Learn how to instantly increase your website profits with my how to guide. Did you know a 1 second delay in loading time leads to a 7% decrease in conversion?

1. mat t hewwoodward.co.uk
http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/site-speed-is-money-how-i-earnt-30587-in-6-hours/
Matthew Woodward
Site Speed Is Money – How I Earnt $30,587 In 6 Hours
Site Speed Is Money – How I Earnt $30,587 In 6 Hours
Your slow website is costing you more money than you think.
A one second delay in load time decreases conversions by 7%!
But what does that actually translate into f or this blog specif ically?
Let’s take a look at the conversion loss calculator to measure how much money the blog is missing out on
every day because of page-load times.
I suggest you do it f or your own site as well!

2. Woah! So reducing site speed by 3 seconds will result in an extra $29,076 per year prof it!
Even if I could reduce it by just a second I can make an extra $8,988 a year!
That’s a whole bunch of money I’m leaving on the table! More than some people earn in a year that I’m throwing
away by not making a f ew simple changes.
There are numerous case studies and reports on how site speed directly inf luences conversion rate.
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How To Measure Site Speed
You can use a couple of f ree tools to measure the speed of your site f rom various locations.
WebPageTest.org – This has a huge amount of locations and browser choices.
Pingdom – A much simpler / lightweight approach to testing your site speed.
I actually use both tools to measure my sites speed. I use WebPageTest af ter each optimisation step to
ensure I haven’t increased the load time by mistake and I use Pingdom bef ore and af ter the speed optimisation

3. is complete.
You also need to consider where your audience is located – f or the most part my readers are USA/UK based
with India taking the 3rd spot so I made sure I measured the site speed f rom each of those locations.
How To Make Your Site Load Faster
So now you know how slow your website is and how much money your losing everyday it’s time to f ix that!
Here is my original Pingdom test-
And here is the same test, f rom the same location af ter my optimisation-
I reduced my load time by 4.37 seconds to just half a second which puts me at least $29,076 better of f this
year.
Not bad f or a day’s work!
So let’s take a look at exactly what I did to achieve that and precisely how each step af f ected load time.
Testing Details
For the purpose of the granular testing af ter making each change I used WebPageTest.org.
The reason f or this is because it allows me to test f rom more locations with dif f erent browsers and run 5
tests back to back to get an ‘average’ result.

4. I decided to monitor how my changes af f ected 3 key pages of the site-
The home page
A tutorial post
A f orum post
Original Performance
Bef ore we start the test let’s measure how each of the 3 pages currently perf orm.
Page Miami London Delhi
Home 5.682s 5.121s 7.022s
Tutorial 7.974s 9.682s 9.127s
Forum 5.802s 5.583s 6.728s
Update WordPress & Plugins
The f irst step in my speed optimisation was to update to the latest version of WordPress and update all of the
plugins.
Always make a backup of your site bef ore doing this or making any other changes to your site.
To perf orm the updates just click on Dashboard > Updates and f ollow the instructions
Time Saved
Page Miami Time Saving London Time Saving Delhi Time Saving
Home 5.293s -0.389s 4.772s -0.349s 6.492s -0.530s
Tutorial 7.799s -0.175s 8.173s -1.509s 9.127s -0.103s
Forum 5.894s +0.092s 5.594s +0.011s 6.520s -0.208s
Well that took about 60 seconds to do and already the site is loading 0.35 seconds f aster on average across
all of the tests.
Just another 0.65 seconds towards the f irst 1 second goal which is worth $8,988 to me!
WPEngine
Next I decided it was time to move away f rom my cheap shared hosting to a much more robust and
prof essional host.

5. Af ter a lot of research and reading I settled on WPEngine.com – WordPress & speed is their specialty.
They have some f antastic f eatures such as a CDN, automatic daily backups, one click backup/restore,
separate ‘staging’ area to test changes without af f ecting the live site and a bunch of other stuf f .
They have their own custom written hardware based caching system so there is no need f or separate caching
plugins like W3 Total Cache f or example.
The servers run Nginx which is much f aster than Apache and resources scale based on demand so your site
never slows down even if it hits big spikes of traf f ic.
And last but not least, they were providing near instant support on Christmas Day!
But how did the move af f ect the load time of the site?
Time Saved

