The question I’ve been asked by clients more than any other over the past 15 years is, “What slows down a WordPress website?”. There are several things that can slow down a WordPress website. In this post, I’ll go over four of the most common variables that can slow down a site powered by WordPress and they are hosting, plugins, themes and JavaScript.
Hosting
A reliable and fast hosting server is important for any website, whether it’s WordPress or custom built. The quality of hosting varies significantly from one provider to the next and it is important for the site owner to understand what they need to support site features. If you have an eCommerce site running the WooCommerce plugin with 100+ products, you’ll need a robust hosting server to handle the demands. If you have a very basic site a shared hosting setup might be sufficient.
I host most of my personal sites on Digital Ocean through Cloudways. Cloudways provides a dashboard interface you can use to host a site on Digital Ocean, Linode, Vultr, AWS or Google Cloud. They have a built-in WordPress installer, automatic backups, and a bunch of other useful features. It makes it easier for a non-developer to manage a site on a higher-end hosting platform.
You can learn more about Cloudways here (this is an affiliate link): https://www.cloudways.com/en/?id=933852
Other hosting options include: Shared Hosting (smaller sites) and Managed WordPress Hosting (small to medium-size sites)
Plugins
WordPress plugins have been the most common source of speed problems on most of my WordPress site optimization projects. Generally, the more plugins you install, the slower a WordPress site will be (depending on the quality of your hosting server). I try to limit the number of plugins used on my projects to between 10 and 15 (preferably 10 or fewer).
Plugins are built by different developers and vary significantly as far as quality. Some developers build very efficiently-coded plugins while others do not (and there are many in-between). A poorly-coded plugin will slow a website down and could also be a source of malware intrusion. Before installing any plugin do research to make sure it’s well-built. I only install plugins with 4 or more star ratings, always Google Search the plugin, and check rating comments for signs of problems.
The size of a plugin is another thing that can slow down a WordPress site. Big plugins like WooCommerce contain a lot of files and code. WooCommerce is a pretty well-built plugin but to function correctly it requires a lot of server resources. If you are going to use a large plugin it might be necessary (or wise) to upgrade your hosting account to accommodate it.
Themes
WordPress themes are another source of speed problems on WordPress websites. The theme is what creates the look and feel of the website. Like plugins, themes are built by different developers who use different coding techniques. Some developers write efficient code but others do not. All themes are not created equal. Do research before selecting a theme to make sure the one you select is a good one!
JavaScript Slows Down A WordPress Website
JavaScript is code that usually runs in the browser. Anything the runs in the browser is dependent on the quality of a website visitors computer and Internet connection which opens up your site to a lot of performance variables. It’s best to minimize the amount of JavaScript in use on a WordPress site (or any website).
JavaScript can be used in plugins, themes, and added to a WordPress website’s header.php or footer.php file for third party tools such as Google Tag Manager or Google Analytics. It’s best to put JavaScript snippets at the bottom of a page so that it loads last to avoid negatively impacting performance but sometimes that’s not possible. Fancy navigation menus, forms and video players are a few examples of features that make use of JavaScript. The JavaScript for some site features and third party tools needs to load right away and must be put in the header.php file.
My recommendation with JavaScript is to avoid using it when possible, put snippets for features or tools that can load later in the footer.php file and keep use of third party tools that use JavaScript to a minimum. You might need to determine whether the cost to performance is greater than the benefit of having certain features and using certain tools.
Keep it Simple
In my opinion, the best way to avoid problems with anything (online and off) is to keep it simple. The more complex a system is, generally the less efficient it will be. Of course this isn’t always true, but when it comes to WordPress websites it has proven true for me over the past 15 years. Use a hosting service that will adequately accommodate your website’s needs, keep the number of plugins at a minimum, only use well-built plugins and themes, and keep the JavaScript to a minimum. If you do these things your WordPress website should perform very well!
If you have any questions about WordPress performance, send them to me here and I’ll get back to you.
-Tom