How to Increase Your Website Speed

As we mentioned in our previous Tip of the Week, “How to Optimize Photos for Your Website or Blog”, there is an almost infinite number of options to increase website speed. However, in this post we will run through our top 5 tips on how to make your website or blog faster. Enjoy!

1. Optimize your images.

This is the big one, folks. Huge images slow down your site more than almost anything else. According to hobo-web.co.uk, and the graph shown, 25% of your viewers will abandon the page if load time is longer than 4 seconds. To optimize your photos yourself, check out last week’s Tip of the Week. You can also use sites like optimizilla.com and smallpdf.com to do it automatically. We also love plugins like WP Smush (free!) or ShortPixel (paid, but better) to get them down even further.

2. Cache!

This is almost as valuable as the cash you’re thinking about… at least Google thinks so. If you’re not caching your site, Shia Labeouf and “DO IT”! We use WP Rocket, but there are several free plugins like WP Super Cache that come without a price tag. Heads up: When you’re making edits to your site, make sure to disable this plugin or you won’t see the changes.

3. Utilize a “Read More” Button.

This especially is geared toward bloggers and those who have a meaty selection of blog posts. Instead of having your posts completely expanded on your blog page, put in a “read more” button that viewers must click to view the full post. This allows more blog posts to fit on a page and, as you may imagine, faster speed since your images and content are not being loaded all together. Here are several read more tag plugins.

4. Upgrade Your Hosting.

What hosting plan are you on? If you aren’t sure, shoot us an email or login to your hosting plan to find out. We are an affiliate with SiteGround and absolutely LOVE their products and support. Upgrading is usually fairly cheap and simple. Check out their hosting plans by visiting ArtilleryMedia.com/hosting.

5. Minimize Your Backend.

Too many plugins is definitely a bad thing… don’t be a plugin hoarder. If you still have Hello Dolly installed, chances are you haven’t cleaned up your plugin page in awhile. In your WordPress backend, click on “Plugins” and delete (not just deactivate) the plugins you no longer need.

As mentioned before, there are so many more ways to increase your website speed. These are just our top 5 favorites and the ones we go to most commonly.

If you would like us to help you with your speed, email jake@artillerymedia.com.