WordPress Performance | The Blog Pros

June 19, 2024

7 Best WordPress CDN Services in 2024 (Compared)

We get thousands of global visitors every day on WPBeginner, so we know how important content delivery networks are for website performance.

A CDN is a service that can significantly speed up your website. It works by caching and serving your website content from the servers nearest to your user’s location, reducing your page load time.

While we use Cloudflare on our own site, we know there are lots of other great options for WordPress users. That’s why we have tested the top options on the market, paying attention to the location and number of data centers, pricing, and user-friendliness.

In this article, we will show you the best WordPress CDN providers to speed up your website.

Expert Tip: Are you looking for more ways to speed up your WordPress website? It might be time to call in the experts.

Our experts will do a full performance audit on your website and then optimize it for lightning-fast loading times. Check out our WPBeginner Site Speed Optimization Service today!

How Does a CDN Help WordPress Sites?

A CDN is a global network of servers that saves your website’s static content, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, in a cache. When a user visits your site, the CDN will serve the content from the server closest to the user, making it load faster.

With a CDN, your website will be much faster and less likely to crash when the traffic is high. This is because your site will rely on multiple CDN servers (called edge servers) instead of just a single origin server to deliver your content.

Here are some benefits of using a CDN:

You get a faster page load speed. CDNs can decrease latency, or the time it takes for a server to deliver content to a browser.
Your site will also be more SEO-friendly. This is because Google prioritizes web pages with good user experience, such as how fast your pages load.
You get better uptime. CDNs use load balancing, so when one of the edge servers fails, the others can cover for it and keep the site running.
You can make your WordPress website more secure against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. The CDN will absorb and route the attack’s traffic to the network of servers to avoid overwhelming the origin server.
You can reduce your WordPress hosting’s bandwidth usage, meaning you won’t need to upgrade to a more expensive hosting plan.

For these reasons, many WordPress website owners use CDNs to make their sites faster and more secure. So, let’s take a look at some of the top WordPress CDN services and how they stack up against each other.

Why Trust WPBeginner?

At WPBeginner, we have 16+ years of experience in running WordPress websites, optimizing them for speed, and reaching readers all over the world. We have also thoroughly tested each of the CDN services mentioned in this article.

For more details, just see our editorial process.

1. Bunny.net

Out of all the CDN services we have reviewed, Bunny.net is the best WordPress CDN on the market. Their WordPress plugin is easy and fast to set up, so you can start using the CDN right away.

Our team has been using Bunny CDN on OptinMonster because their pricing is very affordable for small businesses. If you are based in North America, then the pricing is just $0.01 per GB.

Not sure how much the total will be? Bunny.net has a handy calculator you can use.

They also have data centers worldwide, so you can reach users anywhere they are based. Simply select one of its 123 PoP (point of presence) locations across North America, South America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Oceania.

Bunny.net knows that beginner WordPress users may be new to CDN services. That’s why they provide 24/7 customer support through live chat to help their customers, and they typically respond within an average of 5 minutes.

Pros of Bunny.net:

User-friendly control panel to manage your CDN features, like activating your free SSL certificate in one click or clearing your cache to keep your content updated.
Wide network coverage with its 123 and growing PoP locations.
Video CDN to load videos faster.
Up to 80% image optimization to reduce the size of your image files.
99.99% global Service Level Agreement, which means if your website is down, you will be eligible for credits to offset any loss caused by the outage.
Real-time analytics to help you pinpoint performance issues on your website.

Cons of Bunny.net:

There is no free tier, though there is a 14-day free trial.

Why we recommend Bunny.net: This high-performance CDN service is one of the best options for beginner WordPress users. Despite their affordability, Bunny.net has everything you need to make your website faster and offer a better user experience.

2. Cloudflare

Cloudflare is known as the best free CDN for small business WordPress websites. With a global network of 310 cities and 120 countries, you can rest assured that your site will always be online.

Setting up Cloudflare CDN in WordPress is easy. All you need to do is sign up for a plan, add your website to Cloudflare, and replace your domain’s nameservers with Cloudflare’s.

Cloudflare’s free plan also includes unmetered DDoS protection. This means Cloudflare will detect and mitigate DDoS attacks without limiting the traffic volume that can be protected.

We actually use Cloudflare for their paid security and CDN services on WPBeginner, and we have been very happy with their fast performance, huge CDN network, and excellent uptime.

For more details, you can see why we switched from Sucuri to Cloudflare.

Pros of Cloudflare:

Cloudflare’s global network coverage is vast.
The CDN has a built-in web application firewall to protect users against not just DDoS attacks but also other threats, like email spammers.
Simple bot mitigation to differentiate legitimate bots, like search engine crawlers, from malicious bots like DDoS attackers or phishing campaigns.
Special tools to handle dynamic content caching and delivery to make your site faster.

Cons of Cloudflare:

There is no uptime guarantee for Free and Pro plan users.
Direct support is only available for paid plan users.

Why we recommend Cloudflare: We use a paid Cloudflare plan on WPBeginner for our security and CDN needs. Overall, we appreciate how fast the Cloudflare CDN is, along with its advanced firewall rules to keep our website safe.

3. Sucuri

Sucuri is one of the most popular website security companies out there. Besides offering powerful website security features, they provide an easy-to-use CDN that’s optimized for WordPress.

To use Sucuri’s CDN, you need to sign up for one of their website security platform plans, which includes a web application firewall (WAF).

You can then add your site to the WAF, activate the firewall by changing your site’s DNS settings, and choose a CDN caching option. Besides speeding up your site and preventing DDoS attacks, the WAF also blocks spam and malware.

Sucuri’s data centers are vast, with locations in North America, Europe, and Asia. They also have CDN edge servers operating on Amazon Web Services in Australia and Brazil.

Pros of Sucuri:

According to Sucuri, they can improve website performance by 60%.
Multiple caching options, so you can choose the one that suits your site’s needs best. These include minimal caching, which is great if your site has lots of dynamic content (e.g., personalized text).
Automatic SSL certificate installation for your firewall server to protect your data as it is being transmitted.
Automatic malware removal, meaning Sucuri will delete any malware that it detects right away.
For small business owners, Sucuri offers a basic firewall with CDN plans that start at $9.99 per month.

Cons of Sucuri:

You cannot use the CDN alone as you have to purchase it with Sucuri’s main security features.

Why we recommend Sucuri: Sucuri is a great option if you are looking for a combination of WordPress security features and a CDN. It’s also pretty affordable, making it an excellent choice for small businesses.

4. KeyCDN

KeyCDN is another good option for a WordPress CDN service. It has a user-friendly CDN Enabler plugin that can automatically rewrite your website URLs to serve them through the CDN.

With the CDN Enabler plugin, you get more control over how your CDN works. For example, you can select what type of files need to be served using the CDN to focus on only the essential elements of your website.

You can also instantly purge your CDN cache right from your admin area. As a result, you can keep your website content up-to-date.

KeyCDN’s network of servers is spread across the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Oceanic regions. This way, your site always performs fast no matter where your audience is.

Pros of KeyCDN:

High-performance CDN with support for HTTP/2, GZIP compression, IPv6 support, and image processing, all of which are important features that contribute to faster load times.
Instant CDN purge right from the CDN Enabler plugin to easily update your website content.
Pay-as-you-go pricing with a low minimum charge of $4 per month.
Free 14-day trial with no credit card required.

Cons of KeyCDN:

Despite the low minimum charge, you must purchase a minimum of $49 worth of credit to use KeyCDN.

Why we recommend KeyCDN: This CDN service’s wide network coverage, easy-to-use plugin, and affordable pricing make it worth recommending for small business owners who are just starting out. Just remember to have at least $49 worth of credit in your account to use it.

5. RocketCDN

RocketCDN is a WordPress CDN service offered by the same team as WP Rocket, one of the most popular WordPress caching plugins. That plugin has powered over 3 million websites, so you know you are in good hands with RocketCDN.

RocketCDN is powered by Bunny.net, which means they also have a global network of over 120 edge locations. However, what makes them different is their respective pricing models.

Instead of a pay-as-you-go scheme, RocketCDN comes in a single plan costing $8.99 per month. This already includes unlimited bandwidth for all regions, so you won’t have to worry about hitting any data caps or slow speeds due to limited resources.

When you activate RocketCDN, they will automatically adjust the settings of your website to ensure that it runs smoothly and quickly. These settings include Gzip compression and serving assets over HTTP/2.

Pros of RocketCDN:

Monthly pricing with unlimited bandwidth, which can be a good option if you don’t want the hassle of calculating your own resource usage.
Easy WordPress setup, as you only need to install their plugin and activate their API key.
Everything is enabled for you once the CDN is active, from Gzip compression, and HTTP/2 support, to serving all images using CDN.
Automatic canonical header setup so that search engines know which version of your website to show even though some of your assets are served using a CDN address.

