

One of the essential optimizations in a website is caching. It is a process by which a website keeps a copy of the requested files when a user visits and engages with the site for the first time. Caching can significantly reduce the resources that one requires to run a website. Reducing resources required would increase a website's page loading speed. With the availability of many caching plugins in WordPress, one can easily do so with a single click.

• Minification

Technically, developers do all the frontend or client-facing work of a website using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Sometimes the coding becomes very untidy with many double spaces between lines, comments, etc. These pose a problem to the speed of a website. To tackle the problem, one may minify the website's HTML, CSS, and JS using specific plugins. The website requires fewer data to be transferred, thus increasing the website's overall speed. Combining the CSS and JS files may also work wonders. Plugins are there to do this too.

• CDN

The complete form of CDN is Content Delivery Networks. It helps keep a copy of the website's information and resources in different data centers worldwide. Thus a person from the USA can load the page of an Indian website much faster than websites that don't use a CDN. E-commerce websites require a CDN the most. It serves the web page to the visitor from the nearest possible data center. Many popular CDN services are available online that one may use to optimize one' WordPress website.

Conclusion

WordPress is a boon for people who don't know how to code a website. It has made running a website and optimizing it much more straightforward. With the world focusing more on the digital aspect of things, website building is on the boom. Entrepreneurs are creating more and more each day. And startup means business. Every business in today's world requires a good-looking website. WordPress also solves the problem of making a website look good by updating the library of themes and plugins.

In the world of new websites going live on the internet every minute, why shouldn't one educate oneself on digital media? WordPress is the go-to option if one wants a website without technical knowledge of it. Being the most prominent CMS on the planet, it is an excellent way for non-technical business people to make their businesses known to the world. Use WordPress and optimize your site using the above tips.