Why Is WordPress So Slow?

Don’t Panic!

You’re probably reading this because you have a WordPress site that runs at a snail’s pace on the front end, and your admin team struggles to open pages in the CMS. To crudely borrow from Goldie Looking Chain, “WordPress Doesn’t Make Slow Websites; People Do”.

When we took over Headmasters.com in 2018, some pages took 10 seconds to load, and the site had amassed over 80 plug-ins. Another site we looked at recently (and will remain nameless) had over 120 plug-ins!

How does this happen?

It tends to fall into two routes:

• The site was built on a budget by someone who just installed plug-ins as they didn’t know how to code.
• The site was built professionally and then handed over to a succession of admins and freelancers who just installed plug-ins as they didn’t know how to code. (Tip: Website owners should limit admin access to admins who know what they are doing.)

There is a theme (excuse the pun) here. WordPress success is down to its ease of use, but this also breeds complacency. Hopefully, our guide will help.

Introduction

Website speed is not just a technical metric; it’s a critical factor that directly influences the user experience, conversion rates, and search engine rankings. Think of it as the digital equivalent of a first impression. Users expect a fast and seamless experience when clicking a link or entering a web address. If your website takes too long time to load, that initial impression can quickly turn sour, resulting in high bounce rates and lost opportunities.

Our guide aims to help you uncover why you might have a slow WordPress website and, more importantly, how to transform it into a high-speed, responsive online platform. We’ll delve into the intricacies of website speed optimisation, explore the intricacies of WordPress hosting, themes, and plugins, and learn about best practices for optimising images, reducing HTTP requests, and streamlining database operations.

The stakes are high in the online world. A slow website can lead to decreased user engagement, abandoned shopping carts, and diminished credibility. Furthermore, search engines like Google consider website speed a critical ranking factor. In other words, if your WordPress site is sluggish, it could be losing out on organic traffic and higher search engine visibility.

So, join us as we unravel the mysteries of WordPress speed, debunk common myths, and equip you with actionable strategies to improve your website’s speed, enhance the overall user experience, and bolster your SEO rankings. Fasten your seatbelts; we’ll journey towards a faster, more responsive WordPress website.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) that powers millions of websites worldwide. Its user-friendly interface and extensive customisation options make it a top choice for bloggers, businesses, and developers.

It comes in two flavours WordPress.com and WordPress.org, this article mainly applies to WordPress.org, but there is some overlap.

What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?

Aspect	WordPress.org (Self-Hosted)	WordPress.com (Hosted)
Control	Full control over your website	Limited customisation options
Customisation	Highly customisable	Limited themes and plugins
Ownership	You own your website and data	Less control over data
Hosting	Requires separate web hosting	Hosting included in plans
Technical Knowledge	Requires technical expertise	Beginner-friendly setup
Hosting Costs	Pay for hosting and domain	Included in plans or free
Responsibility	Responsible for backups, security, updates	Updates and security handled by WordPress.com
Monetisation	Unlimited monetisation options	Restrictions on lower-tier plans
Branding	No WordPress.com branding	WordPress.com branding on free plan
Data Ownership	Full ownership of data	Limited control over data
Support	Community support and resources	Access to WordPress.com customer support
Time-Consuming	Can be time-intensive	Easier and quicker setup

Importance of Website Speed

Website speed is crucial for various reasons, directly impacting user experience, business success, and search engine rankings. Here’s why website speed is so important:

1. User Experience: A fast site encourages engagement and a positive user experience.
2. First Impressions: Page speed impacts brand credibility and professionalism.
3. Conversion Rates: Speed directly boosts conversions and business growth.
4. Mobile Experience: Mobile speed is crucial with rising device use.
5. SEO Ranking: Speed improves search rankings, driving organic traffic.
6. Reduced Bounce Rate: Slow sites lead to higher bounce rates, impacting search rankings.
7. Competitive Edge: Faster sites differentiate and attract and retain visitors.
8. User Retention: Speed fosters user loyalty, which is vital for long-term success.

Factors Causing a Slow WordPress Site

Hosting Quality

Your choice of hosting provider plays a pivotal role in website speed. Shared hosting plans may be budget-friendly but can lead to slower loading times due to resource sharing. A managed or VPS hosting plan will offer the best way to improve speed and reliability.