Cons of RocketCDN:

Compared to other CDN solutions on the list, RocketCDN’s features may seem too basic.
No free trial.

Why we chose RocketCDN: Many WPBeginner users use WP Rocket for their websites, and RocketCDN is one of the best solutions to complement this caching plugin.

6. Imperva

Imperva is a cyber security company that offers many website and application protection solutions, including a CDN. They have 62+ data centers with 10 TB per second capacity, which is very high.

If your site receives 1 million visitors per day, and each visitor downloads 1 MB of data, Imperva could handle all that traffic without breaking a sweat.

Additionally, Imperva has self-service customization. This means you can decide how content is cached or traffic is routed based on factors like device type and user location. This feature can help optimize your website’s performance and reduce costs.

Pros of Imperva:

Large bandwidth capacity to handle high traffic volume, making it perfect for online businesses.
Self-service customization feature to configure how the CDN behaves to optimize performance.
99.999% uptime guarantee with a 3-second mitigation SLA, which means downtime is extremely low, and Imperva promises to fix any issue within 3 seconds.

Cons of Imperva:

The self-service customization feature may be too advanced for the average WordPress user.
There is no fixed pricing, and you have to contact their team for custom pricing.

Why we chose Imperva: When reviewing Imperva, we were thoroughly impressed by their high-performance CDN and advanced features that not all CDNs provide. We recommend Imperva if you have a growing, multinational business.

7. Amazon CloudFront

Last but not least, we have Amazon CloudFront. It’s a powerful WordPress CDN service for people who use Amazon services like Amazon SES and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

That said, despite its name, this WordPress CDN solution works with many other hosting providers, not just AWS.

When you use CloudFront, you will also get the AWS Shield Standard automatically enabled. This technology is like a more comprehensive version of DDoS protection, securing your website against attacks at all network layers.

Amazon CloudFront has 600+ points of presence in 90 cities across 47 countries, so its CDN service has vast coverage. It also offers a free tier that allows you to send 1 TB of data from CloudFront each month at no extra cost.

Pros of Amazon CloudFront:

Seamless integration with AWS services, so it’s a great option if you already use them.
A global network of servers, with hundreds of points of presence worldwide.
Robust security features at the edge servers to protect your content from DDoS attacks, malware, phishing, and other threats at all levels.
Generous free tier plan, as 1 TB of data transfer can serve approximately 1 billion web pages.

Cons of Amazon CloudFront:

Not the most beginner-friendly setup.

Why we chose Amazon CloudFront: If you run WordPress on AWS, then you already have a great WordPress CDN service at your disposal. The vast network and generous free-tier plan also make CloudFront worth recommending.

Bonus: Use a Hosting Provider With Free CDN

These days, many WordPress hosting providers come with their own custom CDN solutions. This way, you won’t have to pay extra to make your website fast and secure.

Hostinger, for instance, has a built-in CDN available for Business plan users or above. It includes features like WebP image compression, CSS and JavaScript minification, and a handy under-attack mode to fight rapid DDoS attacks.

SiteGround also has an excellent CDN feature designed specifically for users who receive traffic from multiple countries. The team behind it has reported that loading speeds have increased by 20% on average.

While a free plan is available, they also have a premium plan with unlimited monthly bandwidth.

On the other hand, some hosting providers like Bluehost and WP Engine have integrated third-party CDN services like Cloudflare.

Which Is the Best WordPress CDN Provider for Your Site?

After carefully evaluating all these top WordPress CDN services, we believe that Bunny.net is the best WordPress CDN on the market. It has a wide global network coverage and offers a great set of features at a reasonable price.

For people on a tight budget, Cloudflare’s free CDN plan can do the job. It comes integrated with popular web hosting providers like Bluehost and WP Engine. Plus, you get unmetered DDoS protection.

If you want a CDN focusing on security, then Sucuri is the one for you. Besides multiple caching options, you can get a powerful WAF with automatic malware removal and SSL installation.

WordPress CDN Services: Frequently Asked Questions

Now that we’ve covered the best WordPress CDN services, let’s cover some frequently asked questions about using a CDN.

Which CDN does WordPress use?

The WordPress software does not use any CDN as it is only a content management system that requires a hosting service to run. Instead, the user has the freedom to choose any CDN service they prefer.

How do I choose a CDN for my WordPress website?

To choose a CDN for your WordPress website, you can consider your website needs, your own budget, and the platform’s ease of use.

If you need a beginner-friendly CDN with affordable pricing, then look no further than Bunny.net. On the other hand, if your website handles a lot of sensitive data, then you may want a CDN with a good set of security features, like Sucuri.

Can I use Cloudflare CDN with WordPress, and how does it compare to other CDN services?

Yes, you can use Cloudflare CDN with WordPress. In fact, many hosting providers like Bluehost and WP Engine have Cloudflare integrated into their dashboards, so you can immediately use it.

While Cloudflare CDN is free, it has great unmetered DDoS protection. However, there is no direct support.

Does CDN increase website speed?

Yes, a CDN can increase your website speed and make it faster. It will cache your website content into multiple servers spread worldwide. When users visit your site, the server closest to them will deliver the content.

That said, many factors affect website speed, so we recommend implementing other best speed optimization practices as well. For more information, check out our ultimate guide to boost WordPress speed and performance.

Ultimate Guides to Boost Your WordPress Site Performance

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress CDN solution for your website. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress performance guide or our expert pick of the best website speed test tools.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 7 Best WordPress CDN Services in 2024 (Compared) first appeared on WPBeginner.

January 5, 2024

Ultimate Website Migration Checklist: 16 Steps You Need to Do

Do you want to migrate your WordPress site but are not sure if everything is ready?

Website migration can be complicated as there are many things to look after. Having a checklist can help ensure that you’ve followed all the steps. This also prevents multiple errors.

In this article, we will share the ultimate website migration checklist and show the steps you need to do.

Here is a quick overview of what we will cover in this guide. You can click the links below to jump ahead to any section:

What is Website Migration?
How Does Migration Impact WordPress SEO?
Plan Your Migration and Inform Your Users
Put Your WordPress Site in Maintenance Mode
Create a Backup of Your WordPress Website
Perform a Website SEO Audit
Disable Caching, Firewall, and Redirect Plugins
Prevent Search Engines from Indexing Your New Site
Ensure Your Domain is Pointing to the New Host
Make Sure WordPress is Installed on Your Site
Set Up and Test Redirects
Make Sure the New Site is Indexable and Crawlable
Test the Overall Functionality of Your Site
Check for 404 Errors
Perform a Speed Test to See the Performance
Run an SEO Audit Again to Check for Errors
Track Keyword Positions, Traffic, and Conversions
Ensure Your Old Hosting is Closed

What is Website Migration?

You can migrate many different things on a WordPress site, including upgrading to new technology, website redesign, restructuring content, or moving to a new server or location.

There are many reasons for WordPress migration. You might want to move to a new content management system (CMS) for better performance and security. Or you’d like to switch hosting servers to scale your site and business.

For example, you’d like to migrate your site from Blogger, Shopify, Squarespace, Joomla, Gumroad, and other platforms to WordPress.

See our ultimate WordPress migration guide to learn more about moving your site from different blogging platforms.

Migration can also take place when your site is going through a redesign for a better user experience. Or you’re updating the site structure and navigation. Moving your site from HTTP to HTTPS also requires careful WordPress migration.

Another reason for migrating your WordPress site is changing your domain name. Let’s say you’re rebranding and going to use another website name. Then, you’ll need to migrate your site.

That said, let’s see how migration can affect your site’s rankings in search engine page results.

How Does Migration Impact WordPress SEO?

WordPress migration is a major change that happens on your website, and it can impact your site’s SEO (search engine optimization).

If done correctly, migration can have a positive impact. For example, switching to a faster hosting service can improve WordPress performance and help boost keyword rankings.

However, the slightest mistake can lead to multiple SEO-related errors like broken links, lost rankings, and missing content.

This is where the website migration checklist comes in handy. You can go through it step by step to ensure everything is working properly.

Let’s look at each step in the website migration checklist.

Tip: Website migration has many moving parts and it can be tricky for beginners. If you don’t want to worry about migrating a website yourself, then you can hire Seahawk. They offer a wide range of WordPress services, including website migration. Seahawk helps transfer any website to WordPress bug-free and ensure smooth functionality.

Website Migration Checklist: Preparing Your Site for Migration

Before you can start website migration, there are several factors to take into account.

Here are a few checklist items you should look into prior to moving your WordPress site.

1. Plan Your Migration and Inform Your Users

When you decide to migrate your WordPress website, it is important to plan things in advance and decide on a time to move your site.

