WordPress too slow? How to speed up your website

A slow WordPress website costs you visitors and money. In this guide, discover why your site is slow and how to fix it.

Why is my WordPress slow?

The most common causes:

1. Slow hosting

Cheap shared hosting can slow down your website, especially with high traffic.

2. Too many or heavy plugins

Each plugin adds code that needs to load. Some plugins are very resource-intensive.

3. Large images

Unoptimized images are often the biggest culprit.

4. No caching

Without caching, WordPress must regenerate each page.

5. External scripts

Social media widgets, ads and analytics can slow down your site.

6. Database bloat

Over time, your database collects junk: revisions, spam, transients.

Measure speed

First measure your current speed:

Google PageSpeed Insights

Go to pagespeed.web.dev
Enter your URL
View the score and recommendations

GTmetrix

Go to gtmetrix.com
Test your homepage
Pay attention to Performance Score and Largest Contentful Paint

Query Monitor plugin

Install Query Monitor
See which plugins and queries are slow
Ideal for debugging

Step 1: Enable caching

Caching stores generated pages so they load faster.

Recommended caching plugins:

WP Super Cache - Free, simple
W3 Total Cache - Free, extensive
LiteSpeed Cache - Free, for LiteSpeed servers
WP Rocket - Paid, best results

Basic settings:

Install a caching plugin
Enable page caching
Enable browser caching
Clear cache after changes

Step 2: Optimize images

Before uploading:

Scale down to maximum display size
Use JPEG for photos, PNG for graphics
Compress with TinyPNG or Squoosh

After uploading:

Install Imagify or ShortPixel
Convert to WebP format
Use lazy loading

Enable lazy loading:

WordPress 5.5+ has native lazy loading for images.

Step 3: Clean database

Manually via phpMyAdmin:

First backup your database
Delete spam comments
Delete post revisions
Optimize tables

With plugin:

WP-Optimize
Advanced Database Cleaner

Regular cleaning:

Limit post revisions
Remove orphaned metadata
Optimize weekly

Step 4: Clean up plugins

Audit your plugins:

Go to Plugins > Installed
Deactivate what you dont use
Delete deactivated plugins
Find lighter alternatives

Avoid heavy plugins:

Visual page builders (Elementor, Divi)
All-in-one security plugins
Social sharing plugins with many features
Slider plugins

Lighter alternatives:

GeneratePress instead of Divi theme
Native blocks instead of page builders
Simple Social Icons instead of Monarch

Step 5: Use CDN

A CDN (Content Delivery Network) serves your files from servers close to your visitors.

Free options:

Cloudflare (free plan)
Bunny CDN (cheap)

Setup:

Create account
Add your domain
Update DNS records
Configure in WordPress

Step 6: Update PHP version

Newer PHP versions are much faster:

PHP 7.4: 3x faster than PHP 5.6
PHP 8.0+: even faster

Updating:

Backup your website
Go to hosting panel
Select PHP 8.1 or 8.2
Test your website

Step 7: Upgrade hosting

If nothing else helps, consider better hosting:

Good options for WordPress:

Pay attention to:

Server location
SSD storage
HTTP/2 support
PHP version options

Quick wins checklist

Install caching plugin
Compress all images
Update to PHP 8.x
Remove unused plugins
Enable Gzip compression
Minimize CSS/JS files

WordPress error messages - Fix errors
WordPress plugin conflicts - Find conflicts
Best WordPress hosting - Compare hosting
WordPress installation - Clean start

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to implement this?

Implementation time varies per situation. Simple configurations can be done within an hour, more complex setups may take several hours to a day.

What are the costs?

Costs depend on your hosting provider and package. Many basic features are included for free, advanced features may incur additional costs.

Do I need technical knowledge?

You need little technical knowledge for the basics. Most hosting providers offer extensive documentation and support to help you.