Remember that as we discussed in the hosting and domain selection class, a hosting is a space that we rent on a computer and that will store all the files necessary for users to view our website. WordPress is a program that we install on that computer and that helps us to manage our site more efficiently. Therefore, the speed of your website depends on the relationship between that computer and that program.
If the computer is slow, the program will be slow and, therefore, the website will be slow. If the program is outdated, the web will also be slow. What do we have to achieve then? That the computer goes fast and the program goes fast.
The speed metrics depend on both your WordPress configuration and the speed of your server.
Methodology for improving the speed of a website as say the agencia seo
Here there is no other way: it is trial and error.
Test your configuration.
Measure with web speed measurement tools.
Your loading times improve? Perfect, right? Go back to point 1.
If you have an old WordPress, with a template from several years ago and many plugins, it is possible that to improve the speed of that Web you will have to create a project from 0. For depends on what projects, this can be an absolute drama but it is possible that there is no other choice. The years 2018 and 2019 have brought major changes in WordPress and projects prior to those dates surely have to be redone entirely.
If the project you are doing is new, here you already have more room for maneuver. You will have to study which WordPress functionalities you need and test combinations of hosting + wordpress + templates + plugins. We recommend you to start with a few pages until you get the desired web speed and then go on with the content layout when you have achieved good results.
Speed measurement tools
The first thing to keep in mind is that to perform this action we will have to test configurations all the time. To check the loading times there are several tools that we can use.
From seosve we recommend you to have the 3 open and as you go testing changes go checking what each one tells you. It is important to note that you will not be able to perform the tests in test environment, but you will have to make these changes once the website has been published on a real and definitive hosting and domain. Even if you are not ready to publish, you can always perform these actions in a test environment within the server where you are going to host the website definitively.
What our students usually do as soon as they learn about them is to measure the speed of their web pages. The results are usually disastrous, so don’t panic! We will now explain how to improve all this.
What metrics do we want to achieve?
The ideal would be a +70 in pagespeed insights (mobile) and that it loads in less than a second in Pingdom. Achieving this is sometimes not possible in all installations.
Web speed: Pingdom Tools
Google Search console is also implementing a URL speed report and Google Ads has another one (which will be displayed as a warning if you run campaigns). Remember that we always have to listen to Google so if you get slow pages you will have to try to remedy it.
Web speed: Search Console experimental report
Search Console experimental report
Web speed: Google Ads warning
Google Ads Notice
Hosting Selection
If once you test the measurement tools you encounter the following warning, it means that the server is slow or has a bad relationship with your WordPress installation:
Web Speed: Reduce server response times
In this link, you can see the recommendations that Google makes in this regard: https://web.dev/time-to-first-byte/
To solve this problem you should either call your provider to see if there is a problem with the installation or hosting, or if the server is yours, make the necessary changes. When you make the improvements the message that should come out should be the following:
Web speed: Server response times are fast
WordPress installation
A wordpress with many plugins and a complicated configuration will be slower. As we have said before, WordPress is a program. If I’m adding plugins, I’m adding functionality to that program, making it slower.
The fewer plugins, the better
Think about the features you need and remove everything that is not absolutely essential.
If you have left the most basic installation you can and still the load times do not improve, deactivate plugins for a moment and try again. There may be 1 or 2 that are really screwing up your metrics. When you find out what they are, look for an alternative and measure again.
For example: We were using an anti-spam plugin. After deactivating it we improved 20 points in Page Speed Insights, so we had to look for an alternative that did the same and weighed less.
Keep your installation up to date
Normally, the latest updates of WordPress, plugins and templates include improvements in loading times. Just as you have to keep updating Apps on your cell phone and programs on your computer, you also have to keep your website up to date.
In addition to improving load times, this action will also make the installation more secure.
Theme selection
You will find a multitude of both free and premium themes on the Internet. A free theme can be fast and a paid theme can be slow. All you have to do is install them and test them with the tools mentioned above. To compare one theme with another you will have to layout the same URL with the same contents and see how it behaves with the different measurement tools.