To start, you can set objectives. For example, simply ask why you’re moving your website and if everything is ready.

Next, you’ll need to decide on a particular time to move website assets. Ideally, it should be done when the traffic is low. There will be a small outage when you migrate the site, so there is bound to be a drop in traffic.

That’s why it is best practice to avoid website migration during peak traffic times. You can use a plugin like MonsterInsights to monitor website traffic to find the best time to perform the migration.

Once you’ve settled on migration time, it is also best to inform your users. This way, your audience will know beforehand about your site being unavailable. It will help build trust and credibility.

To inform users about the migration, you can send an email, show a popup notice on the website, or send push notifications.

2. Put Your WordPress Site in Maintenance Mode

Before you start the migration, it is important to put the website in maintenance mode. This will inform visitors that your site is down temporarily and will be restored shortly.

An example maintenance mode, created using SeedProd

There are several ways to put your site in maintenance mode.

You can use SeedProd to create a custom maintenance mode page and enable it on your site when you’re ready for migration.

SeedProd is the best WordPress theme and landing page builder. It offers pre-built templates and comes with a drag-and-drop builder. Plus, there are several customization options to edit the maintenance mode.

An example WordPress site in maintenance mode

To learn more, please see our guide on how to put your WordPress site in maintenance mode.

3. Create a Backup of Your WordPress Website

Another important website migration checklist item is making a fresh backup of your site. This way, if anything goes wrong during the migration process, you’ll have an updated copy of your website.

WordPress backups will protect your critical data and help restore the site in case there is a failure during migration.

There are several ways to create a backup of your site. The easiest way is by using a plugin like Duplicator. It is the best WordPress backup plugin and is very easy to use. Simply create a new package, select the storage location, and choose files to backup.

You can also create backups manually by using the cPanel in your WordPress hosting, backup databases, or using an FTP client to access site files.

Please follow our guide on how to backup your WordPress site to learn all the ways.

4. Perform a Website SEO Audit

Next, you should check the website’s SEO health before migration. This will help reveal any issues that may arise during the migration process.

For example, an audit can reveal issues like your pages are missing SEO titles or if there are images without alt attributes. These errors can hurt your SEO when the website is migrated.

You can perform an SEO audit inside your WordPress dashboard by using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin. It is the best WordPress SEO plugin that helps conduct a complete SEO audit and shows critical issues that need to be resolved.

As an alternative, you can also use the WPBeginner SEO Analyzer tool. It is 100% free to use and helps find critical errors on your site.

You may also want to see our guide on the WordPress SEO audit checklist to boost rankings.

5. Disable Caching, Firewall, and Redirect Plugins

Another important step in the migration checklist is to disable any caching, firewall, and redirection plugins. These plugins and tools can cause issues during the migration process.

For instance, you may see 403 Forbidden errors or 500 Internal Server errors if these tools are not disabled. Similarly, a firewall plugin can cause errors by blocking requests made during the migration process for site files.

In WordPress, you can head to Plugins » Installed Plugins and then simply click the ‘Deactivate’ option under these plugins.

To learn more, please see our guide on how to easily deactivate WordPress plugins.

6. Prevent Search Engines from Indexing Your New Site

If you are moving your site to a new domain or a new content management system (like WordPress), then you should ensure that search engines don’t index the new site before the migration.

This way, Google and other search engines won’t show both versions on the search results.

In WordPress, you can go to Settings » Reading and then uncheck the ‘Search Engine Visibility’ checkbox.

Search Engine Visibility Setting in WordPress

Besides that, you can also stop search engines from indexing specific pages and posts by using an SEO plugin like AIOSEO.

It offers Robots.txt settings for each content, where you can enable the ‘No Index’ option.

Asking Search Engines Not to Index a Single Page

You can find all the details in our guide on how to stop search engines from crawling a WordPress site.

Website Migration Checklist: Starting the Migration Process

Now that you’ve prepared your website for migration, the next step is to start the migration process.

Here are checklist steps to follow during the migration stage.

7. Ensure Your Domain is Pointing to the New Web Host

If you are moving your website to a new web hosting service, then you’ll need to point the domain to the new host.

To do that, you will need to edit the DNS or Domain Name System records. These records help connect your domain name to the new servers that will be hosting your site.

Now, the steps for updating the DNS settings will depend on the hosting provider or domain registrar you are using.

For more details, please see our guide on how to easily change domain nameservers.

8. Make Sure WordPress is Installed on Your Site

Many WordPress hosting services will have WordPress pre-installed when you migrate a website.

However, if your hosting plan doesn’t come with WordPress, then you can easily add it.

Do note that the steps to install WordPress will depend on the hosting services you are using. You can also use auto-installers or manually install it through cPanel or an FTP client.

Please see our guide on how to install WordPress the right way for more details.

9. Set Up and Test Redirects when Migrating to New Domain

Next, you’ll need to set up redirection if you’ve switched to a new domain.

This way, when a user enters the old website URL, they’ll be redirected to the new one automatically.

A simple way of setting up 301 redirects in WordPress is by using All in One SEO (AIOSEO). It offers a powerful redirection manager that you can use to set up redirects and also perform full site redirects.

You may also want to see our guide on creating 301 redirects in WordPress.

10. Make Sure the New Site is Indexable and Crawlable

As the migration process nears an end, you should remove any blockades that can stop users and search engine crawlers from accessing your new website.

For instance, if you enabled noindex or any other option to prevent search engines from finding your new domain, then you should remove it. This way, search engines can crawl and index your site in the search results.

One way of checking if your site is being crawled is by using Google Search Console.

It offers a Crawl Stats report that shows crawl requests from your site. If you see a drop, then check your site’s settings that might be stopping your pages from being crawled.

Website Migration Checklist: Monitor and Test Migration

Once the website migration process is complete, you will need to monitor the changes and see their impact.

Here are some website migration checklist items to keep a lookout for after moving your website.

11. Test the Overall Functionality of Your Site

After the migration process is complete, you should ensure that everything is working properly on your site.

For instance, if you redesigned your site, then you should see if all the buttons, links, navigation menus, and other elements are functioning properly.

Besides that, you can also fill out different WordPress forms to see if all the fields are working. Similarly, try leaving a comment under blog posts to check its functionality.

If you have an online store, then try adding products to your cart, go through the checkout process, view each product page, and click the links to check everything.

12. Check for 404 Errors

One of the most common errors you will notice is the 404 error after migrating a website.

404 error occurs when a user is unable to reach a web page because it doesn’t exist. This happens when you migrate a site to a new CMS or hosting service, and the old domain no longer works.

A simple way to track 404 errors is by using the AIOSEO plugin. Its redirection manager lets you track 404 errors and quickly fix them by setting up redirection.

To learn more, please follow our guide on how to track 404 pages and redirect them in WordPress.

13. Perform a Speed Test to See the Performance

Next website migration checklist item to see the performance of your WordPress site. This is particularly useful if you moved to a new hosting service for faster loading sites.

For example, you should see an improvement in the speed if you’ve upgraded to the fastest hosting provider.

There are different website speed test tools you can use to get started. For instance, Google offers a free PageSpeed Insights tool to test your site’s speed.

You may also want to see our ultimate guide to WordPress performance to learn more tips on speeding up your site.

14. Run an SEO Audit Again to Check for Errors

Once you’ve completed the migration process, it is a best practice to run an SEO audit of your website again.

This way, you will catch any issues that might have been raised during the migration.

For example, if there are any broken links that need fixing, your content is missing SEO titles, or there are other technical issues to look into.

15. Track Keyword Positions, Traffic, and Conversions

After moving a site to a new CMS or web hosting platform, you should check the keyword rankings, traffic, and conversions of the new site.

Tracking keyword positions will help you see whether there is a boost in rankings or a drop.

There are many SEO rank tracker tools in the market. For example, you can use Semrush to monitor keyword rankings. The SEO tool shows changes in position along with other important metrics.

16. Ensure Your Old Hosting is Closed

Now that the migration is complete, one final checklist item to cross off is to close the old domain hosting account. This way, Google and other search engines will know that this is the new site to index.

However, make sure to set up 301 redirects and ensure they are working before closing the old hosting account. If any redirect is not functioning properly, then you can quickly fix it.

Once you’re happy with everything, go ahead and close the old hosting account.

Your site will now be migrated, and all the content will be visible and available for users.

We hope this article helped you learn about the website migration checklist and the steps you need to do. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress migration guide for beginners and when do you really need managed WordPress hosting.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Ultimate Website Migration Checklist: 16 Steps You Need to Do first appeared on WPBeginner.

November 17, 2023

How to Stress Test a WordPress Website (2023)

Do you want to know how your site will perform in case of a traffic surge?

