How to speed up a WordPress site: 10 steps that really help

🐢 Why WordPress is often slow

WordPress itself is not slow. It is made slow by a heavy theme with dozens of options, too many plugins, uncompressed images and weak hosting. Every plugin brings code that loads on every page, even when that page does not use it.

🔟 Ten steps

1. Measure before you change. PageSpeed Insights on mobile, and write down the results.
2. Hosting. Modern PHP version, SSD/NVMe disk, HTTP/2 or HTTP/3. Read how to choose hosting.
3. A light theme. Avoid heavy multipurpose themes with built-in page-builder libraries if you do not need them.
4. Fewer plugins. Delete what you do not use, merge functions, avoid duplicates.
5. Images. WebP or AVIF, the right dimension, lazy loading. See web images.
6. Page caching and a long browser cache for static files.
7. Minify and defer CSS and JavaScript not needed straight away.
8. Fonts. Host locally, limit weights or use system fonts.
9. Database. Delete old revisions, spam comments and unused tables.
10. Regular updates of core, theme and plugins with testing.

⚠️ What does not work

• A "speed-up" plugin on top of another "speed-up" plugin.
• Enabling everything a caching plugin offers without testing, which often breaks the site.
• Chasing a number without looking at real experience.

🧪 When it pays to switch

If a site has little content that rarely changes, a hand-coded site can be ten times lighter. Read the comparison in WordPress or a hand-coded website. If you need help, see website maintenance and WordPress website development.