A slow WordPress website can frustrate your visitors, hurt your Google rankings and reduce your sales or enquiries. The good news is that WordPress performance optimisation is much easier than most people expect. With a few simple steps, you can make your website load noticeably faster and run more smoothly on any device.
Whether you are a small business owner, blogger or online shop owner, this guide explains everything you need to know in beginner-friendly terms. You do not need to be technical to follow along.
Why WordPress Speed Optimisation Matters
Most people leave a website if it takes more than a few seconds to load. Google also prefers fast websites because they offer a better experience, so a slow site can negatively affect your visibility in search results.
Improving your website speed can help with:
- Better User Experience: Improving your website’s speed can improve the user experience, lower your bounce rate, and increase your conversion rate.
- Improved SEO: Google’s algorithm takes your website’s speed into account. Improving your website’s performance can lead to your website ranking higher in search results.
- Trust & Credibility: A slow website can give potential customers the impression that your business isn’t up to scratch.
What’s making your site slow?
Several factors can slow down a WordPress website. Here are the most common causes explained in simple terms.
- Slow or low-quality hosting: Your hosting is the “engine” that powers your website. If the server is slow, your website will always feel slow, even if everything else is optimised.
- Too many plugins: Plugins add useful features, but also add extra code. Some plugins are heavy, poorly coded or perform unnecessary background tasks, all of which slow your site down.
- Large, unoptimised images: Uploading large photos straight from your camera or phone can dramatically increase page load times.
- Heavy WordPress themes: Multipurpose themes that include many built-in features can add unnecessary bulk.
- Extra scripts and add-ons: Elements like pop-ups, chat widgets, embedded videos and tracking scripts increase loading time.
How to Analyse your Website’s Performance
You can benchmark your website’s performance using the following tools:
- Google PageSpeed Insights: This tool will assess your website’s Core Web Vitals and tell you what is slowing down your website.
- GTMetrix & Pingdom Website Speed Test: Use these to test your website’s speed from different locations around the world.
These tools will help you understand what is slowing down your website. Sometimes the issues they flag can feel overwhelming, especially for beginners. Don’t worry about fixing every single issue; you should start by focusing on the biggest problems first.
Rest assured, many of the speed optimisation plugins mentioned in this guide will fix a significant amount of the common issues you will run into.
Finally, don’t disregard mobile speed tests, as a significant portion of website traffic now comes from mobile devices.
Easy Ways to Speed Up Your WordPress Website
You do not need technical experience to make your website faster. These improvements are safe and beginner-friendly.
Install a caching plugin
Caching helps your website load faster by storing a pre-generated version of your pages. This reduces the amount of work the server must do each time someone visits your site.
The most popular caching plugins for improving WordPress speed are:
Keep in mind that you will need to choose one caching plugin; you won’t be able to use more than one at the same time. If you’re not sure which one to choose, check out our comparison below.
Lazy Load & Optimise images
Large image files slow down your website more than almost anything else. Before uploading images, resize them and use a tool or plugin to compress them.
Beginner-friendly image optimisation tools include:
- Smush: A WordPress plugin that can optimise images you have already uploaded to your website.
- ShortPixel & Imagify: These are websites that allow you to upload images, then they’ll generate an optimised version for you.
Switching images to WebP format can also further reduce file sizes and improve load times.
Remove unnecessary plugins
When it comes to optimising your website’s speed, WordPress plugins are a double-edged sword. They add useful functionality, but each plugin adds extra code, extra scripts and more database queries.
Here are a few signs a plugin might be slowing down your website:
- Your dashboard feels slow
- Online speed tests report a high number of scripts
- You have several plugins doing similar things
- A plugin has not been updated for a long time
How to tell which plugins are slowing your website down
A simple way to determine if a plugin is slowing your website down is to disable it, then see if it impacts your website’s load times. Please ensure you do this during an off-peak time to avoid disrupting users who are actively browsing your website.
Pick a lightweight theme
Some WordPress themes are packed with features you may never use. A lightweight theme keeps your website fast without unnecessary bulk.
Recommended beginner-friendly lightweight themes, well-coded and designed for performance, include:
Update Your Theme and Plugins Regularly
New versions of WordPress are released often. Some of these updates include performance enhancements.
Keep in mind that you need to update WordPress itself (WordPress core), themes and plugins separately.
Always choose fast, reliable hosting
Your hosting provider has the biggest impact on your website speed. If the server is slow or overloaded, no amount of optimisation will fully fix your site.
When choosing a host, look for:
- Local servers: Servers that are nearby will help make your website just that little bit faster.
- Modern hardware: Things move fast in the computer hardware space. Hosting your website on hardware that is even just a few years old can negatively impact your website’s performance.
- Reliable uptime: Find a web hosting provider that mentions an uptime guarantee. Your website is core to your online presence; downtime is the last thing you want.
These are some of the many reasons many people choose VentraIP. Our Australian WordPress hosting is designed for speed, stability and reliability, which helps your WordPress website run smoothly from the get-go.
Best WordPress Performance Optimisation Plugins (Comparison Table)
Below is a simple comparison table that highlights the most popular optimisation plugins and what they offer.
WordPress Speed Plugin Comparison
| Plugin | Best For | Key Features | Difficulty Level |
| LiteSpeed Cache | Fast all-round optimisation | Caching, image optimisation, CDN support, CSS combination, lazy load images | Easy |
| NitroPack | Beginners who want a hands-off solution | Automatic caching, minification, image optimisation | Very easy |
| WP Rocket | Users are willing to pay for simplicity | Caching, minifying, preloading, database cleanup | Easy |
| W3 Total Cache | Advanced users | Highly customisable caching and optimisation | Medium to advanced |
| Autoptimize | Improving code efficiency | Minification, script aggregation | Easy |
| ShortPixel / Imagify | Image optimisation | Compress images, WebP support | Easy |
| Perfmatters / Asset CleanUp | Reducing unnecessary scripts | Disable scripts on specific pages | Easy to medium |
Note: LiteSpeed Cache must be supported by your web hosting provider. All of VentraIP’s web hosting services support LiteSpeed Cache.
When It’s Time to Change Hosting Providers
Even after proper optimisation, your site may still feel slow if the root cause is your hosting provider.
Signs hosting is the problem:
- Your website is slow at all times of the day
- Your WordPress dashboard feels laggy
- You get “resource limit reached” or 503 Error messages
- Other optimisation steps have had little effect
If this sounds familiar, upgrading your hosting is often the fastest and most impactful improvement you can make.
If you’re in need of a change, check out our WordPress website hosting services.
Why VentraIP Helps Make Your WordPress Website Faster
Good hosting gives your website the foundation it needs to load quickly and perform well. VentraIP hosting is designed with WordPress performance in mind.
Our platform offers:
- Fast Australian servers powered by modern Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Hardware and fast SSD Storage.
- Support for LiteSpeed Cache out of the box.
- We offer a 99.9% Uptime Guarantee.
- A Free website migration service.
- 24/7 Australian support via Phone, Livechat and eTicket.
- Web Hosting plans suited for small businesses, blogs and online shops.
Getting the Most Out of Your WordPress Website
Speeding up your WordPress website does not need to be complicated. By choosing good hosting, installing a caching plugin, optimising your images and reducing unnecessary plugins, you can noticeably improve your website speed even if you are a complete beginner.
If you want your WordPress website to load as quickly and reliably as possible, consider moving to VentraIP. Our fast Australian servers and free migration service make it easy to improve your site performance without any stress. A faster and more reliable website gives your visitors a better experience and helps your business grow.