Stress testing a WordPress website will show how your website will perform under different situations. This way, you can ensure fast performance and resolve any issues.

In this article, we will show you how to stress test a WordPress website.

What is a WordPress Stress Test?

A WordPress stress test lets you see how your website will perform in high-traffic situations. It helps you prepare for spikes in traffic and see how your site handles the load.

Usually, the amount of traffic a website can withstand is determined by your WordPress hosting plan. However, stress testing helps find these limits and uncovers issues that might occur due to high traffic.

For instance, a sudden spike in traffic can cause your site to crash and utilize all the server resources. Similarly, you can also see which WordPress plugins, themes, code snippets, and images malfunction in extreme conditions.

With stress testing, you can easily fix any issues or correct a setting that might be misconfigured. As a result, you’ll offer a better user experience and be prepared for high-traffic situations.

That said, let’s see how to stress test a WordPress website.

Stress Testing a WordPress Website

When it comes to measuring the performance of your WordPress website, you’ll find lots of speed test tools, like PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom, or GTmetrix.

While these tools help find out how fast your site loads, they don’t tell you how a website will perform under high traffic.

To stress a WordPress site, we’ll be using Loader.io for this tutorial. It is a free tool that simulates high-traffic situations and performs a series of tests.

Sign Up for a Free Loader.io Account

First, you’ll need to visit the Loader.io website and create a free account. Simply click the ‘Sign Up Now’ button to get started.

After that, you will see different pricing plans offered by the tool.

Go ahead and select the ‘Free’ pricing plan.

Next, you can enter details to sign up for a new account.

Loader.io will ask for a company name, email address, and password. Once you’ve added these details, simply check the reCaptcha box and click the ‘Sign Up’ button.

Enter information to create a free loader account

You also receive a verification email. Simply check your inbox and click the link in the email to verify your account.

Adding a New Host to Loader.io

After that, you can set up a target host by clicking the ‘+ New Host’ button.

Next, you’ll need to enter your domain name.

Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Next: Verify’ button.

Next, you will need to verify your domain. You can do this by verifying over HTTP or DNS.

For this tutorial, we will use the ‘Verify over HTTP’ option and download the verification file. Go ahead and click the ‘download’ link and save the file on your computer.

After downloading the file, you’ll need to upload it to your site’s root folder. This is usually called the ‘public_html’ folder.

To upload the file, you can use an FTP client. For more details, please see our guide on how to use FTP to upload files to WordPress.

After uploading the file, you can return to the Loader.io website and click the ‘Verify’ button.

Upon verification, you should see a success message.

Next, you’ll need to click the ‘New Test’ button and set up a stress test for your website.

Configuring Your Stress Test Settings

On the next screen, you can change the settings for your stress test. You can start by adding a name for your test.

After that, you’ll need to select the test type. Loader.io offers 3 test types, which include:

Clients per test – In this, you can test how your site will work when a specific number of visitors visit your site for a specified amount of time. You can set the number of clients and the duration.
Clients per second – This scenario will test your site for a specified number of client requests per second.
Maintain client load – Under this test type, a constant client count is maintained throughout the duration of the test. It stress tests your site when there is a constant load for a specific time.

We would recommend running multiple tests using each of these types. This will help uncover any issues that your site might encounter under different scenarios.

If you scroll down, then you’ll see Client Requests settings. For general testing, we recommend using the default settings and you don’t need to change anything.

Now, you’re ready to stress test your WordPress site. Go ahead and click the ‘Run test’ button.

Analyze Your Stress Test Results

Loader.io will run the stress test for your website and compile the results. You can then analyze them to see how your site performs under high-traffic situations.

For instance, you can start by looking at the average response time. The lower the response time, the faster your website’s loading speed.

In our testing, the average response time was 590 milliseconds or 0.59 seconds when 250 clients visited the site for 1 minute.

This is fairly decent reading and shows that the website didn’t slow down considerably under high load.

However, the maximum response time recorded was 10489 ms or 10.489 seconds. You can now look at the graph below to see when the response time jumps compared to the number of clients.

For instance, our testing showed that there was a spike when the number of clients exceeded 150 and the maximum response time was seen when the number of clients almost reached 200.

Using these insights, you will have a rough idea of how your site will perform when a certain number of people visit it.

You can now repeat this step and run multiple tests using different scenarios. For instance, try increasing the number of clients, testing the duration, and use different test types.

Tips to Improve Response Time & Boost Performance

If WordPress load tests show slow performance under high-traffic situations, then you can try different things to speed up your site.

Here are some tips for improving response time and handling high traffic load:

1. Upgrade Your WordPress Hosting Plan – If you’re using a hosting plan that has limits on the number of visitors per month, then consider upgrading to a higher hosting plan. This way, you’ll get more server resources and your site can handle extra traffic when there is a spike. You can also see our detailed comparison of the fastest WordPress hosting services to learn more.

2. Use a Caching Plugin – A caching plugin reduces the load on your site’s server and helps improve performance. It serves a static version of the site to users instead of going through the entire process of requesting a webpage. As a result, your site loads faster and you provide a better user experience.

3. Set Up a Content Delivery Network (CDN) – A CDN is a network of servers that deliver cached static content to users based on their location. It helps lower the load on your site server and improve the response time.

4. Optimize Your Images and Videos – Unoptimized images can lead to performance issues on your site and increase load on the server. To start, you can compress large image files to lower response time. If you’re hosting videos on your site, then consider uploading them to YouTube or Vimeo and embedding them in your content.

5. Remove Unused Plugins and Themes – If you have WordPress plugins and themes that are not in use or are resource-heavy, then consider removing them. They can slow down your WordPress site by loading unused scripts and utilizing a lot of server resources.

For more tips on improving your site’s performance, please see our guide to boost WordPress Speed and Performance.

We hope this article helped you learn how to stress test a WordPress website. You may also want to see our guide on the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them, and ultimate guide to WordPress SEO.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Stress Test a WordPress Website (2023) first appeared on WPBeginner.

September 20, 2023January 23, 2024

8 Fastest WordPress Hosting in 2024 (Performance Tests)

Are you looking for the fastest WordPress hosting?

Fast hosting can help your website load more quickly. Fast-loading pages improve user experience, increase your pageviews, and help with your WordPress SEO.

In this article, we will share our performance test results to help you find the fastest WordPress hosting for your website.

Fastest WordPress Hosting (Performance Tests)

Why Fast WordPress Hosting Is Important

Do you want a fast WordPress website? One way to do that is to choose a reputable WordPress hosting provider that is optimized for speed.

The most important performance indicator is your website’s speed. It not only affects user experience, but it can also hurt your site’s search engine optimization (SEO). Users may leave a slow website before it even loads.

According to a case study that involved Amazon, Google, and other larger sites, a 1-second delay in website speed can reduce your conversions by 7%. A delay of 3 seconds can cost you 50% of your traffic.

On top of that, Google and other search engines penalize slower websites by pushing them down in the search results.

This means slow sites get less traffic, while a fast WordPress website will help you get more traffic, subscribers, and revenue.

How We Tested Website Performance for the Fastest WordPress Hosting Providers

One reason that WPBeginner is the most trusted WordPress resource site is that our reviews are based on actual data and experience.

To find the fastest WordPress hosting providers, we actually signed up with each provider and thoroughly tested their services.

We wanted to accurately measure performance across all WordPress hosting companies, so we created the same sample WordPress site on each hosting provider and used the default WordPress theme.

Next, we imported dummy content for theme development, including images and media, so our test resembles an average user website.

Then, we used independent third-party tools to test the performance of our sample website on each hosting provider:

We used Pingdom, an industry-leading website speed test service, to get a performance grade for each provider and measure how long it took a page to load.
We used the Load Impact (k6) service to send virtual users (VU) to each website to see how the hosting server would handle multiple connections at once, like peak traffic times of up to 100 visitors at once.
We used Bitcatcha to test server response times across many geographical locations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Brazil, India, Australia, and Japan. This helps us decide which hosting company is best for each geographical location.

Now that you know our testing process, let’s compare the performance of different hosting companies to see which is the fastest WordPress hosting company on the market.

1. Hostinger

Hostinger is a popular web hosting provider with a reliable and user-friendly platform to launch websites. They offer affordable shared hosting plans with great customer support, a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and more.

You can learn more in our complete Hostinger review.

Pingdom Website Speed Test

Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for Hostinger.

Our test site loading speed was a fraction of a second at 757 milliseconds, which is great. But keep in mind that this test was performed when the website had no traffic. Let’s take a look at how that speed is affected by more visitors.

k6 Load Impact Test

Here are the k6 performance overview results for Hostinger. To see how more visitors would impact the site’s speed, we gradually built up to 50 unique visitors at once.

