Top ways to optimize a wordpress website

Since its release in 2003, WordPress has become the most popular website management and blogging platform on the internet which has helped lots of businesses to flourish so far. Though WordPress does provide a platform it cannot generate traffic on its own which is why it is necessary to optimize our website from time to time to ensure traffic flow for the site owner and hassle-free experience for the customer.

Today speed is everything and if a website takes forever to load, it will surely lose its customers as they will opt for other faster options available and believe me, there are tons of them out there. To maintain the flow of traffic, here are a few ways to help with your WordPress SEO Optimization:

1. Using a good host- the first and generally the most neglected mistake we make is using the web host which is slow (not intentionally just because we never considered it important). A website can never load fast if it is provided by a host using slow servers. Research thoroughly before selecting a web host.
2. Fast WordPress theme- Select a theme which is lightweight, doesn’t use multiple and unnecessary additional plugins or use large size images which will greatly affect the loading time. If you are a beginner stick to the default WordPress themes which are fast, light in weight and easily customizable.
3. Maintaining plugins timely- another major roadblock in your otherwise Fastlane WordPress loading page is using lots of unnecessary plugins which you might think will make your website look more attractive but in reality, will slow it down by downloading useless links thus increasing loading time.
4. Replacing PHP with HTML- it is a small step but goes a long way in helping optimization of your website. Wherever possible, do replace the existing PHP coding with the HTML one as it is simple and fast (approx. 20 times) and loads the webpage much faster compared to the heavy PHP coding.
5. Optimizing images- images are essential as they provide a break from long texts which gets pretty boring otherwise, but they also affect the loading time so it's Important to optimize them to enhance loading speed. One way of doing it is converting GIFs to PNG format or stripping metadata from JPEGs.
6. Enabling cache- install a plugin which enables cache which can greatly reduce your loading time as the servers then use cached copies of your previously downloaded pages. Trust me, it will greatly reduce your loading time.
7. Reducing revisions- posting an article on the website is not always final and sometimes it requires an updating from time to time, your servers autosave all those previous posts creating piles of junk which eventually wear down your server if not checked regularly. So it’s always better to remove any older versions of your articles thus saving precious time.
8. Emptying trash bin regularly- what’s the point of deleting all those useless texts, spams, reviews and comments if they are still there in your WordPress Trash System weighing you down. So it is always beneficial to empty your trash bin from time to time.
9. Enabling Gzip Compression- another way of ensuring your WordPress website doesn’t take longer to download is to enable Gzip compression which will reduce the file size by compressing it up to 30% without compromising with the quality.

Optimizing your WordPress website is important for anyone be it a business or a hobby based, it depends on keeping track of small details and a bit of patience but if handled carefully, it will take you through the long way in placing your site among the top options.

Paul Henry is an experienced professional in the field of Internet Marketing and currently associated with a web design company Los Angeles, California.