6. Page Miami Time Saving London Time Saving Delhi Time Saving
Home 3.888s -1.405s 4.166s -0.606s 5.646s -0.846s
Tutorial 6.788s -1.011s 4.527s -3.646s 7.304s -1.720s
Forum 4.764s -1.130s 4.966s -0.628s 5.82s -0.700s
WOW! – That’s an average saving of 1.299 seconds!
Just a 1 second improvement is worth $8,988 a year, so a 1.299 second improvement is worth about $11,600!
Not bad f or a $29 per month investment & it took less than an hour to move my blog over to WPEngine!
Total Time Saved – 1.649 seconds
Total Extra Income – $14,821
Content Delivery Network
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) helps speed up your site by making sure things like your CSS and image f iles
are mirrored all over the world.
So when someone in India requests your webpage they connect to a local server in India making things nice
and f ast!
This is a great way to ensure your site loads quickly no matter where the user is in the world!
It costs an extra $19.95 per month with WPEngine on their cheapest package and is included f ree of charge on
all others.
Time Saved
Page Miami Time Saving London Time Saving Delhi Time Saving
Home 3.476s -0.412s 3.762s -0.404s 5.040s -0.606s
Tutorial 6.237s -0.551s 4.258s -0.269s 6.439s -0.865s
Forum 4.204s -0.560s 4.133s -0.833s 5.378s -0.442s
So with the CDN enabled we managed to shave an extra 0.549 seconds of f the load time! So f ar so good and
that takes us past the 2 second savings goal!
Total Time Saved – 2.198 seconds
Total Extra Income – $20,840
Remove Facebook Comments
I have thought about removing the Facebook comments system quite a lot recently f or a number of reasons.
Originally I used Facebook comments with the intention of them driving extra traf f ic f rom Facebook, Social
activity and adding a bit more ‘authenticity’ to the blog.
However a lot of you guys get put of f leaving a comment as you tend to like maintaining a separate personal
and business lif e.

7. Secondly the comments section is a key area f or conversion when setup correctly but I haven’t got round to
making those changes just yet.
So Facebook comments were removed and I used this plugin (enable it then open every page on your site) to
copy all of the comments f rom Facebook into my WordPress comments database so I didn’t lose any of them.
Time Saved
Page Miami Time Saving London Time Saving Delhi Time Saving
Home 3.105s -0.371s 3.401s -0.361s 4.879s -0.161s
Tutorial 5.070s -1.167s 4.001s -0.257s 6.027s -0.412s
Forum 3.924s -0.280s 3.928s -0.205s 5.104s -0.274s
That makes f or yet another average saving of 0.387 seconds!
So in ef f ect having Facebook comments on my site was actually costing me roughly $3,700 a year f or the
sacrif ice in page load time.
So much f or them being ‘f ree’ to use!
Total Time Saved – 2.585 seconds
Total Extra Income – $24,598
Nearly at the 3 second goal now!
Code Optimisation
Now it is important f or me to point out that I suck at coding in a big way. So with that in mind someone that
knows how to write code could probably have done a much better job.
Anyway the aim of the game here is reduce the total size of the page, the number of HTTP requests and to
make sure Javascript is loaded asynchronously so it doesn’t block the rest of the page f rom loading.
Here is precisely what I did-
1. Plugin CSS – All CSS that was dynamically inserted by plugins was moved to the themes stylesheet
using this tutorial.
2. Plugin Javascript – Exactly the same step as above but f or the Javascript (I did a particularly poor job
on this)
3. Async Java Loading – I made sure Javascript was loaded asynchronously and updated social media
sharing buttons. You could probably use this plugin and this one.
4. Optimised Javascript/CSS – I used this site and this one. Although this plugin might work f or you.
5. Google JQuery – I loaded JQuery f rom Google
6. Unused Plugins – I deleted all unused plugins
7. Removed Analytics – I was running Google Analytics, Statcounter & Clicktale – I removed Statcounter
and Clicktale
8. Optimise Database – I ran WP Optimize to make sure the database was as lean as it could be.

