In the early years of the internet, the dream of owning a visually engaging and dynamic website was nothing more than a pipe dream for millions of website owners.
As we think back upon the infancy of what’s now an integral element of everyday life, it’s painful to imagine what innovations and successes could of been if website ownership and management was as effortless as it is today.
While there are countless elements responsible for bringing the power and possibilities of website ownership to the computer screens of almost everyone, few stimulated this era of online accessibility to the degree as WordPress.
From its humble beginnings as a blogging platform to its position as one of the world’s leading CMS environments for literally any type of website, WordPress has changed the landscape of site ownership forever.
Yet, it’s not all sunshine and roses. Even though establishing a functioning and dynamic site is as easy as a few clicks and a little imagination, managing its infrastructure for optimum speed is a different story.
If you’re suffering with the frustration and negative impact of a very slow WordPress website, don’t worry. While there can be a myriad of reasons why your WordPress site is as fast as the TSA security line at LaGuardia Airport, identifying and fixing this situation is surprisingly quick and easy!
The Essential Tidbits for Fast WordPress Websites
Before diving into specific fixes, there’s a few baseline elements we must cover. First, let’s briefly touch on exactly what could be causing your WordPress site to slowdown. After all, you don’t want to fix your current speed issue only to cause it again in the near future.
Common Causes of a Slow WordPress Website:
- Hosting Provider – Has your site always underperformed? If your web hosting provider isn’t optimized to handle the unique processing requirements of WordPress, or your hosting plan is a shared server, you may be fighting a losing battle. After performing the fixes we’ll discuss momentarily your site still loads slowly, consider upgrading your hosting plan or moving to a more powerful options, such as a cloud-based WordPress host.
- Page Size (File Sizes) – A common issue boils down to simply having large, data-heavy webpages. This is often the result of non-optimized or compressed images, excess use of embedded media or inefficient use of custom web fonts.
- Plugins – Yes, the very thing that helps make WordPress so dynamic is oftentimes the root cause of slow page load times. Plugins directly influence website speed by running inefficient code, incompatible processes or simply using too many safe/lightweight plugins on a single page.
- Configuration Errors – The most common configuration error capable of slowing down your WordPress site is serve non-cached pages. Ultimately, this backend issue is too demanding on your server.
Create a Performance Benchmark via Website Speed Testing (An Absolute Must!)
Establishing a WordPress site speed benchmark is imperative for a variety of reasons. Most importantly, without this periodically updated metric, it’s difficult to observe the small positive or negative changes regarding speed and performance.
If you aren’t sure how to go about this process, check out this web performance benchmarking guide.
Fix #1 – Install a High-Quality Cache Plugin
If your site performs well in most metrics but suffers from slow page load speeds, installing a high-quality WordPress caching plugin is one of the easiest and most effective fixes. Caching reduces the time it takes for your website to load by storing static versions of your pages, significantly decreasing the need for repetitive database queries.
While WP Rocket is widely regarded as one of the best caching plugins, there are several other free and premium options, such as LiteSpeed Cache, W3 Total Cache, and WP Super Cache.
When selecting a caching plugin, look for features like:
- Page caching (stores static HTML copies of pages)
- Gzip compression (reduces file sizes)
- Browser caching (helps returning visitors load pages faster)
- Lazy loading (delays loading images until they appear in the viewport)
- CDN integration (connects with a Content Delivery Network for global performance boosts)
Make sure to configure your caching plugin properly to maximize its effectiveness.
Fix #2 – Optimize ALL Images
Images are often the biggest culprit behind slow-loading WordPress websites. Without proper optimization, large image files increase server load, slow down page rendering, and create a poor user experience.
To optimize images:
- Compress Images Without Losing Quality
Use tools like TinyPNG, ShortPixel, or Imagify to reduce file sizes while maintaining visual quality. - Use Next-Gen Formats
Convert images to modern formats like WebP, which are significantly smaller than PNGs and JPEGs. - Resize Before Uploading
Ensure that images match the required display size rather than uploading oversized files. - Enable Lazy Loading
This prevents images from loading until they are visible on-screen, reducing initial load time. WordPress has a built-in lazy loading feature, but plugins like a3 Lazy Load offer additional customization. - Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Services like Cloudflare, BunnyCDN, or StackPath can distribute images across multiple global servers to speed up delivery.
By implementing these strategies, you can significantly cut down load times without sacrificing quality.
Fix #3 – Break Apart Comments Into Pages
If your site receives a high volume of comments, congratulations—this indicates strong user engagement, which is great for SEO and audience retention. However, excessive comments can negatively impact page speed by adding additional database queries and increasing page size.
To prevent slowdowns:
- Navigate to WordPress Dashboard → Settings → Discussion.
- Check the box for “Break comments into pages”.
- Set a reasonable limit, such as 50 comments per page.
- Save changes.
For further optimization:
- Disable avatars (Gravatars) in the same Discussion settings if they aren’t necessary.
- Use a lazy-loading comments plugin like Lazy Load for Comments to load them only when needed.
This keeps your site responsive without losing the benefits of an active comment section.
Fix #4 – Embed Videos Instead of Uploading Directly
Videos are a powerful tool for increasing user engagement and improving SEO rankings. However, uploading videos directly to WordPress can drastically slow down your site by consuming large amounts of bandwidth and server resources.
Instead, host your videos externally on platforms such as:
- YouTube (best for visibility and SEO)
- Vimeo (great for premium, ad-free video hosting)
- Dailymotion (alternative video hosting option)
Once uploaded, embed the video instead of uploading it:
- Copy the video URL from the hosting site.
- Paste the URL directly into your WordPress post/page editor.
- WordPress will automatically embed the video in a responsive format.
For additional performance improvements:
- Disable automatic video playback to prevent unnecessary resource use.
- Use a lightweight video player like EmbedPress if additional customization is needed.
- Load videos only when needed with plugins like Lazy Load for Videos.
This approach eliminates unnecessary server strain while maintaining high-quality, fast-loading videos.
By implementing these fixes, you can significantly improve your WordPress website’s speed, enhance user experience, and boost SEO rankings. For best results, consider regularly monitoring your site performance using tools like Dotcom-Tools, Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or WebPageTest.
