Despite today’s lightning fast processors & broadband speeds, modern websites are becoming lumbered by dozens of scrips & widgets, slowing our sites down to a snail’s pace.
They might make our websites better but if people are going to leave your site before it loads load there’s no point having them in the first place.
A 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in sales
It doesn’t take long for frustrated searchers to go back to Google and click the next result in the list. So what can you do to speed things up? If you want to improve your Google PageSpeed score & boost your site speed, these plugins are all you’ll need.
5 WordPress plugins to improve website speed:
WP Smush it – Squeeze image file sizes
Images can have a significant effect on your websites load time.
Just sit back and watch this plugin “Smush” your file sizes.
WP Smush it works by automatically reducing the file size of your images when you upload them (without affecting quality).
How much does it cost?
FREE, but if you want to reduce your file sizes even further you can get Smush it Pro
Where can I get it?
Download & install from here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-smushit/
P3 Profiler – Identify slow loading plugins
WordPress plugins can be temperamental things, they might provide a lot of value to you and your website but they can have a serious effect on how fast things run.
Without any way of knowing which plugin is slowing your site down you can waste a lot of time disabling the wrong plugins & losing productivity.
P3 Profiler tells you exactly what plugin is affecting your sites load time & by how much.
When you know this you can either find a more “lightweight” plugin that has less effect on your sites speed, or just go without.
How much does it cost?
FREE
Where can I get it?
Download & install from here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/p3-profiler/
WP Optimizer – Optmize your database for a speed boost
WordPress has a bad habit of storing every historical page or post revision, trash data & data from unused plugins. Over time this can seriously clutter up your WordPress database and impact your sites efficiently.
WP Optimizer is a novice friendly plugin that doesn’t require any server knowledge, just make sure to back up your database first and do everything from within your WordPress dashboard.
How much does it cost?
FREE
Where can I get it?
Download & install from here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-optimize/
W3 Total Cache – Complete Speed Boosting Package!
Every time you visit a web page your browser downloads all of the relevant files & images from the host server onto your computer. With a cache your browser only needs to download these files once.
Every time you visit the site thereafter your browser uses the files you already downloaded, saving a lot of time & resources!
W3 Total Cache is one of the most effective and comprehensive ways to improve website speed.
There’s quite a bit of advanced settings but if you stick to the basic set up you’ll be fine.
How much does it cost?
FREE
Where can I get it?
Download & install from here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/
WP Deferred JavaScripts – Optimize your loading order
Trying to load every widget & plugin in one go can be a slow process; instead you can choose to load the crucial elements first and defer the rest.
For example your social sharing buttons aren’t needed the second people visit your site, so load those last.
WP Deferred JavaScript’s tells the client browser to download scripts and functionality after the “basic visuals” have appeared, keeping visitors engaged & ensuring a smooth, fast experience.
It’s a common recommendation from Google’s PageSpeed Insights & is almost guaranteed to boost your page speed & your relationship with Google 😉
How much does it cost?
FREE
Where can I get it?
Download & install from here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-deferred-javascripts/
There you have it! Try these plugins today and see your site speed increase dramatically!
Hi Oliver,
great article. always I am thinking about how to reduce my webpage size and get better load speed. Here i clearly got each point for my query. thank you for sharing such nice article.