Do you feel like your site loads like a ….
Why is Speed Important
• Why do you care about the speed of your sites? • Because your readers care
• The Google Factor
• So what can we do about it? What are our options on Shared Hosting
How to Speed up WordPress • Stay up to Date- Update WordPress
Core! • Core is faster today than previous versions
Hosting Matters
• It’s not just about price – “Unlimited” doesn’t exist
• Read the Terms of Service (TOS) • Call them – ask questions
– If they won’t answer a question to get a new customer, how will respond if you call for support
WordPress.org Hosting Page Links to Hosting Sites listed below
Themes
• Where do I get a good theme?
– WordPress Theme Repository
• How do I know it’s a ‘Fast’ Theme
– Use a plugin called “Display Queries” to see what the theme is doing to the database
– Test Site
Plugins
• Plugins: Avoid Plugin Overload
Settings • Home Page – How many Posts are you
loading?
Media • Images What format should I use
• Use the smallest size possible that preserves quality – In general jpg for photos
• Resize to the published size
• Don’t resize on the fly
• Set your Media Settings to match your theme
• Gravatars: Check your Discussion Settings
• Video – Use a service built to handle streaming video like YouTube or
Vimeo
Sharing and Widgets
• Social Media Buttons and Counters – How many times will they load each page
• Call home each time they load
• Balance your content needs with speed considerations
• Widget Areas
– Be judicious about what you load
– Load dynamically – Use Widget Logic or Display Widgets
Database Tweaks
• Post Revisions – Manage The amount of Post revisions stored in your database
• Revision Control Plugin
Database Tweaks
• Optimize your database – Ensure best performance by keeping your database clean – WP Optimize is a plugin that will assist you in doing this
To Cache or not to Cache
• Once you have addressed Hosting, Theme and Plugin issues. Look at Caching
Both Plugins are reliable with a solid history.
• Which Plugin to use? • W3 Total Cache • WP Super Cache
Finding and fixing Speed Issues
• Testing Your Site with External Tools • Ismyblogworking.com • Pingdom Tools • Yslow (extensions for Firefox and
Chrome) • Page Speed from Goohle
Questions?
Contact Info Kevin Cristiano [email protected] @kcristiano http://www.tadpole.cc
Links
Hosts
• http://www.liquidweb.com/web-hosting/
• http://www.siteground.com/wordpress-hosting.htm
• http://www.westhost.com/web-hosting/
• http://laughingsquid.us/
• http://mediatemple.net/wordpress-webhosting.php
• http://www.bluehost.com/wordpress_hosting
• http://www.dreamhost.com/
• http://page.ly/
• http://wpengine.com/b/