Overview WordPress Performance Audit
If you want to ensure that your WordPress website is running as efficiently as possible, you will want to keep in mind conducting a performance audit. An overall performance audit assists you in identifying areas wherein your website may be slow or inefficient and provides tips on enhancing its overall performance.
There are a few different ways to conduct a WordPress performance audit. You can use websites like GTmetrix or Pingdom.
Once you’ve determined how you’ll conduct your audit, there are a few key areas you’ll need to focus on:
1. Page load time
2. Server response time
3. Database queries
4. PHP execution time
5. Javascript execution time
Each of these areas can affect your WordPress website’s general speed and performance. You may make important modifications to improve your website’s overall performance by identifying areas that can be slow or inefficient.
A WordPress performance audit may be valuable in ensuring your website is running as efficiently as possible. By figuring out areas of improvement, you could make the changes needed to assist your website run faster and smoother.
Why WordPress Performance Matters
If your WordPress website is slow, it may considerably affect your commercial enterprise. Not only will it frustrate your traffic, but it may also cause lower search engine rankings and much fewer visitors. A study by Kissmetrics found that a 1-second delay in page load time can result in a 7% loss in conversions.
Many factors can affect WordPress’s overall performance, including website hosting, theme, plugins, and database. So, we’ll examine why WordPress performance matters and some simple approaches to speed up your website online.
One of the main reasons why WordPress’s overall performance matters is due to the fact it can have a direct effect on your bottom line. If your website is slow, traffic will probably leave earlier than they can see what you offer. This not only results in lost traffic but also lost potential customers and revenue.
Another purpose why WordPress performance matters is because it may affect your search engine rankings. Google and different search engines use page speed as a ranking component, so if your website is slow, you’ll probably be buried within the search results. This can greatly impact your site visitors and make it more difficult for new site visitors to discover your website.
Finally, WordPress performance matters because it can affect the general user experience of your website. If site visitors wait a long time for pages to load, they may get annoyed and might not return. This can cause a loss of repeat site visitors and make it tougher to build a devoted audience.
Fortunately, there are several easy approaches to speed up your WordPress site. These include choosing a great web host, using a caching plugin, optimizing your images, and using a content delivery network (CDN). We discussed these things below.
How To Measure the Performance Of WordPress?
Auditing your WordPress website’s performance is critical to keeping a healthful and successful online presence. Various things could affect your website’s overall performance, and it’s vital to pick out and solve any potential issues as soon as feasible.
There are different methods to audit your site’s overall performance. We will talk about 3 main ways:
1. Use A WordPress Performance Plugin
Several WordPress performance plugins are available, including Performance Lab, and they can be an excellent way to pick out any potential issues along with your website quickly. An overall performance plugin will generally offer you a report highlighting any areas needing attention.
2. Use Google Pagespeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights is a free tool that analyzes your website’s overall performance. Input your URL, and Google will offer you a report highlighting areas needing improvement.
3. Use GTMetrix
The GTMetrix is used to audit your website and provide you with reports. This may be an awesome option if you want an extra comprehensive evaluation of your website’s performance.
Improving WordPress Performance
1. Use a Caching Plugin
Installing a caching plugin is the first component you can do to improve your WordPress performance. Caching plugins create static HTML files out of your dynamic WordPress website. When a user visits your site, the static HTML file is served instead of loading the complete WordPress website. This can dramatically reduce page load times.
There are many kinds of caching plugins available for WordPress. However, we advise using W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache. Both plugins are free and offer many features to configure your caching.
2. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a set of servers placed worldwide. When you use a CDN, your website’s static files (CSS, JavaScript, images, etc.) are cached on those servers.
When a user visits your website, the static files are served from the server closest to their location, which could dramatically enhance website load times.
Many types of CDN vendors are available, but we propose using CloudFlare. Cloudflare offers a free plan consisting of simple CDN capabilities and paid plans with extra features, including protection and performance enhancements.
3. Optimize Your Images
Unoptimized images are one of the most important culprits of sluggish website loading times. When you upload a photo on your WordPress website, it’s generally saved in its complete size. This way, if you have a 1000px x 1000px photo that’s best displayed as 500px x 500px, the user remains downloading the entire 1000px x 1000px images.
You usually optimize your images before uploading them on your WordPress website to avoid this. You can do this manually using a photo-enhancing application like Photoshop or an automated solution plugin like WP Smush.
4. Minimize HTTP Requests
Every time a user visits a page on your WordPress website, their browser makes several HTTP requests to load all the necessary files. The more HTTP requests a website has, the longer it will take to load.
