Are you a blogger or website owner? are you wondering why is not your blog or site is not performing well in the SEO rankings?
Ever wondered what are the key SEO ranking factors which bring your page in the first page of search results? Do you know page speed is becoming a more important factor especially in Google’s search algorithm? that too for mobile.
And did you try to get better page speed of your blog or site?
Well, there are few simple and important things which affect the overall page load. There are so many good How-to guides out there for achieving the better page speed.
Here we are going to list out, what tools we use for the same purpose. Remember that doing everything keeping performance in mind is better than doing everything first and then trying out everything else for performance.
Let me explain you need to think of performance while selecting Hosting server, WordPress theme, plugins or any other services. Do not select bloated softwares and then sit adding more softwares for tuning the performance.
Here is the list what we use for WordPress Speedup
1. Hosting server
Select a hosting server which is located near to your target region. Ex. if you want to target Indian audience, host your application in India based server.
2. WordPress theme
We always a simple, lightest and highly customizable theme which is Astra WordPress theme. We recommend the same to our readers and customers. It is not only simple but also comes with beautiful ready-made templates based on a Page builders Elementor or Beever Builder.
3. Caching plugin
Caching is essential for every dynamic website, as caching reduce un-necessary calls to back-end i.e. Database for repeated page requests. In our case, we use Swift Performance plugin which comes in both free and premium versions. It has all the necessary features required for performance. It can work like a magic with its default settings itself otherwise with simple tweaks. It is simple to configure and easy to use.
4. Image Optimization
As all say “A picture is worth a thousand words”, but it comes along with a lot of sizes. Image optimization without losing quality comes into play.
There so many ways to optimize images
- Manual method – Optimize them manually and upload – We use Tinypng.com
- Plugin – Swift Performance premium [There is limited lifetime deal is on] has an image optimization feature while uploading an image into a WordPress site.
- Server level – Read this article about optimizing them in bulk.
5. DB Optimization
DB Optimization like Clearing old revisions, deleting trash posts, optimizing tables and re-indexing tables is an essential thing for avoiding the site being bloated. We use Wp-optimize free plugin for Database optimization. There is one section in Swift Performance for this too.
6. Lazy Loading Images
Even after doing Image optimization, there is one more to improve the page speed further, that is Lazy loading. This can be done with some plugins and this feature also comes with swift Performance. That’s why we recommend Swift Performance plugin for our readers and customers.
7. Avoid Bloated/Slow plugins
As you may have observed already, there are so many bloated or say plugins developed without coding standards make your site/server slow. They may use a lot of your server resources. Best, those plugins should be avoided and if required get their alternatives which are faster and lightweight. Read the excellent list of slow plugins and their faster alternatives.
Speed Testing tools
Page speed testing tools
Use performance testing tools for testing the page speed for each tweak or plugin installation to understand the effect. We use GTmetrix. Register for more options, it is free.
Server response testing tools
We use Bitactcha.
We keep learning and keep updating, stay tuned for more.