As you can see, Hostinger performed really well on this test. As we increased virtual users (purple line), the response time (blue line) remained steady, with an average of 66 milliseconds.

This means that if you have a small business website, an online store, or a growing blog, your Hostinger website will easily handle sudden traffic spikes.

Bitcatcha Server Response Time

The web server’s response time will vary depending on how far your visitors are from the server. The Bitcatcha test measures how fast the Hostinger server actually responds from different locations around the world without loading the web page.

You can see that the response times were great across the board. They were particularly fast in Europe and North America.

Hostinger Pros and Cons

Hostinger is a robust platform to host your website. Now that you have seen their performance test results, you might like to see some of their other pros and cons.

Pros:

Very affordable hosting
Performance-optimized hosting
Excellent customer support
1-click WordPress install
Free domain and free SSL certificate
Many datacenters across the world

Cons:

Renewal prices are a bit higher

Why We Chose Hostinger

Hostinger is a great option for beginners who want to start a website without spending too much money. Their low-price shared hosting options offer good value for money with great performance and an extremely easy-to-use control panel.

Hostinger Pricing Plans

Hostinger offers many hosting plans with different features starting at $2.69/month. These plans include shared hosting, eCommerce hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, a website builder, and more.

Pro Tip: WPBeginner users can get the best price using our Hostinger coupon code.

2. DreamHost

DreamHost is a popular, award-winning hosting company and one of WordPress.org’s officially recommended hosts. Their plans include automatic daily backups, a free SSL certificate, a free domain name, WordPress privacy features, and more.

Learn more in our complete DreamHost review.

Pingdom Website Speed Test

Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for DreamHost.

Our test site loaded in less than two seconds, which is good. This test was done during low traffic, so let’s now see how DreamHost responds during peak traffic times.

k6 Load Impact Test

Here are the k6 performance overview results for DreamHost. We built up to 25 unique virtual visitors at once to see how the server would handle more requests and connections at the same time.

Dreamhost stress testing without caching

While our site remained available throughout the test, the response time fluctuated as users increased. The average response time was 2,343 milliseconds.

This poor result happened because we turned off DreamHost’s pre-installed WordPress caching solution. So, we tried enabling a caching plugin, and the stress test result improved dramatically. Notice how much lower the light blue line is in the graph below.

Dreamhost stress testing with cache turned on

This time, our test site handled 40 requests per second (6,600 requests total), and the average response time was a fast 255 milliseconds.

This means that WordPress blogs, small business websites, and eCommerce stores hosted on Dreamhost can easily handle sudden traffic spikes.

Bitcatcha Server Response Time

Next, we used Bitcatcha to test our Dreamhost test site’s response time from different geographic locations.

DreamHost’s response times remained consistent around the world and were fastest in North America and Europe.

DreamHost Pros and Cons

DreamHost has been around for 26 years and is known for making web hosting easy. Now that you have seen their performance test results, you might like to see some other pros and cons.

Pros:

Award-winning hosting
Excellent customer support
Officially recommended by WordPress
1-click WordPress install
Free domain name, SSL certificate, and privacy
Automatic daily WordPress backups

Cons:

No free business email address

Why We Chose DreamHost

DreamHost is highly rated for their fast and reliable hosting, which is great for bloggers, online store owners, developers, and web designers. They have won many awards and get excellent reviews from their customers. But they may not be the right choice if you need a lot of help getting started.

DreamHost Pricing Plans

DreamHost’s shared hosting plans start at $2.59 per month (for a 1-year billing period). You can also pay monthly for the Shared Starter plan, which costs $4.95 per month.

WPBeginner users can get the best price on shared hosting using our DreamHost coupon code and managed hosting using our DreamPress coupon code.

3. WP Engine

WP Engine specializes in VIP managed WordPress hosting, which is an ideal choice for people looking for hassle-free, premium WordPress hosting. They provide automatic backups, security updates, caching, WordPress security, and more.

You can learn more in our complete WP Engine review.

Pingdom Website Speed Test

Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for WP Engine.

Our WP Engine test site loaded in just over half a second (656 milliseconds) without any performance optimizations on our end. This is a good result.

k6 Load Impact Test

Next, we tested how WP Engine servers respond under peak traffic using a tool called k6. Here are the results as we gradually built the test up to 50 unique visitors at once.

As you can see, our test WP Engine website maintained an incredible response rate throughout the test, with an average response time of 47 milliseconds. It performed really well with only minor spikes.

Bitcatcha Server Response Time

The Bitcatcha test measures how fast a server responds from different locations around the world. Here are the results for WP Engine:

WP Engine response time from different geographic locations

WP Engine’s server response time was fastest on the east coast of the United States (29 milliseconds), and even its slowest speed of 237 milliseconds in Mumbai is very fast at less than one-quarter of a second.

WP Engine Pros and Cons

WP Engine offers fast servers, security, and peace of mind that users need from a managed WordPress host. Now that you have seen their performance test results, you might like to see some of their other pros and cons.

Pros:

Fast loading times
24/7 expert WordPress support
Advanced security tools to protect your website against DDoS attacks, SQL injections, brute force attacks, and more
1-click WordPress install
Free SSL certificate, content delivery network (CDN), and site backups
WordPress staging tools
36+ Premium Themes

Cons:

No free domain
WP Engine doesn’t allow you to install some WordPress plugins

Why We Chose WP Engine

WP Engine can be a great option if you are looking for a completely hassle-free web host for your WordPress site. Their advanced features will save you time, and there is plenty of room to scale as your traffic increases.

WP Engine Pricing Plans

WP Engine only offers managed WordPress hosting, and 5 different levels are available, starting at $13/month and going up to $145/month.

WPBeginner users can get the best price using our WP Engine coupon code.

4. SiteGround

SiteGround is one of the most recommended WordPress hosting companies, and we use them ourselves on WPBeginner. Among other features, they allow customers to choose between 6 different datacenters worldwide.

Learn more in our complete SiteGround review.

Pingdom Website Speed Test

Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for SiteGround.

Our SiteGround test site loaded in 417 milliseconds, which is less than half a second. This speed is incredible, but the website had no traffic during this test. Let’s see how more visitors will affect the speed.

k6 Load Impact Test

To test how SiteGround servers would respond to increased traffic, we used a tool called k6 to gradually send up to 50 users to our test website.

Here are the results:

This test shows that SiteGround is a good choice if you are looking for a really fast website. It performed consistently throughout the test without any hiccups and an average response time of 107 milliseconds.

This is partly because of some of the innovations they use. For example, most of their servers are hosted on the Google Cloud Platform, and they have a custom plugin for optimization called SG Optimizer.

Bitcatcha Server Response Time
We also ran a Bitcatcha test to see the response time around the world. Here are the results:

The server responded in just a fraction of a second in the United States, making SiteGround a great choice if your target audience is mostly in North America.

It responded quickly in other locations as well. Plus, SiteGround lets you choose a data center closer to your target audience so you can get the best response times in a particular region.

SiteGround Pros and Cons

We found SiteGround to be fast and reliable. Here are some of their other pros and cons.

Pros:

Speedy servers powered by Google Cloud
Excellent customer support
1-click WordPress install
Free domain name, SSL certificate, CDN, and website backups
WordPress staging tools
Free website migration

Cons:

A bit more expensive than other hosting options

Why We Chose SiteGround

SiteGround offers fast and reliable web hosting with great customer support. They have hosting plans for every budget, and each plan comes with super-fast servers and the option to pick your datacenter.

SiteGround Pricing Plans

SiteGround’s shared hosting packages are available in three levels to match different budgets. The Startup plan is limited to one website and costs $2.99/month. The GrowBig plan costs $4.99/month, and the GoGeek plan costs $7.99/month. These plans offer unlimited websites.

WPBeginner users get up to an 83% discount and free SSL with our SiteGround coupon code.

5. GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks is a web hosting provider whose goal is to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Their hosting plans also offer great performance, managed updates, a choice of 5 datacenters, and more.

You can learn more in our complete GreenGeeks review.

Pingdom Website Speed Test

Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for GreenGeeks.

Without additional traffic, our test site loaded in about half a second (646 milliseconds), which is great. Next, we ran a k6 stress test to see how extra traffic affects the site performance.

k6 Load Impact Test

We used the k6 tool to measure how GreenGeeks performs during peak traffic, gradually building up to 50 unique visitors.

Here are the results:

GreenGeeks performed well under this stress test. Our site remained responsive, and the response time remained steady. There were minor fluctuations as the number of users increased.

When you install WordPress, GreenGeeks automatically installs the Litespeed cache plugin to speed up your website. However, we disabled the cache when we ran our tests.

