In today’s competitive world, speed matters. Research shows you have just seconds to connect with your audience before they grow impatient and look elsewhere. Improving your WordPress page speed, even by fractions of a second, can lead to more conversions, greater revenue and a higher search engine ranking.
The good news is, there are resources available to help you increase page speed. The most common methods include utilizing plugins, improving server response time and using CDNs (content delivery networks).
Plugins
There are various plugins available to improve your WordPress page speed. Most feature the following technology:
- Caches – store a version of the page in memory so it doesn’t have to be dynamically rendered each time a user visits the site.
- Minification – combines and compresses unwieldy files such as CSS and JavaScript.
- Lazy loading – defers loading images until the user scrolls down to their location.
Server Response Time
The recommended time for a server to respond to a browser request is under 200ms. Even if you optimize your site, a slow server can still delay your page speed. One of the more obvious factors might be how your site is hosted.
Shared hosting means you are sharing resources with hundreds of other sites on the same server. If those sites experience a traffic spike or other problems, your page can experience a slowdown. A dedicated server optimized for WordPress might be a better option.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
CDNs increase page speed by utilizing a network of servers strategically placed around the country and the world. CDNsun has over 70 servers around the world, which helps reduce delays caused by geographical distance. It ensures that whether the user is in New York or thousands of miles away in India, the site will be loaded from the server closest to that location. This also helps to improve search engine ranking in other countries in addition to the United States.
CDNs also increase page speed by caching your files on their many servers. This allows for fast retrieval of content, better balance with high traffic volume and protects your site from crashes or malicious attacks. This kind of versatility and speed has made CDNs an increasingly popular choice.
If you’re curious about your WordPress page speed, you can test it using Google’s PageSpeed tool.