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Unlocking the Secrets: Diagnosing the Slowdowns in WordPress

May 18, 2023 in Latest News, Shinjiru All, Shinjiru Tip Sharing by Nadhira ZA


WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, powering more than 40% of all websites on the internet. However, despite its popularity, some users may experience slow loading times and performance issues. In this blog, we will explore some of the common reasons why WordPress websites can be slow and provide solutions to improve its speed.

In this blog, we will delve deeper into these issues and provide actionable tips on how to optimise your WordPress website for speed and better user experience. By implementing these strategies, you can significantly improve your website’s loading times, which in turn, can improve your website’s search engine rankings, user engagement, and overall success.

Let’s dive deep into this topic. 


What Makes WordPress Slow?

WordPress’s slowness is a major point of contention for several web developers. That may have been the case in the past, but it is no longer happening. Today, a lot of major brands host their websites using WordPress.

The performance of your WordPress site, however, can be impacted by a variety of things. The following are a few of the most typical:

  • Poorly optimised images and videos: Large file sizes, uncompressed images, and unoptimized videos can significantly slow down a website’s loading times.
  • Outdated WordPress software, themes, and plugins: Running outdated versions of WordPress core, themes, and plugins can cause security vulnerabilities and slow down website performance.
  • Insufficient hosting resources: Limited bandwidth, inadequate server resources, and using shared hosting can cause slow loading times and poor website performance.
  • Bloated or poorly coded themes and plugins: Using themes and plugins with excessive code, unnecessary features, or poor coding practices can slow down a website.
  • Database issues: A bloated database with too many unnecessary revisions, spam comments, or expired transient options can slow down a website’s performance.
  • External scripts and resources: Excessive use of external scripts and resources, such as social media widgets, advertisements, and tracking codes, can slow down a website’s loading times.

By addressing these issues and implementing optimization techniques, such as image compression, caching, using a content delivery network (CDN), and minimising external requests, you can significantly improve your website’s loading times and overall performance.


How to Tell Whether Your WordPress Website Is Slow?

Conducting tests on your website is an excellent method to find out what’s slowing it down, whether it’s the website, your web host, or both. Let’s go over various tests you may run on websites.

Step #1 – Measure your website’s loading time

Use an online speed testing tool like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to measure your website’s loading time. These tools will also provide suggestions to improve your website’s speed.

Step #2 – Monitor server response time

Use a server monitoring tool like New Relic or Server Density to track your server’s response time, CPU usage, and other vital metrics. This can help you identify server-related issues that may affect your website’s performance.

Step #3 – Analyse your website’s traffic

Use Google Analytics to analyse your website’s traffic, bounce rate, and session duration. A high bounce rate and low engagement may indicate that your website is slow.

Step #4 – Check your website’s plugins and themes

Deactivate all plugins and switch to the default WordPress theme to see if your website’s speed improves. If it does, reactivate each plugin and theme one at a time to identify the culprit.

Step #5 – Optimise your images

Use an image optimization plugin like WP Smush or ShortPixel to compress your images and reduce their file size. 

Step #6 – Use caching

Use a caching plugin like W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket to cache your website’s content and improve its loading time.

Step #7 – Minimise external requests

Minimise the number of external requests your website makes, such as social media widgets, advertisements, and tracking codes. This can significantly improve your website’s loading time.

By following these steps, you can determine whether your WordPress site is slow and take the necessary steps to improve its speed and performance.


Tips to Fix a Slow Website

Here are some tips to fix a slow website:

  • Optimise images: Large images can significantly slow down your website’s loading time. Optimise images by compressing them to reduce their file size without affecting their quality. You can use image optimization tools or plugins like WP Smush or ShortPixel.
  • Use caching: Caching temporarily stores your website’s content in the user’s browser, reducing the time it takes to load the next time they visit. Use a caching plugin like W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket to implement caching on your website.
  • Minimise external requests: Reduce the number of external requests your website makes, such as social media widgets, advertisements, and tracking codes. These can significantly slow down your website’s loading time.
  • Upgrade your hosting plan: Slow website speed can also be caused by an inadequate hosting plan. Consider upgrading your hosting plan to a faster one or switch to a reliable web hosting provider.
  • Minimise HTTP requests: Reduce the number of HTTP requests your website makes by minifying your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This can be achieved using plugins like WP Minify or Better WordPress Minify.

By following these tips, you can significantly improve your website’s speed and performance, providing a better user experience for your visitors.


Conclusion

There are several processes involved in speeding up a WordPress site, but it shall not be a problem. Your SEO, user experience, and conversion rates will all improve with a fast site. Also, everyone likes a website that loads quickly!

We advise that you solve every problem mentioned in this post before switching to a new web host. And if you do decide to change, be sure the new host has the tools and assistance you need to make the investment worthwhile.

You know where to find a good WordPress hosting service provider here, in Malaysia! Shinjiru offers you 84x faster litespeed technology and free Cloudflare CDN/DNS for any package you subscribed to. 

Visit our page for more info.

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