Bloated Themes and Plugins

Off-the-shelf themes and plugins, readily available for use in WordPress, are a double-edged sword. While they offer convenience and functionality, they can also contribute to slowing down your WordPress website. Let’s explore in detail why these pre-made themes and plugins can have such an impact:

1. Code Bloat: Many off-the-shelf themes and plugins have extensive codebases to cater to diverse needs, increasing website file size and loading times.
2. Unused Features: Off-the-shelf themes/plugins offer many features, but only some are needed, causing unnecessary overhead as the entire codebase loads.
3. JavaScript and CSS Files: Themes/plugins load their scripts and styles, leading to more HTTP requests and slower page load times.
4. Database Queries: Poorly optimised database queries by plugins can slow down site performance, accumulating with more plugin usage.
5. Security Risks: Using poorly coded or outdated themes/plugins can expose your site to vulnerabilities, risking performance and security.
6. Dependency on Third-Party Servers: Some plugins rely on external servers, affecting site speed and functionality if they experience downtime.
7. Lack of Optimization: Off-the-shelf solutions need more fine-tuned optimisation for optimal performance than custom-built ones.

Theme & Plug-in Strategies

To mitigate the impact of off-the-shelf themes and plugins on your WordPress website’s speed, consider the following strategies:

• Select Lightweight Themes: Choose themes prioritising speed and efficiency, even with fewer features. Customisation can fill in functionality gaps.
• Use Plugins Sparingly: Only install essential plugins for your website’s functionality. Regularly review and deactivate or remove unused plugins.
• Optimise Scripts and Styles: Minify and combine JavaScript and CSS files to reduce the number of HTTP requests. Use caching to store these files locally for faster loading.
• Regularly Update: Keep your themes and plugins up to date to benefit from performance improvements and security patches.
• Consider Custom Development: For critical components of your website, consider custom development to ensure optimal performance and compatibility.

By understanding why off-the-shelf themes and plugins can slow down WordPress, you can make informed decisions about which ones to use and take steps to optimise your site’s performance.

Unoptimised Images

Optimising images and adopting new web formats are essential strategies for improving website speed and performance. Let’s delve into both aspects to provide valuable insights:

Optimising Images:

1. Choose the Right Format: Select the appropriate image format for your use case. The most common formats are JPEG, PNG, and GIF. Use JPEG for photographs and images with many colours, PNG for images with transparency or crisp graphics, and GIF for simple animations.
2. Resize Images: Scale images to the dimensions needed for your website. Large images displayed at smaller sizes still load the entire file, wasting bandwidth and increasing loading times.
3. Compress Images: Utilize image compression tools or plugins to reduce file sizes without significantly compromising image quality. This is especially important for JPEG and PNG images.
4. Enable Browser Caching: Set up browser caching to temporarily store images on the user’s device. This way, returning visitors don’t need to re-download the same images, improving load times.
5. Implement Lazy Loading: Lazy loading defers the loading of images until they enter the user’s viewport. This reduces the initial page load time, as only visible images are fetched initially.
6. Serve Images via Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): CDNs distribute your images across multiple servers worldwide, delivering them from the nearest server to the user. This reduces latency and speeds up image loading.
7. Use Responsive Images: Implement responsive design techniques, such as srcset and sizes attributes in HTML, to serve different image sizes based on the user’s device and screen resolution.
8. Optimise Alt Text: Include descriptive alt text for images. This not only helps with accessibility but also ensures that even if images don’t load, users still understand their context.
9. Image Format Conversion: Consider using modern image formats like WebP, which offers better compression and quality than traditional formats. However, ensure browser compatibility by providing fallbacks for unsupported browsers.

New Web Formats:

The above formats have been around for years, but there are new kids on the block that are well-supported and offer significant advantages.

New Web Formats	Best Uses	Replacing Old Formats
WebP	Web images with good compression and quality	JPEG, PNG
AVIF	High-compression web images	JPEG, PNG
WebM and VP9	Video content	Older video formats
SVG	Logos, icons, and simple graphics	Raster image formats
Brotli Compression	Compression of HTML, CSS, JavaScript	Gzip, Deflate
WebAssembly (Wasm)	High-performance web applications, games	JavaScript
HTTP/2 and HTTP/3	Faster data transfer and improved page loads	HTTP/1.1
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)	Enhanced user experiences	Traditional websites

By optimising images and embracing new web formats, you can significantly boost your website’s performance, reduce loading times, and provide a smoother and more enjoyable experience for your visitors. Keeping up with the latest web technologies and best practices is essential in today’s digital landscape.

