The issue of page loading speed is very important to website owners, and websites built with WordPress are no exception; therefore, the question ‘How can I make WordPress faster?’ is more relevant than ever.
WordPress is a stable and proven website building platform, but some mistakes in the construction of a site can slow down its performance.
A slow-loading site is a problem in terms of search engine optimisation (SEO) because Google favours fast sites, and it is a problem for users, who are likely to leave the site before they have finished viewing it.
At Hostingfy, we offer a free pre-purchase service: a speed test of your website on our hosting.
Because we want our customers to be happy and confident, if you have any doubts about the speed your website might have here at Hostingfy, we will create a copy of your website, install it here at Hostingfy and test its speed, so you can compare the speed of your website before purchasing a plan.
Contact us for a free test.
In this article, we suggest some practices to help you speed up your WordPress site.
In this section, we explore how to optimise the structure of a WordPress site to increase its overall loading speed. Much of the performance depends on the basis of our project, i.e. the WordPress theme: a lightweight and well-coded theme can make all the difference by eliminating unnecessary code. We recommend selecting clean and optimised themes, such as those based on WordPress standards or specialised frameworks, so that you have few unnecessary features that weigh down the site. Similarly, we reduce the number of plugins installed: each additional plugin can load resources and queries to the database, slowing down the server response time. We disable and delete plugins that are not really needed. We organise CSS and JavaScript files efficiently, combining and minifying scripts where possible to reduce the size of resources. For example, we can merge CSS into a single file or compress JS code to avoid too many HTTP requests to the server. It is also essential to optimise images: we upload photos with appropriate resolution and compressed formats (ideally WebP), using plugins such as ShortPixel or Smush to reduce their weight. We also take care to enable lazy loading of images, so that only images visible to the user are loaded, dramatically improving the loading times of heavier pages. Finally, we simplify the menu and widget structure: the fewer elements loaded, the lighter the site will be. With these structural changes, we already have a solid foundation for further optimising the performance of our WordPress site.
Choose a lightweight, optimised theme: the starting point is the graphic theme. Minimalist WordPress themes such as Astra or GeneratePress are designed to be fast, loading only the essential code. Avoid heavy multipurpose themes (e.g. Divi or Avada) that include extra features and scripts that are often unnecessary. A good alternative is to use a default WordPress theme (such as Twenty TwentyTre) or a child theme based on a lightweight framework. A clean, well-developed theme loads fewer unnecessary resources, significantly reducing server response time. This way, we keep the code lean without any plugins built into the theme that could slow down the site. Our experience shows that a lightweight, up-to-date theme is the foundation for a fast and reliable WordPress site.
Reduce HTTP requests and compress resources: To speed up WordPress, it is essential to reduce the number of HTTP requests and compress the resources sent to the browser. We combine CSS and JavaScript files whenever possible, for example by combining style sheets into a single minified file. This minimises the weight of resources and the number of round trips to the server. We use compression techniques such as GZIP or Brotli on the server to reduce file sizes. We avoid too many external calls: limiting external fonts and tracking services helps to avoid overloading requests. In addition, we enable lazy loading of images, loading each photo only when the user views it. With these precautions, we significantly reduce the network load and improve the overall response time of the site. In summary, by reducing HTTP requests and compressing all static resources, we can significantly lower page load times.
The second important lever for improving the performance of our WordPress site is the use of dedicated plugins. There are WP tools specifically designed to automatically manage caching, image optimisation and minification of resources. At Hotingfy, we usually install NitroPack to implement page and browser caching with just a few clicks. This plugin works in the background, reducing loading times and improving our PageSpeed Insights score without any manual intervention. At the same time, we use image optimisation plugins (such as Smush or ShortPixel) to automatically compress photos and images and convert formats such as WebP. For CSS and JS optimisation, we always entrust part of the work to NitroPack: this plugin aggregates and minifies resources, combining style files and scripts to streamline the front-end. However, we have to configure this plugin carefully, as a bad setting could block some essential scripts. With the right combination of plugins (cache + images + minification + database optimisation such as WP-Optimize), our WP site can become much snappier. Overall, plugins are a key support: they reduce manual work and allow us to optimise speed with just a few clicks.
Caching plugins (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, etc.): Caching plugins cache static versions of pages, reducing the work required by the server on each visit. For example, WP Rocket (premium plugin) is known for its ease of use: once activated, it automatically enables page caching, browser caching, GZIP compression and sitemap preloading, immediately improving performance. The free plugin W3 Total Cache offers similar features, handling page, object and database caching, as well as CSS and JavaScript minification. Other popular plugins are WP Super Cache (simple and free) and LiteSpeed Cache (optimised if your server uses LiteSpeed). In general, a well-configured caching system drastically reduces server response times and allows for faster page loading, especially for users who return to visit the site or who navigate between multiple internal pages.
We do not usually recommend them for use on our hosting.
Plugins for images and resources: to better manage images and media files, when necessary (where images have not been uploaded to the site already optimised and reduced), we use dedicated plugins. Smush and ShortPixel are popular examples that automatically compress images (JPEG, PNG) without loss of quality and can convert them to lightweight formats such as WebP. This significantly reduces page weight and improves the PageSpeed Insights score for images. In addition, plugins such as Autoptimize take care of minifying and combining CSS and JavaScript files, improving the front-end structure without manual intervention. We disable query string parameters in static resources to increase browser caching and enable asynchronous loading (async/defer) of non-essential scripts. This optimises not only images but all resources loaded by the browser, speeding up the site overall. In summary, specialised media and resource plugins help us reduce network load and improve site performance.
