11 factors contributing to a Slow WordPress site and their solutions
You must be checking your WordPress site’s performance frequently, right? And what do you find? That there are visitors, but those are not converting. It means your Website is not able to make them stay.
There can be several reasons for less or no conversions. It can be your Website’s poor design, lack of clear value, full of CTAs, too many jargons, etc.
But one factor that most companies fail to consider is the Website speed. If the page loading time is too much, visitors get frustrated and bounce off the Website. So, it becomes important for you to pay attention to your WordPress site’s speed.
Once you make your Website faster, you can make visitors stay and consume content. It ensures a better user experience, leading to conversions. Thus, you must fix the Website speed issue and conduct regular speed tests to ensure a better experience.
You can improve its speed by knowing the exact reasons behind the slow speed. Let’s explore some key reasons that may slow down your WordPress site.
Plugins are good, but too many Plugins are a big No No
Who does not like a customized Website?
For customized features and better functionality, you keep on adding Plugins to your WordPress site. They are essential for your WordPress site’s customization, efficient functioning, and user-friendliness. But too many of them can harm your Website.
Some Plugins are heavily loaded due to data collection, SEO, or backup creation features. More such Plugins mean more effort for your WordPress site to load pages. This, in turn, affects the loading time of your Website, making it slow. Also, your site may go down if you add outdated or poorly coded Plugins.
The best solution for this problem is deactivating the Plugins you no longer need. You must check your Website Plugins once every few days and replace them with more productive and useful ones. Keep the ones that can serve multiple purposes, are most beneficial for your Website, and are lightweight.
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Large images affect page speed Growth
Images. Photos. Pictures. Infographics.
You need these to make your Website look good. But these are heavy files that slow down your server and Website.
So, be smart and chop the image size before adding them to your WordPress site. Compressed and optimized images reduce your WordPress site’s load time.
The first option is to use various tools and photo editing sites to resize your images. Please keep in mind the screen size of desktops and mobiles before compressing the images. So, compress it to the right height, width, file size, and dots per inch (DPI).
Please pay attention to the image quality while compressing them. You must not compromise quality for size.
Another option is lazy loading, which optimizes the image while maintaining the quality. Until the image is in the visitor’s viewport, defer it from loading. HTML can help you set this. Even a second of time saved in page loading can affect your conversions.
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Audios and videos increase your Website loading time
Like images, people use audio and videos on their Websites to develop visitors’ interest. It attracts visitors to your Websites. Helps with SEO. Makes your Website engaging. Also helps retain users.
But what is the use of these audio and videos when your Website takes a lot of time to load them? The visitor is excited to see the video, but if it takes more seconds to load, they may bounce off the site.
The best solution, in this case, is to host your videos and audio externally. You get benefits, such as increased Website speed and relief from hosting costs.
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Hefty or bulky-themed Websites are time-consuming to load
WordPress themes are a big hit among its users. Users get multiple options of free themes to add to their Websites. But be vigilant while choosing the best option for your site.
Just like bulky images, hefty WordPress themes slow down your Website. They may not be compatible with your site or need to be optimized for speed. So, you must remove the unwanted themes and replace the bulky ones with lightweight options.
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The visitors’ servers are far off from the Website server
If the distance between the visitor’s server and the Website server is more, the servers take more time to respond. That is why your WordPress site would be slow to load.
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is the most appropriate solution for this problem. CDN means the placement of several servers in different countries or geographies. So, when any user accesses your Website in that country, the server can respond faster.
Find the locations of your target audience and get servers close to those locations. These servers store static files of your Website to reduce the loading time. So, whatever countries your site visitors are from, your site will respond on time due to CDNs.
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Not caching your Website can be a big reason for slow Website speed
Any Website has a combination of static and dynamic content. Static content loads faster than dynamic content. If you have a lot of dynamic content, the Website takes more time to load.
That is why you must cache your Websites. When you cache the Website, you can enable faster retrieval of static files stored locally. In such cases, the server can focus on the request for retrieving dynamic pages.
