A fast website is important for serving visitors efficiently, providing a good user experience and, of course, supporting search engine optimisation (SEO). It is therefore worth making sure your WordPress website is both fast and mobile-friendly.
We have already shared some tips for speeding up a WordPress website, but what if the problem is not the website itself, but the way WordPress is configured?
There are several tried-and-tested ways to identify and resolve common performance issues. The following recommendations are based in part on guidance from WPBeginner.
WordPress is not up to date
Just like Android, iOS, Windows and macOS, WordPress receives regular software updates.
If your website has become slow, one of the first things to check is whether you are running the latest version of WordPress.
If an update is available, install it. Updates can include performance improvements, bug fixes and security patches, so keeping WordPress up to date is important for both speed and security.
Images are too large
Oversized images are one of the most common causes of slow websites.
When building or updating a website, it is easy to upload large image files to the WordPress Media Library without optimising them first. The larger the files — and the more of them a page needs to load — the longer visitors may have to wait.
Image compression and optimisation tools can significantly reduce file sizes without noticeably reducing image quality.
Too much unnecessary content
Sometimes individual image sizes are not the problem. Instead, a WordPress installation may simply contain a large amount of old or unused content.
Over several years, a website can accumulate unused images, old blog posts, abandoned pages, graphics, campaign assets and other files that are no longer needed.
Removing unnecessary content can help keep your WordPress installation cleaner and easier to manage.
For this type of maintenance, you can use the free WP-Optimize plugin.
Before deleting anything permanently, however, we recommend creating a backup of your website.
WordPress plugins are slowing down the website
Not every WordPress plugin is equally well optimised.
Even good-quality plugins can affect performance if you install too many of them. You should therefore keep only the plugins you actually need and use.
Plugins can cause more serious performance problems if they:
- require a large amount of server resources;
- contain unnecessarily complex code;
- include far more functionality than your website needs; or
- run resource-intensive processes in the background.
If your WordPress website is slow, it is worth identifying which plugins are using the most resources. You can then remove them, replace them with more efficient alternatives or disable features you do not need.
Your WordPress hosting is too slow
Your hosting environment also has a major impact on WordPress performance.
Many hosting providers now offer dedicated WordPress hosting, while some services even provide free hosting packages. Free hosting may be suitable for basic testing, but it is generally not a good choice for a live business website because resources and performance can be very limited.
It is also important to choose a hosting package that provides enough resources for your website’s requirements.
Rackhost offers WordPress hosting packages suitable for a wide range of websites, from a sole trader creating their first website to larger business projects.
You can view our WordPress hosting plans with one-click installation here.
Scheduled tasks run too frequently
Some WordPress plugins regularly perform background tasks such as:
- image optimisation;
- malware or security scans;
- backups;
- database maintenance; and
- other automated processes.
These tasks can use a significant amount of server resources while they are running.
Many plugins allow you to choose how frequently scheduled tasks are performed. Where possible, avoid running resource-intensive processes every hour or every day unless this is genuinely necessary.
Instead, choose a schedule that matches the actual needs of your website. Running background tasks only as often as required can reduce unnecessary server load and help improve overall WordPress performance.