5 Things Slowing Down Your WordPress Website

Three seconds.

That’s the time internet users are willing to wait for your WordPress site to load. If it takes longer, they will move on to another site. If you’re running a business, you’ll lose lots of potential customers and your sales will consequently hit a slump.

The good news is you can always speed up a slow-loading website. But to do that you have to know what’s slowing it down in the first place.

In this article, we’re revealing 5 things slowing down your WordPress site, as well as what you can do to fix them.

Let’s rush into it. Shall we?

The Top Factors Slowing Down Your WordPress Site

There are many factors that contribute to site slowdown. You’ll want to stay on top of these five:

1. The Case of Too Many Plugins

Plugins are apps for websites.

Admit it: Don’t you love trying out different apps on your smartphone? We all do!

Like smartphone owners, website owners, too, have a tendency to try out various plugins. And the fact that there is a plugin for almost anything, from building an email list to managing live chat, makes it worse.

If you’re not careful, you could end up installing more plugins than your WordPress website can handle.

The fix here is simple. Do a plugin audit and uninstall the unnecessary ones.

2. Your Host Is Giving You a Raw Deal

Is your WordPress site self-hosted or on a free platform?

If it’s on a free platform, you need to switch to self-hosted, and for good reason.

For one, who does that in 2018?

Two, you’re hurting your business’ online image. Customers don’t trust business websites on free domains.

If it’s self-hosted, your host could be slowing down your WordPress site.

Hosting service providers come in all shapes and sizes, some costly and others dirt cheap. Because you get what you pay for, choosing a cheap host means you’re signing up for mediocre services, including slow speeds.

Increase your hosting budget and get a reputable web host.

3. Your Site Is Image-Heavy

65 percent of humans are visual learners, so it makes sense to use high-quality images on your WordPress site.

But at what cost?

Large images will slow down your site, especially if the site is on a free domain or the host isn’t up to scratch.

Avoid using large images and optimize them before uploading. This site that stocks surf prints is a good example of WordPress site that utilizes images effectively.

4. Your Site Doesn’t Use a Responsive Design

More people now access the web on their mobile devices than they do on desktops.

If your site is designed with desktop users in mind, then mobile users could be having a difficult time accessing it. Sites that aren’t mobile-friendly take longer to load on mobile devices.

The fix? Adopt a responsive design for your site.

5. You’re Not Using Browser Caching

Every time a user visits your site, their browser downloads scripts, images, scripts and other elements required to render your site.

When you have enabled browser caching, users’ browser will save these elements, so they don’t have to download them during subsequent visits.

This shortens load time. But when browser caching isn’t active, the browser will need to download these elements every time a user visits. This increases load time.