Excessive HTTP Requests

Each element on your webpage, including scripts, stylesheets, and images, requires an HTTP request to load. Minimise these requests by combining and minifying files, reducing the number of external resources, and using browser caching.

Database Optimization

WordPress uses a relational database management system (RDBMS), typically MySQL, to store its data. This database-centric approach worked well for WordPress’s original purpose as a blogging platform. However, as WordPress evolved into a full-fledged content management system (CMS) capable of powering complex websites, it faced challenges in efficiently storing and managing data beyond simple blog posts. Here’s some historical insight into this issue and how other data tables can be used to address it:

Historic Data Storage in WordPress:

1. Core Tables: WordPress relies on core database tables like wp_posts, wp_postmeta, and wp_options to store various data types. The wp_posts table primarily stores posts, while the wp_postmeta stores post metadata—the wp_options table stores site options and configurations.
2. Custom Post Types: WordPress introduced custom post types to accommodate different types of content. However, these custom post types still use the same underlying data structure, which can become cumbersome when dealing with complex content structures.
3. Taxonomies and Terms: WordPress introduced taxonomies (categories and tags) to organise content. While they work well for organizing posts, they may need to be more suitable for complex data relationships.

Challenges with Storing Complex Data:

1. Limited Schema Flexibility: WordPress’s traditional database schema is optimised for posts and basic content types. Storing more complex data structures, such as e-commerce product catalogues, event schedules, or membership databases, can be challenging within the confines of this schema.
2. Performance Issues: As data becomes more complex and tables grow, performance issues may arise. Complex queries can lead to slow database responses, impacting the overall site speed.
3. Data Integrity: Ensuring data integrity can be challenging, especially when dealing with complex relationships. Relying solely on custom post types and taxonomies may provide a different data structure.

Using Other Data Tables:

To address the limitations of WordPress’s default data storage mechanisms, developers often resort to alternative approaches:

1. Custom Database Tables: Creating custom database tables allows developers to design data structures tailored to their needs. For example, an e-commerce plugin might use separate tables for products, orders, and customer information. This approach provides better control over data and queries.
2. External Databases: In some cases, external databases, such as NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB) or cloud-based solutions, can be beneficial for managing complex data. These databases offer scalability and flexibility that traditional RDBMS may lack.
3. Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) Tools: ORM tools like “wpdb” in WordPress enable developers to work with database tables and queries more efficiently. They can help abstract the complexities of database interactions.
4. Caching: Implementing caching mechanisms, such as Redis or Memcached, can help alleviate database load and improve performance, especially when dealing with complex data.
5. Data Serialization: Developers often serialise data into a single database field for storing complex data within existing WordPress tables. While this approach is useful for certain use cases, it can simplify data querying and manipulation.

In summary, WordPress’s historical data storage and update mechanisms were designed for simplicity and blogging but may only partially accommodate the requirements of complex data structures. To overcome these limitations, developers have employed custom tables, external databases, ORM tools, and other strategies to manage and organise complex data. This ensures that WordPress remains adaptable to various website types and purposes.

Caching Strategies

Caching strategies are crucial for optimising website performance, reducing server load, and delivering faster loading times to users. Cloudflare, a content delivery network (CDN), is a powerful tool that can enhance caching and improve website speed. Let’s explore caching strategies and the use of Cloudflare:

Caching Strategies:

1. Page Caching: This strategy involves storing entire HTML pages as static files and serving them to users. When a user requests a page, the server can deliver the cached HTML instead of dynamically generating it. Page caching significantly reduces server load and speeds up page load times—popular WordPress plugins like WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache offer page caching features.
2. Object Caching: Object caching stores frequently used database queries, objects, or API responses in memory. This reduces the need to make repetitive database queries, improving the efficiency of dynamic content generation. Memcached and Redis are commonly used object caching solutions for WordPress.
3. Browser Caching: Browser caching instructs a user’s browser to store certain static assets (like images, stylesheets, and scripts) locally. When the user revisits the website, these assets can be loaded from the local cache instead of requesting them from the server, resulting in faster page rendering.
4. Content Delivery Network (CDN) Caching: CDNs like Cloudflare distribute website assets to multiple data centres worldwide. They cache static assets and serve them from the nearest server to the user, reducing latency and improving load times. CDNs also offer security features, DDoS protection, and SSL encryption.
5. Opcode Caching: Opcode caching stores the compiled bytecode of PHP scripts in memory, allowing them to be executed faster. The popular PHP opcode caching solutions are APCu and OPcache. These tools can dramatically improve the performance of dynamic WordPress websites.
6. Fragment Caching: Fragment caching caches specific parts of a page, such as widgets or sections of content. This is useful for websites with dynamic elements that can’t be entirely cached as static pages.

