Everyone wants a fast loading website. It is critical for both user experiences and for Google Search Rankings.
Tip # 1:
Don’t use cheap shared hosting. Our recommendation for Australian websites with Australian users is to use fast Australian based web hosting.
At WPGet we use dedicated servers based in Sydney for ultra-fast results.
Tip #2:
Optimise images. Oversized and poorly optimised images are the number 1 reason for slow loading web pages. Preferably, size images should only as big as they need to be and optimised before uploading. There are also WordPress plugins that will do automated optimisation after images are uploaded.
Our preference is to use PhotoShop to get the best quality images at the smallest sizes. For a WordPress plugin, we recommend ShortPixel.
Tip #3:
Use a good Caching system. Content Management Systems like WordPress construct pages from template files and database records, this takes time to do The more complex the pages, the longer it takes. Good caching constructs the pages before users access them so they are ready to go. This makes a big difference to page speed.
Our preference is WP Rocket, which we provide free of charge to all of our clients. WP Rocket is a leading Cache and Optimisation plugin which is easy to use and works extremely well.
Tip #4:
Simple design. Complex designs with a lot of images, features animations etc. will generally be slower and will not score well with page speed measurement tools. Home pages can still be attractive and have interesting content, as long as the user experience and speed is good. Most other pages should be lean and fast.
We keep this concept in mind when building sites. Everyone wants an attractive/fancy home page and it does matter. However, keeping animations and large images to a minimum on other pages will help with Google rankings.
Tip #5:
Load pages assets from Australia. For Australian websites visited by Australian users, we have found that loading all assets directly from the same fast server gives the best results. Australia has a relatively poor internet latency/delay to the rest of the world.
With our servers in Sydney, we find that Images, Fonts, JavaScripts etc. load much faster directly from our servers than they do from CDNs or overseas services.
Bonus Tip:
Use as few plugins as you can. The more plugins you use, the more work WordPress needs to do to construct your pages, and the slower it gets. Using good quality and fewer plugins will make your websites faster and more reliable.
We purchase “Agency” licenses for a comprehensive set of very good plugins, which we provide for free to our clients. For most websites, it is rare to need any more plugins.
