10 Tips for Optimising WordPress (You Won't Believe What #6 Is!) Presented by Andrew Marks at the Brisbane Northside WordPress Meetup on 13th June 2018.

1. 10 Tips for Optimising WordPress
(You Won’t Believe What #6 Is!)

2. Why Speed is Important
• Google use PageSpeed as a ranking indicator
• A visitor decides in 3 second whether they
want to wait for your page to load or not

4. 1. Compress Images
• The bulk of most sites is made up of images
• The smaller (in Kb) the image, the faster to load
• Resize the image dimensions to the size it will
display in browser

5. (results “out of the box” with no change to default settings)

6. 2. Compress Website Files
Minify, Combine & Enable gzip Compression
Use a plugin:
• WP Rocket
• W3 Total Cache
Or add code to .htaccess / nginx.conf file
Compressed code is faster code. Enabling gzip compression (a standard compression
algorithm) in WordPress can reduce site load time by over 300%.

7. 3. Use a Caching Plugin
A caching plugin can enhance page speed by up to
300% by pre-loading common page elements and
database queries, as well as compressing essential
files.
• WP Super Cache
• W3 Total Cache

8. 4. Leverage Browser Caching
Browser caching prevents images and content
from reloading fresh each time a user revisits
your site.
• WP Rocket plugin
• Or add code to .htaccess / nginx.conf file

9. 5. Minimise External Scripts
If you’re loading scripts and content from a
third-party website, you don’t have total control
over how quickly your site loads.
• Facebook Like box / Instagram feed
• Use GTMetrix / Pingdom Speed test

10. 6. Use a CDN
A CDN refers to a network of proxy servers that are spread across
the world. Each server contains a copy of your website, which
can be used to
deliver your content
more quickly to users all
over the globe.

11. 7. Keep Your Database Clean
• Optimise database
• Clean up post revisions
• Empty Trash
• Moderate / Delete comments

12. 8. Themes & Plugins
• Disable plugins you aren’t using
• Delete unused themes & plugins
• Cut down on the number of plugins
• Keep everything up to date

13. 9. Reduce Redirects
Every time one page redirects to another, users have to
wait. Every redirect removed will make pages load faster.
Server-side redirects are faster than client-side redirects
and are also cacheable. However, it’s best to eliminate
redirects that are not absolutely necessary

14. 10. Activate AMP
Google’s AMP project is meant to give the web a
necessary speed boost. It’s not hard to
implement, and it will speed up your mobile
site.
• AMP plugin
• Glue for Yoast SEO & AMP plugin

15. Also…
• Use a quality web host
• Use http2
• Switch to php7
• Avoid inline CSS