Dude, Your WordPress is Slow.

June 8, 2017 4,752 Comments

I've been building WordPress sites for 12 years. I've built or helped to build WP sites for some of the worlds largest companies. One thing I've learned over the years is if you opt for the free, for the ease-of-use, for the 'learnability' of WordPress - then you're going to lose some speed in the trade off.

But how much speed do we really need to lose? Here's my initial GTMetrix Score:

Now... Let's Talk About Hosts...

To me, there are 3 types of hosts:

  1. Cheap/Managed: 1+1, BlueHost, HostGator, GoDaddy, blah, blah, blah...
  2. Premium/Managed: Kinsta, WPEngine, Pagely
  3. Custom (Advanced) Solutions: Basically, this is a combination of a custom hosting solution and a Content Delivery Network, plus 3rd Party Services for image serving, database optimization, etc.

I currently have sites on GoDaddy (Premium Managed WordPress Hosting), WPEngine (Professional and Enterprise accounts), and a custom solution. I recently read an article, Case Study: WP Engine Managed Hosting vs Linode $5 VPS + Cloudflare.

I decided, since I was redesigning I client's site, I'd move their staging area from WPEngine to Linode + Cloudflare.

The results:

Bottom line: Hosting and Content Delivery matters.

CDNs:

  • Max CDN (Stackpath) // $20
  • Cloudflare // Free $20
  • Free-CDN // Duh
  • Jetpack // Free
  • Press CDN // Pagely
  • Rackspace // Pay as you go

 

 

Let's Talk About JS...

Chances are, your $49 theme from your favorite theme store is loaded with tons of unnecessary JS. I recently reviewed a potential client's theme. It was loading 19 Google fonts and 16 (non-minified) JS files. The theme had 11 different types of home pages and was loading the necessary JS for all of them, instead of what was needed for the specific font and template choices made. The results? About 4MB of unnecessary load.

Theme Platforms and Custom Themes

Then there are theme platforms, like Genesis or Thesis. Thesis is pretty fast; but I prefer to build a custom theme. Lately, I've been building my custom themes from a theme starter called BlankSlate.

Let's Talk About Hotlinks...

Don't let people use your bandwidth to serve their site. Place this code in your root .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?uxisthenewblack.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?google.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?feeds2.feedburner.com/uxisthenewblack [NC]
RewriteRule \.(pdf|jpg|jpeg|png|gif)$ – [NC,F,L]

Let's Talk About Minification...

I'm going to let you do your own research here; but I will say that there are plenty of ways to shrink the load:

  • CSS/JS Minification
  • DataBase Optimization (WP-Optimize)
  • Limiting Post Revisions (WP-Optimize)
  • Adding 'Expires' Headers

Let's Talk About Images...

Image load times and non-specified image sizes are the two biggest reasons for slow load times in WordPress sites. I like to use a plugin called Imsanity. It manages the size of all your images and "pre-resizes" images as they upload. Other plugins like WP-SmushIt do the same type of thing.

Image Serving

CDNs (like Cloudflare) will handle your image serving.

Lazy Loading

Lazy loading is the act of not serving content until your within a certain amount of pixels away from the content. I like to use a plugin called Rocket Lazy Load.

The results:

I've built over 300 WP sites. Hardly ever have I received an A, and rarely a B. C's and D's are normal because of WordPress's inherent flaws; but you can certainly load a C/D rated site pretty fast using some of these techniques.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Good luck. Let me know if I missed anything.

4 thoughts on “Dude, Your WordPress is Slow.”

  1. Ꮃith a view to achieve success with freelancing,
    it iѕ neceesarｙ to be self-disciplined, motivateɗ, and
    organized. In tthe event you elect to taқe
    tһe rоute of freelancing, you have to to
    be able to serarch and obyain potential jobs, be ᴠery efficіent in sⅽheɗuⅼing youг
    timе, and have gօood matһ expertіse for tһe aim
    of billing and taxes.

  90. buy viagra online from a usa certified pharmacy special
    [url=http://100mg.viagra-withoutadoctor.net]viagra without a doctor prescription usa
    [/url] viagra vs viagra spam guestbook.php?action=
    viagra without a doctor
     – $1 53 pill of viagra = take advantage of the final price
    failure of viagra to work

  147. viagra 10mg name
    [url=http://100mg.viagra-withoutadoctor.net]viagra without a doctor
    [/url] cheap viagra usa without prescription
    viagra without a doctor
     – levitra vs viagra vs viagra post_comment.php?u=
    viagra most users ever online was

  469. viagra injury attorney columbus
    [url=http://100mg.viagra-withoutadoctor.net]viagra without a doctor prescription
    [/url] canadian pharmacy viagra 20mg forum rules
    viagra no prescription
     – viagra and alcohol consumption yahoo messenger
    related:voucher.viagra.com/ viagra

  960. I really love your blog.. Excellent colors & theme.
    Did you make thks website yourself? Please reply back as I’mhoping to create my very own site and want to know where yoou got this from or exactly what
    the theme is named.Thanks!

  961. I do not even know how I stopped up right here, however I believed this
    submit was good. I do not understand who you are however definitely you are going too a well-known blogger
    in the event you are not already. Cheers!

  964. I’m not sure edactly why but this website is loading incredibly slow for me.
    Is anyone else having this issuje or is it a problem
    on my end? I’ll check back later onn aand see if the problem still exists.