8. Time Saved
Page Miami Time Saving London Time Saving Delhi Time Saving
Home 2.943s -0.162s 3.250s -0.151s 4.445s -0.434s
Tutorial 3.395s -1.675s 3.828s -0.173s 5.598s -0.429s
Forum 3.768s -0.156s 3.921s -0.007s 4.974s -0.130s
So all of that comes out to an average saving of 0.368 seconds adding another f ew thousands dollars onto
the annual total.
I’m sure someone that knows what they are doing could do much better though! I plan on hiring someone to
perf orm this step once I have f inished tweaking the blog to my liking the coming weeks.
I have already made some changes that have undone parts of my code optimisation.
Total Time Saved – 2.953 seconds
Total Extra Income – $28,072
Image Optimisation
You can usually reduce the f ile sizes of images substantially without sacrif icing on quality. This will mean users
have to download less data each time they hit your page.
First of all I downloaded my entire site and ran it through the JPEG Reducer which is a great piece of f ree
sof tware. Once that was done I uploaded all the f iles.
Then I installed WP Smush.it to bulk compress again to ensure maximum savings were made.
Once you have ran the Smush.it plugin please disable and remove it, leaving it enabled actually slows your site
down!
Time Saved
Page Miami Time Saving London Time Saving Delhi Time Saving
Home 2.835s -0.108s 2.912s -0.338s 4.292s -0.153s
Tutorial 3.192s -0.203s 3.814s -0.014s 5.344s -0.254s
Forum 3.516s -0.252s 3.697s -0.224s 4.688s -0.286s
With all of the images optimised that amounts to a f urther saving of 0.203 seconds on average which takes us
past our 3 second goal!
Total Time Saved – 3.156 seconds
Total Extra Income – $30,587
Wrapping It Up
So in just 6 hours with a f ew simple changes I was able to shave 3.156 seconds off the average load time of
the site which will results in an extra $30,587 profit because of the increase in conversion rate this will bring.

9. Not bad f or 6 hours work huh?
The biggest change came with the move to WPEngine and enabling the CDN service which took less than an
hour!
Those changes on their own accounted f or an 1.848 second improvement which is worth roughly $17,910 to
my bottom line prof its per year.
Granted my hosting now costs $48.95 per month instead of $0.99 per month but I think I can swallow that
expense
That only leaves one thing to do – a little jiggy dance in celebration!
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Page by Page Summary
For all you data geeks check out how each change af f ected each pages load time step by step.
Homepage
Miami Time Saving London Time Saving Delhi Time Saving
Original 5.682s - 5.121s - 7.022s -
Update WordPress 5.293s -0.389s 4.772s -0.349s 6.492s -0.530s
WPEngine 3.888s -1.405s 4.166s -0.606s 5.646s -0.846s
CDN 3.476s -0.412s 3.762s -0.404s 5.040s -0.606s
Facebook Comments 3.105s -0.371s 3.401s -0.361s 4.879s -0.161s
Code Optimisation 2.943s -0.162s 3.250s -0.151s 4.445s -0.434s
Image Optimisation 2.835s -0.108s 2.912s -0.338s 4.292s -0.153s
Tutorial Page
Miami Time Saving London Time Saving Delhi Time Saving
Original 7.974s - 9.682s - 9.127s -
Update WordPress 7.799s -0.175s 8.173s -1.509s 9.024s -0.103s
WPEngine 6.788s -1.011s 4.527s -3.646s 7.304s -1.720s
CDN 6.237s -0.551s 4.258s -0.269s 6.439s -0.865s
Facebook Comments 5.070s -1.167s 4.001s -0.257s 6.027s -0.412s
Code Optimisation 3.395s -1.675s 3.828s -0.173s 5.598s -0.429s
Image Optimisation 3.192s -0.203s 3.814s -0.014s 5.344s -0.254s

10. Forum Post
Miami Time Saving London Time Saving Delhi Time Saving
Original 5.802s - 5.583s - 6.728s -
Update WordPress 5.894s -0.092s 5.594s -0.011s 6.520s -0.208s
WPEngine 4.764s -1.130s 4.966s -0.628s 5.820s -0.700s
CDN 4.204s -0.560s 4.133s -0.833s 5.378s -0.442s
Facebook Comments 3.924s -0.280s 3.928s -0.205s 5.104s -0.274s
Code Optimisation 3.768s -0.156s 3.921s -0.007s 4.974s -0.130s
Image Optimisation 3.516s -0.252s 3.697s -0.224s 4.688s -0.286s