There is a lot of talk about the advantages and disadvantages of working with an environment like WordPress . One of the drawbacks that is often discussed is the site speed , but if we use WordPress correctly our website can be as fast as the best.

In future posts we will see small tutorials to make our WordPress work better but, how important is the speed of our site? Well now more than ever since it is one of the factors that Google measures to position us correctly. It is an important value for our website that we must take care of.

To have our WordPress well optimized you have to take a series of precautions. The most basic are:


The Web Hosting.

 

Hosting (web hosting) is the server that we use to host and serve our web, emails, etc. to the Internet. We must choose a Hosting that is reliable, fast, secure , that is able to resolve possible incidents in an efficient way.

The problem is that if we do a search of Internet Hosting we will see that there are thousands . Not always the best known are the best, what to choose then? We have no choice but to investigate, ask or trust professionals who advise us on which Hosting is best for us. Also, keep in mind that each Hosting has many types of hosting plans.

In Lefty Garage we can advise you on the best Hosting for you and accompany you virtually in the purchase process to guarantee the best choice.


Correct choice of topic.

 

When we work with WordPress we have to make an important choice : the theme (or theme) to be used. The theme is something like the clothes that your website carries . There are thousands of themes, there are very focused on a specific field or multipurpose.

The graphic aspect is the main reason why a user usually chooses a theme, but this can lead to a very common error, choosing the wrong subject.

It is necessary to consider a series of previous questions :

  1. What functionalities do I need? Sometimes topics are chosen that do everything but we only use 10% of what they offer us. This takes resources and usually slows down the web.
  2. Is the topic updated? It happens that many issues are abandoned by their developers and can be a real problem to keep your website up to date.
  3. Read about it before using it. See if the technical support is good and what users think about it (always with caution, of course).
  4. See some demonstration, what type of administrator it has, how it is used, etc. It may be more complex than you think .
  5. Keep in mind that many topics with very attractive visual editors incorporate specific codes for these to work and in the future it may be a problem to change the theme .

So, better the development of a custom-made theme? It depends, if a solvent company is going to keep it up to date it may be a good option, but if this company stops maintaining it you can find with a major problem in the future.


Plugins used.

 

A Plugin is software that connects to our WordPress and adds or improves some functionality to our website . Normally they make life easier for us but you have to take into account the same precautions as with the themes.

Although not all, if many plugins incorporate code to our website in a slightly optimized way and could generate long waiting times . Others can enter conflicts with others or with our theme generating errors, evaluate before how it works on your page.

Our recommendation is to have a place where you can test these plugins and never mount them directly on the web you have in production .

Finally, keep them updated , it is important for safety and reliability


Cache.

 

This point is delicate. You will see lots of places where they will tell you that the use of the cache will speed up your WordPress to infinity and beyond, but the reality is that it can be a real headache for your customers.

What does the cache do? When a WordPress website is loaded our server generates information that is delivered to the user. This happens every time someone reads it. What the cache does, among other things, is to generate the page only once and deliver this generated page to the users. This saves waiting and workloads on the server .

If we have a website that is updated a lot we must be very careful with the configuration of the cache so that the correct version of our website is delivered or it could happen that customers continue to see an earlier version of our site if the cache has not been updated.

Our advice is that it is worth taking care of the rest of the points and not using cache, especially if you have an electronic commerce.


Image optimization.

 

Essential. All and I say ALL images on our website must be optimized and at the correct resolution. If you have a picture on your website with an image that occupies 350×350 pixels it is absurd to upload it to 6000×6000 pixels. Measure, calculate and use the correct sizes.

Also take care of the Points Per Inch (dpi or dpi) of your images. On the screen you will not go beyond 72 ppp so if you use 300 ppp you will only be using a very large file where it is not necessary.


Database.

 

There are times when we enter the web of clients that are slow, but apparently it complies with all the optimization requirements. One of the things that usually happens in these cases is that the database is full of old information , plugins data and subject that you tried, even from previous web. This generates a heavy database and difficult to access for the server , ie, slowness.

In WordPress almost everything is in the database so it is a topic to be treated with love.


Javascripts and CSS files.

 

Much of what you see active, moving or doing some function on your website is generated by Javascripts and CSS files. There are several methods to accelerate the loading of these.

  • First, use them just right .
  • Use themes and plugin to make the smallest possible load.
  • Use some optimization system of these files. There is a plugin for it.

Do not fall asleep and measure.

 

Do not forget to measure the site speed and solve the problems that may arise with the use and update of your website.

To do this, you have many very easy-to-use tools on the Internet, such as:


If you notice that your website is slow, you always have the best option in your hands, trusting experts in these fields, such as those you will find in Lefty Garage

Let’s talk