Bitcatcha Server Response Time

We also tested GreenGeeks’ response time around the world using Bitcatcha. Here are the results:

Our test GreenGeeks site responded quickly for visitors in North America. It was slower in other parts of the world, such as India and the Asia Pacific region, but these times are still quite fast.

GreenGeeks Pros and Cons

GreenGeeks is affordable, and their plans include plenty of useful features. Now that you have seen their performance test results, you might like to see some pros and cons.

Pros:

Environmentally-friendly hosting
A free domain name
Great customer support
1-click WordPress install
Free SSL certificate, CDN, and website backups
Built-in performance tools, including LiteSpeed caching

Cons:

Their phone support isn’t available 24/7

Why We Chose GreenGeeks

GreenGeeks is the most eco-friendly web hosting. It is a good hosting solution for anyone who is just starting out. For higher traffic volumes, you may need to upgrade to a high-performance plan or move to a managed WordPress hosting provider.

GreenGeeks Pricing Plans

GreenGeeks has a wide range of hosting plans for customers of every size, starting at $2.95/month.

WPBeginner users can get the best price using our GreenGeeks coupon code.

6. Rocket.net

Rocket.net is a managed WordPress hosting company offering super-fast and fully managed WordPress hosting solutions. Their plans come with a custom, user-friendly hosting dashboard, a CDN, automated backups, and more.

You can learn more in our complete Rocket.net review.

Pingdom Website Speed Test

Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for Rocket.net.

Our test website loaded in 588 ms, which is just over half a second.

k6 Load Impact Test

We then used the k6 tool to test how Rocket.net would hold up under traffic spikes. We slowly increased the number of virtual users to 100, sending multiple page requests.

This is an excellent result. Our test site responded quickly, regardless of the number of users and page requests. It also had an average response time of 13.91 milliseconds.

Bitcatcha Server Response Time

Next, we used Bitcatcha to measure response times for Rocket.net from different geographic locations.

These results are incredibly fast. Our test site responded in just a couple of milliseconds for all locations.

That’s because Rocket.net uses a CDN and cloud edge network. Users are sent to the closest server for the fastest response time.

Rocket.net Pros and Cons

Rocket.net offers a fast and reliable platform to host your website. Now that you have seen their performance test results, here are some of their other pros and cons.

Pros:

Very fast servers
Excellent customer support
1-click WordPress install
Free SSL certificate and CDN
WordPress staging tools
Integrated firewall and WordPress security features

Cons:

No free domain

Why We Chose Rocket.net

Rocket.net’s servers are fast and highly optimized for WordPress websites. You also get peace of mind with enhanced security, automatic updates, and knowledgeable support. This is why we recommend Rocket.net as one of our best choices for a managed WordPress hosting provider.

Rocket.net Pricing Plans

Rocket.net offers 4 levels of managed WordPress hosting plans starting at $30/month (billed annually).

WPBeginner users can get the best pricing using our Rocket.net coupon.

7. HostGator

HostGator is one of the largest and most popular hosting companies in the world. They offer all kinds of hosting plans, including shared, managed, and VPS hosting.

You can learn more in our complete HostGator review.

Pingdom Website Speed Test

Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for HostGator.

Our test site loaded in less than a second. This is a great result without traffic, so we also ran a k6 stress test to see how extra users affect our site’s performance.

k6 Load Impact Test

We sent up to 50 users at once to our test site using the k6 tool to see how HostGator performs under load. Here are the results:

The average response time of 132 milliseconds is particularly good for a shared hosting account.

Bitcatcha Server Response Time

Response time is also affected by how far your visitors are from the server. We ran a Bitcatcha test to measure response time from 10 locations around the world.

In the United States, our HostGator testing site responded in just 26 milliseconds. Times from other locations were also fast, and the slowest speed in India was still a respectable 261 milliseconds.

You can be confident that a HostGator website will load quickly around the world.

HostGator Pros and Cons

HostGator has grown quickly due to their great shared hosting plans, reliable web hosting, and quality customer service. Here are some of their pros and cons.

Pros:

Reliable web hosting
Free domain and SSL certificate
Free business email address
1-click WordPress install
45-day money-back guarantee

Cons:

Higher monthly pricing
HostGator uses a lot of aggressive upselling tactics

Why We Chose HostGator

Over 2 million customers trust HostGator. They offer a variety of fast hosting plans that fit all budgets and requirements, as well as the user-friendly tools you will need to build a website.

HostGator Pricing Plans

HostGator plans include shared hosting, VPS hosting, cloud hosting, reseller hosting, and dedicated hosting. The Hatchling plan starts at $2.56 per month and allows you to host only one website.

WPBeginner users get up to 81% off with our HostGator coupon code.

8. Bluehost

Bluehost is one of the biggest web hosting companies in the world and an official WordPress-recommended hosting provider. They are a great option for beginners, and their budget-friendly plans are suitable for all kinds of websites.

Learn more in our complete Bluehost review.

Pingdom Website Speed Test

Here are the Pingdom speed testing tool results for Bluehost.

Our test site loaded in about a second. However, this test was performed when the site had little traffic.

k6 Load Impact Test

We then used the k6 tool to test how Bluehost servers respond to increased traffic. We gradually sent up to 50 visitors to the site to see how it would handle increased requests from multiple connections at once.

Bluehost load impact stress testing result

You can see that the blue server load time line remained stable even though traffic and page requests increased. There was an average response time of 135 milliseconds.

Bitcatcha Server Response Time

We also used the Bitcatcha server response test to see how the server response time varies around the world.

The fastest response times were for users in the United States and Canada. In other parts of the world, the time was higher, but still acceptable.

Note that this test was performed with a Bluehost server in the United States. If your users come from other parts of the world, then you can change the server location to improve the response time.

Bluehost Pros and Cons

Bluehost is reliable, fast, and affordable, with friendly 24/7 customer support. Now that you have seen the Bluehost performance test results, you can check out their pros and cons.

Pros:

Affordable hosting prices
Free domain name
Free CDN + SSL certificate
Great customer support
Officially recommended by WordPress
1-click WordPress install

Cons:

Higher domain renewal price

Why We Chose Bluehost

Bluehost is often ranked the #1 web hosting provider by many websites. They offer a wide range of hosting options with tons of features that help you easily build your website. All their hosting plans include expert 24/7 customer support from knowledgeable staff. Most importantly, they offer affordable starter plans that fit any budget requirement.

Bluehost Pricing Plans

Bluehost offers a shared hosting package suitable for starter websites. Their shared plan is available at 4 different levels starting at just $1.99/month.

WPBeginner users can get the best price using our exclusive Bluehost coupon code.

Which Is the Fastest WordPress Hosting Provider?

Now that we’ve shared our performance test results for each hosting provider, let’s take a look at which services are the fastest.

Page Load Time

Pingdom assigned a performance grade to each service to give you an idea of how optimized the hosting is for speed. The grade is based on how well the service implemented its recommended performance optimization strategies.

Half the services in this review were given an A, and the rest a B.

Hosting Provider	Performance Grade	Page Load Time
Dreamhost	A 95	1,690 ms
SiteGround	A 95	417 ms
Bluehost	A 92	1,030 ms
Hostinger	A 91	757 ms
WP Engine	B 90	656 ms
GreenGeeks	B 90	646 ms
Rocket.net	B 87	588 ms
HostGator	B 81	691 ms

A more important metric is the page load time. Here, SiteGround was quickest, with the page loading in just 417 milliseconds.

Most other services had loading times of less than a second, which is very good.

Response Time During Peak Times

The page load times above were tested during low-traffic periods. So, we also tested how each provider’s response time changed when we sent multiple users to the site.

Note that this test didn’t time how long it took the page to load, just how long it took until the server could respond. It also measured how that response time changed as we sent more and more users.

Here are the average response times for each provider during our stress test.

Hosting Provider	Average Response Time
Rocket.net	14 ms
WP Engine	47 ms
Hostinger	66 ms
SiteGround	107 ms
HostGator	132 ms
Bluehost	135 ms
Dreamhost	255 ms
GreenGeeks	272 ms

Rocket.net performed especially well in the stress test, and the other services maintained a stable load during the test.

Response Time Around the World

We also tested each provider’s response times from different locations around the world. That’s because the response time will be slower the further your users are away from the company’s web servers.

Here are the response times (measured in milliseconds) for each provider from 8 locations around the world.

Hosting Provider	US (W)	US (E)	UK	Singapore	Brazil	India	AU	Japan
Hostinger	146	22	9	228	2	71	109	93
Dreamhost	16	78	136	202	233	276	264	129
WP Engine	47	29	96	205	143	237	185	147
SiteGround	44	35	106	203	142	246	177	135
GreenGeeks	61	31	87	229	146	225	195	160
Rocket.net	2	1	3	7	4	5	1	2
HostGator	26	53	156	196	194	261	170	128
Bluehost	46	35	107	212	140	226	179	159

Rocket.net recorded blazing-fast speeds around the world.

