Speed up your website
Summary: Enhance your website’s speed with our in-depth optimization guide. From selecting the right hosting provider to compressing images and enabling caching, we cover all the key steps to ensure fast load times and top-tier performance for your WordPress site.
TL;DR: I cut my WooCommerce site’s load time from 4.3 s to 0.9 s in a weekend. Below is the exact checklist—screenshots, settings, and mistakes included.
If you’re looking to make WordPress website faster, you’re in the right place. Slow load times can hurt your SEO rankings and user experience, but with a few simple tweaks, you can speed up your WordPress website and improve its overall performance
Table of Contents (Make WordPress Website Faster)
- Baseline Speed Test
- Lightweight Hosting First
- Update PHP & WordPress Core
- Trim Heavy Themes & Plugins
- Dial‑In LiteSpeed Cache
- Image Optimization Mastery
- Reduce External Requests
- Critical CSS + Delayed JS
- CDN with Origin Shield
- Cheatsheet & FAQ
Baseline Speed Test
Before you speed up a WordPress site, document LCP, TTFB, and INP in PageSpeed Insights & GTmetrix. Snap screenshots—Rank Math’s Content AI loves original media.
Lightweight Hosting First
I jumped from cheap shared hosting to a LiteSpeed VPS (2 vCPU/2 GB RAM) and chopped 400 ms TTFB instantly. Server speed fixes what no plugin can.
Update PHP & WordPress Core
Switching to PHP 8.3 in cPanel dropped CPU usage by 20 %. Always pair that with the latest WordPress core to plug security holes and unlock performance patches.
Trim Heavy Themes & Plugins
Lighthouse yelling about “unused CSS”? Time to ditch bloat. I replaced a multipurpose giant with GeneratePress and deleted 12 idle plugins—another 600 ms gone.
Dial‑In LiteSpeed Cache (Plugin Recommendation)
LiteSpeed Cache nails server‑level caching plus on‑page optimization which make WordPress website faster.
Quick‑Start Settings
vbnetCopyEditCache → Enable Guest Mode: ON
Page Opt. → CSS/JS Minify: ON
Page Opt. → JS Combine: OFF (safer)
Image Opt. → WebP + Lazy‑Load: ON
QUIC.cloud CDN → HTML Edge Cache: ON
Let the cache warm 24 hours, then retest.
Image Optimization Mastery
- Convert to WebP with ShortPixel (Lossy 80 %)
- Specify width/height to crush CLS
- Bonus CLI for PNGs → WebP: bashCopyEdit
find wp-content/uploads -name "*.png" -exec cwebp -q 80 {} -o {}.webp \;
Payload fell from 3.2 MB to 900 KB.
Reduce External Requests
Self‑host fonts, replace YouTube iframes with preview thumbnails, and preconnect critical domains:
htmlCopyEdit<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>
Result: 12 fewer HTTP requests and a healthier INP.
Critical CSS + Delayed JS
FlyingPress generated above‑the‑fold CSS; non‑essential scripts load after user interaction. LCP plunged from 2.8 s to 1.1 s and this will make WordPress website faster
CDN with Origin Shield
BunnyCDN + Origin Shield sliced global latency by 60 %. If Cloudflare is easier, at least enable APO for HTML edge caching.
Cheatsheet For Make WordPress Website Faster (Copy–Paste)
| Task | Tool |
|---|---|
| Baseline Audit | PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix |
| Hosting | LiteSpeed VPS / Cloud instance |
| PHP | 8.3 |
| Theme | GeneratePress / Astra |
| Cache Plugin | LiteSpeed Cache |
| Image Compression | ShortPixel, WebP |
| Fonts | Self‑host, preconnect |
| CDN | BunnyCDN or Cloudflare APO |
Why LiteSpeed Cache?
| Feature | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| Server‑level caching | Faster than PHP‑based plugins because pages are served before WordPress even loads. |
| Guest Mode & Guest Optimization | Delivers pre‑cached, critical‑CSS‑optimized pages to first‑time visitors—huge for Core Web Vitals. |
| Image & CSS/JS optimization built‑in | WebP conversion, lazy‑load, critical CSS, JS defer/delay—no extra add‑ons required. |
| QUIC.cloud integration | Free global CDN with HTML edge caching when you connect your domain. |
| Granular controls | Toggle everything from browser cache TTLs to database clean‑ups, yet defaults work straight out of the box. |
| Works on non‑LiteSpeed servers | You can still use most features on Apache or NGINX hosts; caching just switches to advanced PHP mode. |
Quick‑Start Settings
- Install & activate LiteSpeed Cache from Plugins ▶ Add New.
- In Cache ▶ Cache, leave defaults on (enable Guest Mode).
- Page Optimization:
- CSS Minify & Combine: ON
- JS Minify: ON, JS Combine: OFF (safer)
- Load JS Deferred: ON
- HTML Minify: ON
- Image Optimization: Request WebP conversion, set Compression to Lossless if you’re cautious.
- QUIC.cloud: Get a free domain key and enable CDN + Image Optimization CDN.
Give it 24 hours to warm the cache, then rerun PageSpeed Insights—you’ll usually see <1 s LCP and a healthy green Core Web Vitals report.
FAQ
Do I need a 100/100 PageSpeed score?
No—focus on LCP < 1.2 s, CLS < 0.1, INP < 200 ms.
Does Elementor slow WordPress?
Yes unless you disable unused widgets and pair it with a lean theme.
How often to purge cache?
After design/content changes; otherwise let LiteSpeed’s smart rules handle it.
