Speed Plugin for WordPress sites

[brettmandoes]

Okay guys, I have a client with a slow, slow, slooooooow website. I need to fix it and *fast*. Get it? Never mind. I'm hoping you guys have some recommendations. I've used WP Fastest Cache in the past, but I've seen other tools out there and was wondering what everyone's experience has been.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rich Owings]

Caching plugins are a pain and can break things. I suggest finding a web developer who is good at load speed and outsource it to them. I've got a guy I use locally and I've had him optimize any client sites that were slow.

 

[djbaxter]

If the site is super slow:

1. Test it at WebPageTest - Website Performance and Optimization Test and/or Pingdom Tools and/or PageSpeed Insights to find out what's slowing it down.
2. Disable questionable or unnecessary plugins to see if that makes a difference.
3. In most cases, the biggest problem is either non-optimized images or ads or just very slow hosting - use the free reSmush.it Image Optimizer – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org to reduce image size and consider moving to a better host.

 

[therkf]

Hosting can definitely be an issue. If the DB server is overloaded (see: cheap web hosting) there's very little you can do to improve the overall speed.

As above, test with WebPageTest and see what your TTFB is.

 

[Conor Treacy]

WP Fastet Cache we use on a number of sites and it's performed well. You'll want to check to see what exactly is slowing the site down though. It could well be the actual web hosting company.

Run some tests using Pingdom, gtmetrix and WebPageTest (listed above) and see if you can narrow down image sizes, transfer speeds, TTFB, etc. You may even need to insert some PHP code to see if there's a slowdown between the page, the database, and the rendering (definitely more troubleshooting level) - but check with the various places first and see what you find.

 

[Geeman]

I had the same problem not long ago, I read every article I could find, every post told me what I needed to fix but none gave me clear instructions on how to do it. Eventually, I got it figured out.
This is how I've solved the problem on Wordpress. I first backup the site to be safe.
- I install the WP-Optimize plugin, click settings disable "clear every 2 weeks" go to Database, click run all optimizations, this clears auto draft saves, revisions, spam, it also compresses the images, etc. - thereafter set it to auto clear.
Then clear the caches. I use W3 Total Cache.
Then I connect the site to either Cloudflare content delivery network.
Or Jetpack content delivery network. Both are free.
Your problem might be different though.

 

[diddy1]

I had the same problem not long ago, I read every article I could find, every post told me what I needed to fix but none gave me clear instructions on how to do it. Eventually, I got it figured out.
This is how I've solved the problem on Wordpress. I first backup the site to be safe.
- I install the WP-Optimize plugin, click settings disable "clear every 2 weeks" go to Database, click run all optimizations, this clears auto draft saves, revisions, spam, it also compresses the images, etc. - thereafter set it to auto clear.
Then clear the caches. I use W3 Total Cache.
Then I connect the site to either Cloudflare content delivery network.
Or Jetpack content delivery network. Both are free.
Your problem might be different though.

I don't know how this is possible but as a non-developer this is almost step by step my exact process as well.

 

[fr33lanc3r]

I fix and optimize WordPress on a daily basis. Lots of good advice here. Everyone is right too, meaning it is a combination of factors that you need to address to fully optimize and improve your site.

Just installing a cache plugin is not the magic solution. While caching plugins can cause problems, I would still recommend using one after you have finished optimizing everything else.

Another thing I do not see mentioned is enabling gzip compression. This will reduce your page size to decrease load time.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I'd outsource it to someone you can trust. I tried to do it myself for awhile but realized it just takes too much time away from other things I need to be doing. Plus, an actual professional could do a way better job than I ever could.

 

[Tony Wang]

I agree with much of the above, but most important is figuring out what causes the slowdown. Most common is excessive image size, but there are many other possible/additional causes. Hosting, poor theme design, bad plugins, etc. A caching plugin will almost certainly help, but is not the root cause.

If you aren't ready to roll up your sleeves and learn how to do it, as others have said, hire someone.

 

[embermethod]

A lot of good points in here that I'll reiterate before giving my plugin recommendations.

Images and server, as others have mentioned, are going to make a huge impact here. It's never a good idea to just blindly install plugins hoping they'll fix the problem without getting to the root of what's causing the slow speeds and knowing exactly what the plugin will do / how it will interact with your site. This is why I think several people have recommended hiring someone.

First, use Pingdom or PageSpeed Insights to dig into what's causing the slow loading - you'll run into a lot of jargon but I know at least Google provides a lot of helpful documentation on what things mean and how to address fixing them.

I've noticed huge speed differences simply comparing themes. Some themes rely heavily on a huge set of plugins to work and might also have sloppy code. So, theme and other unnecessary plugins are worth checking.

That said, I've had good results using a combination of things such as the following:

• Utilize a CDN. I run all my sites through Cloudflare which itself provides minification (CSS/JS) and caching, not to mention added security benefits.
• I use EWWW for image optimization. It lets you bulk optimize all your media and also offers WebP conversion which can make a big difference.
• W3 Total Cache is a solid plugin that offers minification (don't double up though in the case that you utilize Cloudflare minification), gzip compression, multiple levels of caching, etc.
• There are plugins that provide lazy loading / asynchronous loading which can help page speeds greatly in some cases. I've used Autoptimize with some success although you have to be very careful as it can easily break things as well.

 

[dannanelli]

Okay guys, I have a client with a slow, slow, slooooooow website. I need to fix it and *fast*. Get it? Never mind. I'm hoping you guys have some recommendations. I've used WP Fastest Cache in the past, but I've seen other tools out there and was wondering what everyone's experience has been.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Brett,

In short, usually upgrading hosting to a better server helps a lot. Then some plugins may do the trick.

I use:
WP Rocket - Caching, minifying and combining HTML, SCC & JS files
ShortPixel - Optimizing images
WP Asset Cleanup - Turning off unused CSS or JS from desired pages

If this doesn't work, then a developer may need to be brought in.

 

[bernilocal]

when server can be slow and you can't change
you can improve global speed of your site with the following 3 plugins
wprocket ( paid but really good)
imagify ( freemium)
bunnycdn ( really cheap cdn and works very fine)
This is the configuration I always set up on all my sites ( and I have almost 200 domains and 12 hostings)

 

[djbaxter]

My personal list of plugins for improving load speed:

reSmush.it Image Optimizer – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org

WP Super Cache – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org

Either WP-Optimize – Clean, Compress, Cache. – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org OR Autoptimize – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org OR Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org (depending on the site or my mood )

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By the way, don't forget to check that you have compression enabled on your server:

HTTP Compression Test / WhatsMyIP.org

HTTP Compression Tester lets you verify that web content is being compressed using gzip / deflate / mod_gzip / mod_deflate. Test your web site after enabling compression.

www.whatsmyip.org

 

[Suresh]

Do look at the cludflare Edge server caching with cloudflare workers.

Normally CDN will have your images, Javascript, fonts, etc.

But... with the edge caching, your entire webpage HTML present at every server of Cloudflare.

This should help you in getting best TTFB score, and the website loads less than a second for sure.

The advantages of Cloudflare is that you can keep the site secure with the rules, and a lot of speed goodies are present without much coding actually.

 

[Suresh]

Do test the site with lighthouse form chrome browser or use this URL to find the areas to be improved.

WebPageTest

View this on WebPageTest.org...

webpagetest.org