Speed Up Your Website

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Having a slow website will keep visitors from coming back or even landing for the first time at all. Below are a list of plugins that I am using to help speed up my site. I will also include what plugins I've found to increase the load time for a website.

Increase Your Site Speed Speed:

WP Smush or EWWW Image Optimizer

These both will help reduce the load time of your images. I am currently using WP Smush to test it out in comparison to EWWW. One thing I like about EWWW over Smush is that EWWW allows for bulk optimization without having to stay on the tab. You can switch off and it will still run.

Autoptimize

This plugin optimizes you website by concentrating your CSS and JavaScript and then compresses the code. Less code over less space means a faster load.

Remove query strings from static resources

Yes, that's a plugin name. It removes query strings from static sources as the name suggest. These are things like images or buttons that rarely change.


Plugins That Slow You Down:

These are two plugins I have found to have an impact on site load time.

JetPack

I have heard that it has gotten better but I'm still not going to risk the slowness. Run a speed test then disable the plugin and run again. if you see a big enough difference then get rid of the plugin.

SumoMe

I think this plugin is great but with every new app you add the total site load time goes up. I am currently only using it for the social buttons on my site. I saw a big load time decrease when I took off all the others. I am experimenting with other email opt-in plugins one seems to be working with much better load times.


I use GTmetrix to measure site load time. They have many tests including Google's "Page Speed" and give you a very detailed list of what needs improved.

Update (Roopesh's Question)
Do I use all three?
I use all three listed above, but be sure to check various pages after you implement one to make sure nothing breaks.

What is a good load time?
The the best sites load in under a second, good sites between 1 and 2 seconds, decent between 2 and 3 and anything else is going to make your reader impatient.


What plugins have you found to slow down your site load time?

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Recent Comments

21

Good information. Thanks!

Thanks for this Jaron.
Of the 3 plugins that you recommended to increase speed, do you have all of them on your site, or would you recommend a certain one?

What should be the optimal site load time?
Thanks enjoyed this

I use all three listed above, but be sure to check various pages after you implement one to make sure nothing breaks.

The the best sites load in under a second, good sites between 1 and 2 seconds, decent between 2 and 3 and anything else is going to make your reader impatient.

Awesome thanks for that

you're wlecome

Great tips thank you

Welcome Katie!

Good info Jaron, many thanks. How many plugins do you have by the way? Do you know how many is too many?!? Many thanks :)

Hi Chrissies!

I currently have 17 and 14 of them are active. As per how many a site should have, it really depends. Less is always better but what really matters is how much bandwidth is need to run them on your site. A blogger with 100 plugins could have a faster load time than someone with only 2 (if those two are very resource intensive).

Thank you, I see. Is there any way to tell how intensive they are? :)

read the reviews, and if you are tech savy set up a "staging" platform (I am thinking about setting one up myself to test these types of things)

OK, thanks Jaron, but tech savvy I am not!!! :)

nothing wrong with that; see my update i added thanks to Roopesh's question.

Thanks for the update :)

JetPack has tons of external server requests to WordPress.com and thereby, WA Support has asked most of us to remove it. I'm still sticking with SumoMe though. Other plugins are faster (I have Social Warfare on one my sites - paid) But, many social sharing plugins do slow down your site. It's a tough balance. But, it's better than installing two plugins- one for sharing and one for the opt-in email request. Give and take I suppose! :-)

I agree with you on jetpack. External server requests kill a site's load time. I do get a much faster speed after removing the email opt-in from sumome and using a smaller plugin that does not have external server requests.

Excellent!

thanks for sharing :)

you're welcome Jude!

I only use a few of plugins.

smart, when people ask how many it really is not an easy answers. How many can some one use to get the functionality without slowing down their site. super meta answer lol

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