SiteGround and Bluehost are good options anywhere in the world because you can choose a data center location where most of your users are.

Besides these hosting providers, if most of your visitors are in the United States, then your best options include DreamHost, HostGator, and WP Engine.

Your visitors in Europe will have the fastest experience with Rocket.net and Hostinger, and the Asia Pacific users will enjoy the fastest speeds with Rocket.net.

Fastest Overall WordPress Hosting Providers

Our top web hosting recommendations are:

Bluehost for budget hosting
SiteGround for premium hosting
Hostinger for small businesses
WP Engine for managed hosting

Based on our performance tests, these are all good choices for fast hosting.

However, if website speed and performance are your highest priority, then you should also look carefully at Rocket.net. They have a better response time under load and around the world than any other provider.

FAQs About WordPress Hosting

Having helped over 2 million+ users start their websites, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are some of the answers to the most frequently asked questions about WordPress hosting.

Do I need WordPress hosting to start a website?

If you want to build a WordPress website, then you need web hosting. Your hosting server is where your website files are stored.

Every website that you see online uses a web hosting provider.

Are there any free WordPress hosting providers?

Yes, there are several free website hosting companies out there, but we highly recommend that you stay away from them.

In most cases, free WordPress hosting providers put advertisements on your website. They may even distribute malware to your users. Last but not least, they can shut down your website at any time without any notification.

Avoid anyone who offers to give you free WordPress hosting, especially if you are serious about your site. Here are reasons why having a ‘free website’ is a bad idea.

How much does it cost to build a WordPress site?

The cost of building a WordPress website varies based on your needs. It can range from $100 to as high as $30,000. We have created a detailed guide explaining how much it really costs to build a WordPress website.

How do I install WordPress on my WordPress hosting account?

Every WordPress hosting provider that we recommend comes with a 1-click WordPress install. You can follow our step-by-step guide on how to install WordPress on your host.

Can I switch my WordPress hosting provider later?

Yes, you can absolutely switch if you are unhappy with your WordPress hosting company.

Most WordPress hosting companies offer free migration services, which makes the process fairly smooth. However, if you want to do the migration yourself, then you can follow our step-by-step guide on how to move WordPress to a new host with no downtime.

Best WordPress Guides for Web Hosting

Want to learn more about WordPress hosting? Here are our best guides on the topic:

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 8 Fastest WordPress Hosting in 2024 (Performance Tests) first appeared on WPBeginner.

September 12, 2022

How to Disable Google Fonts on Your WordPress Website

Are you looking to disable Google Fonts in WordPress?

Loading too many third-party fonts can slow down your website. Visitors with a slow internet connection will have a better user experience if you use just a few system fonts. Plus, using Google Fonts can potentially make your site GDPR non-compliant, and no one wants that.

In this article, we’ll show you how to disable Google Fonts on your WordPress website.

Why Disable Google Fonts on Your WordPress Website?

The typography you choose for your WordPress website plays an important role in its design and brand identity. That’s why many website owners customize their typography by using Google Fonts.

However, loading too many fonts will have a negative impact on WordPress performance. That’s why we recommend you choose just two fonts and use them across your website.

Alternatively, you can disable Google Fonts entirely and simply use the system fonts that come with user’s computer. They look great and load much faster, especially for users with a slow connection.

That’s why we decided to disable Google Fonts when we redesigned the WPBeginner website. We wanted to make it easy for everyone to learn WordPress and grow their online presence, even if your internet connection isn’t the best.

Disabling Google Fonts may not be the right decision for all business websites or blogs. However, if you have visitors from areas with poor internet quality, then this is one way you can provide a better user experience.

Also, there are privacy issues with Google Fonts that may make your website non-compliant with laws like GDPR. Disabling Google Fonts lowers the risk your site will be caught in violation of any international privacy laws.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to disable Google Fonts in WordPress.

Disabling Google Fonts in WordPress With a Plugin

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Disable and Remove Google Fonts plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will automatically disable all Google Fonts used by your theme and plugins. It doesn’t need to be configured.

Now WordPress will automatically use a default font in place of any Google Fonts that were being used. You should carefully check your website to make sure you are happy with the fonts that are now being used.

If you would like to choose different fonts, then see our guide on how to change fonts in your WordPress theme.

Disabling Google Fonts in OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the best lead-generation plugin for WordPress, and over 1.2 million websites use the software to grow their email list, increase sales, and get more leads.

However, OptinMonster uses Google Fonts by default. Luckily, it’s easy to disable them.

Disabling Google Fonts in Individual OptinMonster Campaigns

First, you should visit the OptinMonster website and log in to your Campaign Dashboard. After that, you need to click on a campaign and then click the Edit Campaign button.

This will open the OptinMonster Campaign Builder.

Next, you need to click the Settings icon at the bottom left corner of the footer bar.

In the sidebar panel, you need to select the Advanced tab.

Now you can scroll down to the ‘Display Settings’ section and toggle ‘Enable web fonts?’ to the off position.

Once you click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen, third-party fonts will be disabled for that campaign.

You will need to repeat these steps for each other campaign you want to remove Google Fonts from.

Disabling Google Fonts For All OptinMonster Campaigns

If you are comfortable with adding JavaScript code snippets to your site, then you can disable Google Fonts on all OptinMonster campaigns at once.

To disable Google Fonts in every campaign, you need to add this snippet in your website’s header or footer:

<script type="text/javascript">
	document.addEventListener('om.Scripts.init', function(event) {
	event.detail.Scripts.enabled.fonts.googleFonts = false;
});
</script>

If you want to disable all web fonts, including Google Fonts and FontAwesome, then you should add this code snippet:

<script type="text/javascript">
	document.addEventListener('om.Scripts.init', function(event) {
	event.detail.Scripts.enabled.fonts = false;
});
</script>

The easiest way to add those code snippets is with WPCode, the most powerful code snippet plugin available for WordPress. It lets you easily add custom code to any area of your site, and best of all, it’s free.

First, you need to install and activate the free WPCode plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once activated, you need to go to Code Snippets » Headers & Footer.

Simply paste the code snippet in the Header field and then click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Adding a JavaScript Snippet Using WPCode

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to disable Google Fonts on your WordPress website. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress security guide, or check out our list of ways to make money online blogging with WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Disable Google Fonts on Your WordPress Website first appeared on WPBeginner.

June 15, 2022

How to Fix a Slow Loading WordPress Dashboard (Step by Step)

Is your WordPress dashboard loading too slow?

Having a slow loading WordPress dashboard is annoying, and it hurts overall productivity when it comes to creating content and managing your website. Also the underlying cause of a slow WordPress dashboard can also impact your website conversions.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily fix a slow loading WordPress dashboard, step by step.

Fixing a slow loading WordPress admin area

What Causes a Slow Loading WordPress Dashboard?

A slow loading WordPress dashboard can be caused by a number of reasons, but the most common one is limited server resources.

Most WordPress hosting providers offer a set number of resources for each hosting plan. These resources are enough to run most websites.

However, as your WordPress website grows, you may notice slight performance degradation or slower loading across the board. That’s because more people are now accessing your website and consuming server resources.

For the front end section of your website which is what your visitors likely see, you can easily install a WordPress caching plugin to overcome WordPress speed and performance issues.

However, the WordPress admin area is uncached, so it requires more resources to run at the optimal level.

If your WordPress dashboard has become annoyingly slow, then this means a WordPress plugin, a default setting, or something else on the site is consuming too many resources.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to troubleshoot and fix the slow loading WordPress admin dashboard.

Here is an overview of the steps we’ll cover in this article.

Install WordPress Updates
Update the PHP Version Used by Your Hosting Company
Increase PHP Memory Limit
How to Test Performance of WordPress Admin Area
Monitor WordPress Plugins for Performance
Install a WordPress Caching Plugin
Tweak Admin Screens & Disable WordPress Dashboard Widgets
Fix Slow Loading WooCommerce Dashboard
Block Access to WordPress Admin and Login Pages
Control Autosave Intervals
Switch to Better WordPress Hosting

1. How to Test Performance of WordPress admin area

Before making any changes, it’s important to measure the speed of your WordPress admin area, so you can get an objective measurement of any improvement.

Normally, you can use website speed test tools to check your website’s speed and performance.

However, the WordPress admin area is behind a login screen, so you cannot use the same tools to test it.

Luckily, many modern desktop browsers come with built-in tools to test the performance of any web page you want.

For example, if you’re using Google Chrome, then you can simply go to the WordPress dashboard and open the Inspect tool by right-clicking anywhere on the page.

