In the present digital scenario, everything is about speed, security, and efficiency. Slow loading speed or weak security of your WordPress website can reduce online traffic and pose a threat to sensitive information on your platform. Hence, you have no choice but to customize your WordPress website for improved speed and safety.
So, how you can manage such t. It’s simple! You should hire efficient WordPress development and customization services and follow the tips below.
Let’s have a quick look!
10 Tips to Optimize the Speed of Your WordPress Website
1. Your Hosting Plan Must be Reliable
Your web host is where your website lives and has a lot to do with your site’s performance, speed, and efficiency. The host server determines how fast your user’s information is passed to your website and vice-versa.
Pick a reliable hosting provider that suits your requirements to eliminate complex issues.
2. Update Your WordPress Software, Themes, and Plugins
It is essential to keep all aspects of your WordPress website updated, including themes, logins, installations, plugins, etc. An updated website is speedier than a non-updated one.
Keep the core features updated and use the latest version of PHP to gain full compatibility and speed with PHP.
3. Reduce Site Handles and Number of Requests with Cache
Caching is like a short-term memory of a website. It saves a copy of various requested files displayed when revisiting the site. Caching reduces the resources needed to run your website. So, implementing it increases the website’s speed considerably.
It is easy to implement, and the tasks become more straightforward if you hire a WordPress expert.
4. Compress Your Site’s Files
The minification process is suitable to make the code of your website more efficient. It removes unwanted content in the code to run it quickly. The computer-generated codes use fewer characters and less spacing, which saves the space from getting wasted.
There are online tools available to minify code in the browser. It includes a user-friendly interface and delivers quick results.
5. Practice Image Optimization
Images consume a lot of resources of a site. But they are essential to make it look attractive and support the textual content. Image optimization is suitable for websites with online stores, galleries, or portfolios.
Image optimization compresses the size of the image file without affecting image quality. It is simple to implement, and the process can be automated entirely. TinyPNG is a simple and free way to implement image optimization.
6. Delete Unused Plugins and Themes
In addition to including the fastest plugins and themes and keeping them updated, you must remove unused themes and plugins from your website. It would be best to practice it regularly to save space on your server.
Delete the inactive themes and plugins. Remove short codes and extra files manually. But always create a backup of your website.
7. Clean Up Media Library
Unwanted images may accumulate in your website’s media. You need to free up space, so consider eradicating unused media.
You can do it manually or use a plugin such as Media Cleaner to remove unused media. Delete the files that are no longer useful.
8. Optimize the Database
A lot of clutter gets accumulated in the WordPress database. It slows down your website. Regular cleanups can reduce the database size for quicker loading.
Clean up the database using phpMyAdmin. You can install the plugin to fulfill this task. Using database cleaners, you can remove spam comments, old revisions, MySQL queries, etc.
9. Reduce Redirects
Redirects are helpful if placed correctly, but unwanted redirects are unnecessary. Redirect chains and 301 redirects impact your website significantly. Reduce such redirects to reduce the additional information requests that the server undertakes.
Reducing unnecessary redirects can significantly increase your website speed.
10. Choose a Lightweight Theme
Every WordPress theme is different. Some are more functional and lightweight than others. A feature-rich website involves a lot of code, which loads every time someone checks your website. Follow a minimal approach by picking a lightweight theme.
Customers want a website that loads faster; therefore, choosing a light theme is vital.
Tips to Optimize the Security of Your WordPress Website
1. Create a Secured Login Procedure
A strong password and two-factor authentication are essential to creating a secured login process. Also, avoid making the account username ‘admin’ as this is common and online attackers are inclined towards it.
Place a cap on the number of times your users log in. It prevents hackers from forceful login. You can install a plugin to limit login attempts.
2. Use Secured WordPress Hosting
Indeed, you need to consider numerous factors while selecting a WordPress hosting platform, but the top must the security. A trusted hosting service provider will protect your information and help to recover if the attack occurs.
3. Updated Your WordPress Website’s Version
Outdated versions of a website are an easy target for hackers. Regularly check the updated version of WordPress update and install the same to eliminate vulnerabilities in older versions.
You can hire our WordPress development and customization services to keep the website updated.
4. Install Security Plugins
Security plugins can handle most of a website's safety issues. From scanning your site, fighting the infiltration attempts, altering files source, restoring and resetting the site, to preventing theft of content, they handle all such issues well.
Use a legitimate and well-established security plugin that provides the platform's threat detection and malware scanning.
5. Use the Latest PHP Version
It is vital to upgrade the current version of PHP. WordPress notifies you whenever an upgrade is available. Make sure you use the newest version of PHP. You can contact a web developer to get the upgrade done. An upgraded WordPress version can successfully prevent data theft.
6. Enable HTTPS/SSL
SSL is a Secure Sockets Layer, which encrypts the connections between your visitor and the website’s web browsers. It ensures that you can safely invite visitors to your website.
Your WordPress site must be HTTPS, and SSL enabled. Even Google also prefers secured websites. It boosts SEO and lets you display your website first among many.
7. Use Secured WordPress Theme
Select a WordPress theme that is compliant with the standards. The theme you choose must be safely compatible with the software. It must be credible in the marketplace.
8. Change Default WordPress Login URL
It is easy for attackers to find the default URL for a WordPress login page. There are various plugins available such as WPS Hide Login, that you can use to change the login page URL for your website.
9. Change Database File Prefix
The file names in WordPress usually begin with ‘wp.’ It is a default setting. Hackers use this setting to determine your database files by SQL injections.
To fix this problem, you need to alter the prefix to anything different such as ‘wptable’ or ‘wpdb.’ Set this when you install a WordPress Content Management System. If your website is live already, you can rename the files.
Using a plugin to handle the process is best as the database stores the entire content. If you use an inappropriate configuration, it will break the website. Make sure you alter the table prefixes among the various features of your favorite safety plugin.
10. Conduct WordPress Safety Scans Regularly
Running routine check-ups on your website is another excellent way to keep it protected from security issues. Using a WordPress scanning plugin is an excellent idea in this context. Potential outer threats remain at bay.
Don’t Take Safety and Speed for Granted
Both speed and security are of utmost importance for a website. Users are always looking for a speedy site protected from most security attacks.
Always consider your customers' preferences, which are security and speed. So, offer your customers a trusted and efficient platform, which only an experienced and leading company like AIS Technolabs can provide. We are tech geeks who are well-versed in this field. Get in touch with us to customize your WordPress website.