The best option is to use a cache plugin. If a repeat user visits your site, the Website caching allows you to show them the same version, improving the page speed. But there are chances of the plugin showing an outdated Website version to repeat users.
So, research well to find the best WordPress plugin for caching. If your Website hosting provider includes a caching plugin, do not use any other plugin. Two caching plugins might do more harm than making your Website faster.
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Cheap, no-value hosting plan is a problem
One of the critical goals people have while making a WordPress site is selecting a low-cost web hosting plan. It is not wrong to think about costs. But you must also consider the value you get from a cheap hosting plan.
You need a good hosting plan to handle the increase in traffic over time. It also keeps your Website secure. So, you may choose a cheap plan initially. But as you grow, your storage and security needs will increase, requiring an upgrade, high-value hosting plan.
A cheaper option is shared or virtual hosting. Your Website is being hosted on a shared server along with many other Websites. It affects your security and loading time, as many Websites fight to reach visitors in the least time possible.
You must look for a fully managed WordPress hosting plan. It is solely dedicated to your Website and resources. Thus, it has a faster loading time as well as more security. But it is expensive.
Cloud-based hosting is the latest solution but takes up an enormous budget. The good thing is that you can be allocated more resources when you need them. But you need to optimize your site because a non-optimized site needs more resources.
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Too many external links and scripts can affect site speed
SEO optimization of the Website means including external links and scripts in the content. Yes, it is good to optimize your Website.
But when you put external links and scripts on your WordPress site, it needs to extract information from those sources while uploading your page. This is when your site slows down. Even valuable tools, like Google Analytics, affect your site’s load times.
The best solution is to upload videos on other sites. Embed the links of these sites to your WordPress site.
Another problem is when you have deleted some pages on your site while the URLs of these pages are linked to search engines or other sites. When people click on these URLs, they are directed to a dead page. So, you must remove these URLs, edit the links, or add a better redirect code.
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Long JavaScript and CSS codes can slow down your Website
How do you get headers, footers, animations, colors, layouts, fonts, and interactivity on your WordPress site? JavaScript, the programming language, ensures animation and interactivity. CSS makes your Website attractive with unique fonts, colors, designs, and effects.
Though these are assets of your site, they are too long with many lines of code. And too many and too large files can make your page loading slower.
As a solution, you can replace the long codes with short ones. Also, you can remove the extra bits of unnecessary information (spaces, breaks, etc.). Be careful while changing the codes because one error can affect the site’s structure.
Another solution is to use plugins to combine some of these assets.
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Non-utilized codes and empty spaces increase your site’s load
Unnecessary code adds a loading burden to your Website, making it slow. Servers don’t need long, superfluous codes but valid, readable codes. So, you must remove these non-utilized long codes and empty spaces using Gzip compression to make the file smaller.
You can use coding, a plugin, or any other relevant tool to compress the coding. Along with the improvement in page speed, it also perks up user experience and SEO.
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Outdated WordPress can be an issue
While working on your laptop/desktop/phone, don’t you get messages of updates on software, etc.? Yes, those are annoying but necessary. You need to update them for better performance and more features. The same is the case with a WordPress site.
Even WordPress, Plugins, themes, or PHP may get outdated. This outdatedness might affect your page loading time.
You must update the WordPress version, PHP, themes, and Plugins to increase your Website’s speed. While updating these, check for any incompatibility issues because of the use of different versions. Also, keep a backup of your data before upgrading.
Bottom line
These are the factors contributing to making your Website’s loading time slower. Keep checking your Website’s speed and identify the reasons behind it. We have also given the remedial actions for the same.
Be cautious while executing these actions because a small error can hurt the Website. If you need help executing these actions or improving your overall WordPress site, Digiwagon is there for you.
Digiwagon is a leading Website development and digital marketing company in India. Our web development, digital marketing, and eCommerce development services generate effective results for our clients. We can assist you with any Website performance-related problems and make it user-friendly, SEO-optimized, and valuable for visitors.
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