A slow WordPress website can negatively impact user experience, SEO rankings, and overall performance. This guide will walk you through the steps to diagnose the root causes of slow website performance and take corrective actions.
1. Check Website Speed
- You can use online tools like GTmetrix, Google PageSpeed, or Pingdom Tools to test your website’s speed. These tools provide detailed reports on performance issues, including load time, resource usage, and optimization suggestions.
2. Analyse Installed Plugins and Themes
- Too many plugins? Deactivate and delete any plugins you don’t use.
- Bad plugins? Disable them one by one to see if any are causing the problem.
- Theme issues? Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-Three) to check if your theme is slowing things down.
- You can easily manage your plugins and themes without logging into your WordPress dashboard by using our WordPress Management tool. Check out our guide here: Manage Plugins and Themes with WP Toolkit.
3. Review External Resources
- Third-party scripts like ads, social media widgets, or tracking tools can slow down your site. Remove or delay any unnecessary ones using plugins like Asset CleanUp or Perfmatters.
4. Clean Up Your Database
A cluttered database can make your site sluggish. You can use plugin tools likeWP-Optimize or Advanced Database Cleaner to remove:
- Old post revisions.
- Spam comments.
- Temporary data (like expired transients).
5. Update PHP and WordPress
- Keep WordPress, plugins, and themes updated to the latest versions for better performance and security.
- Here’s a guide to help you update your PHP or switch to a higher PHP version: How to Change the Active PHP Version.
6. Test Changes
- After making improvements, recheck your site speed using the tools from Step 1 to see what worked and what needs further attention.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Before updating your WordPress version, plugins/themes, or performing any database cleanup, it’s crucial to back up your site first. This ensures that if any updates cause issues or break the site, you can easily restore it. Here’s a quick guide on how to back up your site using JetBackup 5: Backup or Restore Site/Files.