Using Cloudflare for Caching:

Cloudflare is a CDN and web security service that can greatly enhance caching strategies for WordPress and other websites:

1. Global Content Distribution: Cloudflare caches static assets and content at its network of data centres worldwide. This means your website’s content can be delivered to users from a server that’s geographically closer to them, reducing latency and improving load times.
2. Automatic Caching: Cloudflare automatically caches static assets like images, stylesheets, and JavaScript files. You can configure caching rules in your Cloudflare dashboard to control what gets cached and for how long.
3. Dynamic Content Caching: Cloudflare offers options for caching dynamic content. You can cache HTML content at the edge servers, reducing the load on your origin server and improving response times for dynamic requests.
4. Bypass Cache Rules: Cloudflare allows you to create custom page rules that specify what should or shouldn’t be cached. This level of control helps ensure that specific pages or content remain dynamic.
5. Full Page Caching: Cloudflare’s full page caching feature (“Apo”) allows for advanced HTML caching at the edge. It can significantly improve page load times for logged-out users.
6. Web Application Firewall (WAF): Cloudflare’s WAF offers security protections while still caching content. It can help protect your site from various web threats.
7. HTTPS and SSL: Cloudflare offers free SSL certificates and can handle SSL termination, further optimising security and speed.

By leveraging caching strategies and integrating Cloudflare into your WordPress setup, you can improve website performance, user experience, and security. Properly configured caching can help your WordPress site handle traffic spikes, reduce server load, and deliver content to users worldwide with minimal latency.

Optimising WordPress for Speed

Choosing the Right Hosting

Investing in quality hosting is the first step to a faster WordPress website. Understand where your site will be hosted, data centres in the united states might not make sense for a site that serves the UK. Look for providers known for speed and reliability; a web server with an SD drive might be a good idea, even if it means paying more.

Selecting Lightweight Themes and Plugins

Opt for minimalist themes and plugins that are designed for speed. Avoid themes with excessive features you don’t need, and regularly update your plugins.

Image Compression and Lazy Loading

Use image optimisation plugins to compress and resize images automatically. Implement lazy loading to ensure images load as users scroll down the page. Tools like WP Rocket might help here.

Minimising HTTP Requests

Reduce the number of HTTP requests by optimising code, combining CSS and JavaScript files, and using content delivery networks (CDNs) for static resources.

Database Cleanup and Optimization

Schedule regular database optimisation tasks to remove unnecessary data and keep your database running efficiently.

Implementing Effective Caching

Install a caching plugin like WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache to generate static HTML versions of your pages, reducing server load and speeding up delivery.

Testing and Monitoring WordPress Speed

Tools for Speed Testing

Use online tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to assess your website’s speed. These tools provide insights and suggestions for improvement.

Regular Performance Monitoring

Monitor your website’s speed regularly using performance monitoring plugins. Set up alerts for significant speed drops to take immediate action.

Common Myths About WordPress Speed

Myth 1: WordPress Is Always Slow

WordPress speed depends on various factors, including hosting, themes, and plugins. With the right choices and optimisations, WordPress can be fast.

Myth 2: Premium Themes Are Faster

While premium themes may offer benefits, their speed depends on how well they are coded and configured.

Myth 3: Caching Solves Everything

Caching is essential, but it’s not a panacea. Properly configuring other speed optimisation techniques is equally important. A cache plugin might help, but it may also add complexity to the code.

Conclusion

Speed is not just a luxury; it’s a necessity for modern websites. By addressing the factors that make WordPress slow and implementing effective speed optimisation strategies, you can provide a better user experience, improve your SEO rankings, and ensure your website performs at its best.