Though Google ranks websites in accordance with over 200 different factors, they have recently announced that page speed will end up an element of those factors. They do claim that page speed will not likely have a large amount of weight in the rankings. However, will still be vital that you pay attention to Google and follow along.
It is particularly very important to the self-hosted WordPress users to have some action on this matter. Many of us have considerable amounts of plugins that tend to slow our WordPress website or blog. Many plugins require separate CSS style sheets, separate Javascript files, and much more PHP. These all put much more stress on your server and cause more HTTP requests.
- Replace PHP with HTML where possible. This one is the quickest approach to lower your HTTP requests. Many of us have a top navigation bar it doesn’t change much. Instead of while using PHP code that tells WordPress to list out the web pages, simply list the web pages in HTML. Also, with your file, you will find that your links for a style sheet, bottles, and other things that are utilized line of PHP code that requires your site URL. Replace creases of PHP code using your actual blog URL. This goes on your file at the same time.
- One of the simplest actions that will actually drastically increase your page speed is usually to move the URL in your CSS file to the peak directly below the HEAD HTML tag. This will cause your style sheet to load considerably quicker.
- Many plugins hook their Javascript files inside WP head causing your internet site to load incredibly slow. There is a great plugin out there that will hook your javascript files into the WP footer where they will be. This doesn’t typically conflict with plugins but it can occasionally.
- There are many CSS optimizing tools online that can reduce white space, sign up for comments, remove unnecessary CSS, combine certain CSS elements, and make use of shorter HEX colors. I have seen these optimizers reduce my style sheets by over 2,000 characters instead of mess anything up. However, it is usually smart to produce a back before that way.
- Reduce your white space and any unnecessary code and even comments in files.
- By downloading and installing the WP super cache you can reduce load time for repeat visitors the ones browsing your website.
- Use the Firefox addon called Yslow to evaluate your web site and get additional advice on where your web site would use improvement to boost speed.
- If your CSS skills are perfect then be sure you use image sprites where possible.
- For graphic-rich websites, you might want to reduce the quality/resolution to boost the strain duration of the pictures. Image sprites could possibly be employed for this as well.
- Do not use HTML to scale images. Pre scale your images in a photo manipulation program like Gimp.
Though it is possible to optimize your CSS and Javascript files for the plugins this may not be recommended as plugins are constantly being updated. There are some plugins on the market to combine your CSS and Javascript files, however, I have realized this could break plugins or mess with your CSS.
