Is your WordPress website running at a snail-paced speed? We know it can be frustrating, given how important speed is for ranking and better user experience.
Slow loading times can result from various issues, from subpar hosting and outdated PHP versions to unoptimized themes or plugins.
But to help you find out the actual cause, this article will outline the reasons for your WordPress site’s slow performance. Following that, I’ll provide guidance on how to identify and address the root causes.
Before delving into the solutions, let’s start by examining how to quickly check if your site is indeed running slow.
How to Check Your WordPress Site or Admin running Slow?
Detecting a slow WordPress site is as easy as observing delayed loading times when you access your site or view products in your online store.
Fortunately, determining the EXACT loading times is equally easy, thanks to the various tools available designed to test and analyze your site’s speed.
1. Use a Speed Test Tool
You can test your site’s speed and analyze it with many online tools. Our personal recommendations include GTMetrix, and if you are already an InstaWP user, you can do the same with our Performance feature & get the lighthouse results (PageSpeed Insights) with JUST a few clicks.
Let’s quickly explore how to use both tools:
GTMetrix
GTMetrix is a free online tool you can use to analyze your site’s performance and get an in-depth report for that particular page. It also displays the top issues that need to be resolved to achieve a better site speed.
- Simply choose the server location closest to your target audience and run the test for your page, such as the home page.
- You will see the resulting report that includes insights and suggestions to improve your site’s speed. The image below shows the result of my site’s test.
InstaWP Performance Tool
For InstaWP users, our platform offers a dedicated Performance feature. It will help you easily analyze your site’s performance with detailed reports for both Mobile and Desktop.
Also, you will find suggestions that you can quickly implement to boost your site’s speed.
Moreover, you can also explore additional online tools like Pingdom, Google PageSpeed Insight, and more to thoroughly evaluate site performance and loading times.
2. Load Testing via Loader.io
You can also conduct a stress test of your website to check how it performs when it receives a surge of high traffic or under a high-load environment.
Loader.io can help yu here. It is a cloud-based testing tool that simulates high-traffic scenarios to measure performance under heavy loads. It also provides insights into loading times and overall site performance.
Armed with these test results, you can diagnose and address the root causes of your website’s slowness.
Now that you know the cause behind the slow website. It’s time to improvement things for good. Make sure you do not update your site directly. Only merge well-tested changes to it.
With InstaWP, you can easily create a staging environment and confidently apply fixes like updating WordPress core, themes, plugins, optimizing images, and more.
How to Create Staging on InstaWP
If you perform any action or changes on the staging site, you can rest easy knowing that none of it will impact your Live Site EVEN IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG.
Staging offers a safe ground for troubleshooting and resolving issues without affecting your LIVE site.
Follow these easy steps to create and test your staging environment using InstaWP:
Step 1:
- Navigate to the WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add New.
- Search for “InstaWP Connect,” the Install and Activate it.
Step 2:
- After installation, go to Tools > InstaWP.
- Click Connect to connect your website.
Step 3:
- Click “Approve” and give permission to connect your site with the InstaWP Platform.
Step 4:
- With the connection set, create a staging environment with just a few clicks.
- And you’re done. Now you can test as many changes as you want without worrying about your live site being affected.
What Are the Causes of a WordPress Site Running Slow? (+ Fixes)
A slow website not only affects the user site experience but also impacts your online business.
Suppose you are running a WooCommerce store, and your visitors are facing a lag in site speed. Not only will it frustrate them but also they won’t be likely to make any purchases on your store. And you don’t want that.
In the digital landscape, delivering a fast online experience is of utmost importance. Failure to do so can result in a high bounce rate with minimal online business growth.
Therefore, it’s crucial to identify and address the factors contributing to your website’s slow speed. So, let’s quickly see the main causes of site slowness and their fixes.
WordPress Hosting Provider
Most people opt for shared WordPress hosting providers to save costs, which then leads to various performance and availability issues.
Remember that a fast and reliable host can help you tackle this problem. And if you see a high TTFB (Time to First Byte) while testing your site using tools like GTMetrix or InstaWP performance dashboard, it’s likely due to slow hosting.
To fix that, all you need to do is to opt for a reliable host like InstaWP Live.
WordPress Core Version
Underestimating the effect of an outdated WordPress version can also lead to a slow admin experience. This is the reason why you will see major performance updates in many new WordPress versions.
For instance, the latest major WordPress 6.4 release showcases a significant focus on performance improvements, highlighting WordPress’s dedication to enhancing user experience.
Here’s how you can easily update your WordPress’ version:
- Go to your WordPress dashboard.
- Click Updates under the Dashboard section.
- Update to the latest WordPress version with a click.
And we recommend you update your outdated WordPress core, plugins, and themes on staging first to ensure there are no incompatibility or performance issues. Once you’re satisfied with the results, you can push changes to your live site.
WordPress Themes and Plugins
An often overlooked culprit for a slow WordPress site/admin is an unoptimized or heavy theme. Many users are often unaware of the impact a sluggish theme can have on performance.
To counter this, we recommend opting for a lightweight theme that prioritizes speed.
Again, you can deactivate and activate a new theme/plugin on your staging site to test your site’s performance and then push the changes live.
Unoptimized Images
If your site shows unoptimized and large image sizes after testing it on tools, consider using an image optimization plugin like https://instawp.com/plugin/wp-smushit/.
Compressing and optimizing your images with such tools can help you speed up a slow WordPress site.
Cache
If you are experiencing caching issues on your website, then it also leads to slow site performance.
You can resolve this by using a popular cache plugin like WP Rocket, which can help you optimize your cache for faster site speed.
Similarly, Redis (Object Cache) also helps you if your WordPress site or admin is running slow.
CDN
If you haven’t integrated any CDN then you might see this as a top issue on your GTMetrix reports.
Basically, a CDN saves and serves your site from the nearest data centers to your users. This eliminates the need for your server to render or load content for every request, improving site speed. As most of the content is directly delivered from the nearest location.
For example, if you are running a blogging site hosted in London but have a global audience, your US or other region’s audience can face slow performance.
However, if you integrate a CDN then your blogging content (copy/save content) will be served from your audience’s closest CDN region, preventing slow performance.
As mentioned above, you can view CDN suggestions from the testing tool reports, and can simply fix it by integrating any popular CDN like Cloudflare.
HTTP Requests
If your WordPress theme and plugins are requesting excessive external resources, scripts, and more then you may face a high number of HTTP requests issue. And this directly impacts the site’s performance.
You can fix this issue by making fewer and reduced http requests, which, in return, expedites your site’s speed.
Latest PHP Version
Your WordPress is built on PHP, and you can benefit from the latest advancements by updating to the most recent version. If you are running your site on an older or outdated version, then it can contribute to performance issues.
Notice that even between the PHP 7.4 to PHP 8 version releases, there were several performance improvements and introduction of newer features.
We recommend trying out InstaWP staging to check and update your PHP version with a few clicks. And even if something goes wrong, you can rest assured your live site isn’t affected.
Final Thoughts
In the web’s fast-paced realm, your WordPress site’s speed is more than a technicality—it’s a key factor for user satisfaction and online success.
By addressing the outlined causes and applying the fixes in this blog, you’ve set the stage for a WordPress site that performs well and offers a seamless experience for visitors. However, make sure to make changes in the staging site and push them to live later on.
Remember, it’s about making a real impact on people. Prioritize speed, stay agile in the evolving digital landscape, and ensure your WordPress site thrives with every click. Cheers to a faster, smoother, and more successful journey ahead.