The third fundamental aspect of our strategy is the choice of hosting. The hosting provider determines the server response time and affects the overall speed of the site. To achieve the best performance, it is essential to choose a hosting provider with specific technical characteristics. These include: the use of servers with NVMe SSD drives, which guarantee much faster read and write speeds than traditional HDDs; support for PHP 8 or higher, which improves the processing of site requests; the availability of dedicated resources (CPU, RAM) to avoid overload caused by other sites, which is typical of cheap shared hosting. It is also crucial that the hosting offers a server-side caching system, support for HTTP/2 or HTTP/3, SSL certificates included, and advanced management tools (such as automatic backups, staging, and intuitive panels). Good hosting should also offer specialised technical support for WordPress. With these features, we can guarantee fast response times, stability, and security, which are essential for maintaining a fast and high-performance WordPress site.
Hostingfy has all these features, making it an ideal choice for your WordPress site.
For information on plans and features, write to us at the contact page.
Another level of performance optimisation involves the use of advanced caching systems and a CDN (Content Delivery Network). In addition to server-side caching managed by plugins or hosting, we can leverage PHP OPcache and object caching systems such as Redis or Memcached to store repetitive data. At the same time, if we present content to visitors who are far away from where the hosting is located, it is possible to activate a CDN. A CDN distributes static content (images, CSS/JS files, videos) across servers (edges) scattered around the world, reducing latency for users furthest from the main server. This means that a visitor in Europe will load content from a nearby node, while one in the United States will do the same, greatly speeding up the loading times of static resources.
In addition, we enable modern protocols such as HTTP/2 or HTTP/3, which allow request multiplexing and automatic header compression, speeding up communication between the server and browser. These protocols improve performance, particularly when loading multiple resources simultaneously, by leveraging persistent connections. Finally, we apply browser caching strategies by setting the correct expiry headers (Expires or Cache-Control) and enabling Brotli/GZIP compression on static resources. All these advanced techniques help to further reduce loading times and improve scores in speed tests such as PageSpeed Insights, as they optimise data distribution and transmission.
Distribution via CDN: A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a global network of servers that stores copies of our site or static resources in multiple geographic locations. The site’s DNS must be configured so that requests pass through the CDN and content is served from the node closest to the user. This reduces latency and distributes the load, improving loading speed regardless of where the user is located. Thanks to the CDN, the heaviest images and scripts are downloaded from fast, distributed servers, significantly lightening the load on the original server. In short, using a CDN such as Cloudflare makes your WordPress site much faster globally, especially for a distributed audience.
HTTP/2, HTTP/3 and advanced compression: In addition to CDN, we can leverage modern transport protocols to further speed up your site. HTTP/2 is now widely supported and allows multiple resources to be sent in parallel over the same connection, reducing latency. If the server supports it (and the visitor’s browser does too), we can even take advantage of HTTP/3 (based on QUIC) to improve speed on unstable connections. In practice, HTTP/2/3 improve the use of multiplexing and reduce SSL negotiation overhead. To complete the optimisation, we check that GZIP compression is enabled and evaluate the use of Brotli (more efficient) to compress CSS, JS and HTML files. We set up the server (Apache/Nginx) to enable these compressions and verify with PageSpeed Insights that they are actually in use. These techniques ensure that the resources exchanged between the server and browser are as light as possible, substantially improving the site’s loading times.
To verify the effectiveness of optimisations, we need to accurately measure the speed of the site. There are various diagnostic tools that help us identify bottlenecks. For example, Google PageSpeed Insights is a free tool that analyses both the mobile and desktop versions of the site, providing speed scores and practical suggestions (including Core Web Vitals such as Largest Contentful Paint and First Input Delay). We use PageSpeed Insights to get a snapshot of performance and understand which areas to improve (cache, compression, image optimisation, etc.). Another great tool is Lighthouse, integrated into Chrome DevTools, which measures loading times and accessibility.
In addition, services such as GTMetrix and Pingdom allow us to analyse the resource loading “waterfall”, identifying which files are slowest or which requests are taking too long. These tools create detailed reports where we can immediately see if a heavy image, a slow plugin or an external request is slowing down the site. There are also WordPress plugins dedicated to debugging: we install Query Monitor to monitor database queries, PHP hooks and errors. Query Monitor shows us which queries are the slowest and if there are performance issues related to particular plugins or API calls. Essentially, these diagnostic tools provide concrete data (first byte time, page size, number of requests) that guide us in subsequent optimisations. By regularly testing with these tools, we can verify improvements step by step and ensure that our site is always fast and responsive.
No one likes a slow website, and owners of WordPress sites know this all too well.
With the tips we’ve given you in this guide, you should be able to speed up your WordPress site.
If your site is still slow, it’s probably a hosting issue.
In this case, all you have to do is contact us, and we’ll work with you to find the plan that best suits your needs.
From professional activity to business, we are able to satisfy your needs.
Sito web creato da My Web Lab – Web Agency Milano & Powered by Simone Elle