This will split your browser screen and you will see the Inspect area in the other window either at the bottom or side of your browser window.

Inside the Inspect tool, switch to the Lighthouse tab and click on the Generate Report button.

This will generate a report similar to the Web Vitals report generated by Page Speed Insights.

From here, you can see what’s slowing down your WordPress admin area. For instance, you can see which JavaScript files are taking up more resources and affecting your server’s initial response time.

2. Install WordPress Updates

The core WordPress team works hard on improving performance with each WordPress release.

For instance, the block editor team tests and improves performance in each release. The performance team works on improving speed and performance across the board.

If you are not installing WordPress updates, then you are missing out on these performance improvements.

Similarly, all top WordPress themes and plugins release updates that not only fix bugs but also address performance issues.

To install updates, simply go to Dashboard » Updates page to install any available updates.

For more details, see our guide on how to properly update WordPress (infographic).

3. Update the PHP Version Used by Your Hosting Company

WordPress is developed using an open-source programming language called PHP. At the time of writing this article, WordPress requires at least PHP version 7.4 or greater. The current stable version available for PHP is 8.1.6.

Most WordPress hosting companies maintain the minimum requirements to run WordPress, which means they may not be using the latest PHP version out of the box.

Now, just like WordPress, PHP also releases new versions with significant performance improvements. By using an older version, you are missing that performance boost.

You can view which PHP version is used by your hosting provider by visiting the Tools » Site Health page from your WordPress dashboard and switching to the ‘Info’ tab.

Luckily, all reliable WordPress hosting providers offer an easy way for customers to upgrade their PHP version.

For instance, if you are on Bluehost, then you can simply login to your hosting control panel and click on the Advanced tab in the left column.

From here, you need to click on the MultiPHP Manager icon under the Software section.

On the next page, you need to select your WordPress blog and then select the PHP version that you want to use.

For other hosting companies, see our complete guide on how to update your PHP version in WordPress.

4. Increase PHP Memory Limit

Your web hosting server is like any other computer. It needs memory to efficiently run multiple applications at the same time.

If there is not enough memory available for PHP on your server, then it would slow down your website and may even cause it to crash.

You can check the PHP memory limit by visiting Tools » Site Health page and switching to the Info tab.

You’ll find PHP memory limit under the Server section. If it is less than 500M, then you need to increase it.

You can increase PHP memory limit by simply entering the following line in your wp-config.php file.

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '512M' );

For more details, see our article on increasing the PHP memory limit in WordPress.

5. Monitor WordPress Plugins for Performance

Some WordPress plugins may run inside the WordPress admin area. If plugin authors are not careful, their plugins can easily consume too many resources and slow down your WordPress admin area.

One way to find out about such plugins is by installing and activating the Query Monitor plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item to your WordPress toolbar.

Clicking on it will show performance results for the page you are currently viewing on your website.

This will bring up the Query Monitor console.

Here you need to switch to ‘Queries by Component’ tab on the left side. From here, you can see the performance impact of plugins and find out which one is taking up too many resources.

You can now temporarily disable the slow plugins and see if that improves performance.

If it does, then you can reach out to plugin author and seek support or find an alternative plugin.

6. Install a WordPress Caching Plugin

WordPress caching plugins not only improve your website speed, but they can also help you fix a slow loading admin dashboard.

A good WordPress caching plugin helps you optimize page load speed, CSS and JavaScript delivery, your WordPress database, and more.

This frees up resources on your WordPress hosting server that your WordPress admin area can utilize for improved performance.

We recommend using WP Rocket. It is the best WordPress caching plugin on the market. It works out of the box and makes it super easy to optimize your WordPress performance.

For more details, see our guide on how to properly install and setup WP Rocket in WordPress.

7. Tweak Admin Screens & Disable WordPress Dashboard Widgets

WordPress automatically loads some widgets on the dashboard screen. This includes Quick Draft, Events and News, Site Health, and more.

Some WordPress plugins add their own widgets to the dashboard screen as well. If you have a lot of these widgets loading on your dashboard, it could slow things down.

You can turn off these widgets by simply clicking on the Screen Options button and unchecking the box next to the widgets.

Screen Options to remove unnecessary widgets

Similarly, you can use the Screen Options menu to show and hide sections on different admin screens.

For instance, you can choose the columns you want to see on the posts screen.

8. Fix Slow WooCommerce Admin Dashboard

If you run an online store using WooCommerce, then there are some specific WooCommerce features that can affect the performance of your WordPress admin area.

For instance, you can turn off the WooCommerce dashboard widget by clicking on the Screen Options menu.

Similarly, you can change the information displayed on the Products page.

After a while, your WooCommerce store may add unnecessary data to your WordPress database.

If you are already using WP Rocket, then you can simply switch to the Database tab under plugin settings. From here, you can delete transients and optimize your WordPress database with a click.

9. Lock WordPress Admin Area and Login Pages

Random hackers and DDoS attacks are common internet nuisances that can affect WordPress websites.

These automated scripts access WordPress login pages and attempt to login hundreds of times in a short amount of time.

They may not be able to gain access to your WordPress website, but they would still be able to slow it down.

One easy way to block these scripts is by locking your WordPress admin directory and login pages.

If you are on Bluehost, then you can simply go to your hosting control panel and switch to the Advanced Tab. From here, you need to click on the Directory Privacy icon.

Next, you need to locate wp-admin directory (usually found inside public_html folder).

Then simply click on the Edit button next to it.

Next, you will be asked to provide a name for your protected directory.

Click on the Save button to continue. The control panel will save your options and you’ll need to click on the Go Back button to continue.

After that, you will need to create username and password for the protected folder.

Now, when you visit your WordPress admin area, you will be prompted to enter username and password.

For more details, see our tutorial on how to password protect the WordPress admin directory.

Password Protect WordPress Login Page

Next, you would want to block access to WordPress login page. For this, you’ll need to manually edit .htaccess file on your website and generate a password file.

First, connect to your WordPress website using an FTP client or the File Manager app inside your hosting control panel.

After that, go to the root folder of your website (the root folder is where you can see the wp-admin, wp-includes, and wp-content folders).

Here you need to create a new file and name it .htpasswd.

Next, you need to visit this online tool to generate a .htpasswd string.

You need to use the same username and password that you used for the WordPress admin directory.

Then click on the Generate button.

The tool will generate a username and password string under the output box.

You need to copy and paste this string inside the .htpasswd file you created earlier.

Next, you need to edit the .htaccess file and copy and paste the following code inside it.

### BEGIN BASIC BLOCK
<Files wp-login.php>
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Protected Folder"
AuthUserFile /home/username/public_html/yourwebsite/.htpasswd
Require user jsmith
Satisfy All
</Files>
### END BASIC BLOCK

Don’t forget to replace jsmith with your own username and change AuthUserFile value with the path to your .htpasswd file. You can find it inside the File Manager app.

You can now visit your WordPress login page to see the password protection in action.

10. Manage WordPress Autosave Intervals

The WordPress block editor comes with built-in autosave feature. It allows you to easily restore your content in case you close the editor without saving your changes.

However, if multiple users are working on your website during peak traffic, then all those autosave requests will slow down WordPress admin area.

Now autosave is a crucial feature and we don’t recommend turning it off. However, you can slow it down to reduce the performance impact.

Simply add the following line to your wp-config.php file.

define( 'AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL', 120 )

This line simply tells WordPress to run autosave once every 2 minutes (120 seconds) instead of 1.

Reduce Heartbeat API Calls

WordPress uses something called the heartbeat API to send Ajax calls to a server without reloading a page. This allows WordPress to show other authors that a post is being edited by another user, and it enables plugin developers to show you notifications in real-time.

By default, the API pings back every 60 seconds. If multiple authors are working on your website at the same time, then these server calls can become resource-intensive.

If you are already using WP Rocket, then it will automatically reduce heartbeat API activity to pingback every 120 seconds.

Reduce Heartbeat API activity using WP Rocket

Alternately, you can also use their standalone plugin called Heartbeat Control to reduce Heartbeat API calls.

We recommend reducing them to at least 120 seconds or more.

11. Upgrade or Switch to Better WordPress Hosting

All WordPress performance issues depend on the infrastructure provided by your WordPress hosting providers.

This limits your ability to improve performance to the resources offered by your hosting provider.

The above tips will certainly help you reduce load on your WordPress server, but it may not be enough for your hosting environment.

To improve performance even more, you can move your WordPress site to a new host and sign up with a different hosting provider.

We recommend using Bluehost, as one of the top WordPress hosting companies. Their shared hosting plans come with built-in caching which improves WordPress performance.

However, as your website grows you may need to upgrade your hosting plan.

High traffic sites would benefit from moving to a managed WordPress hosting platform like WP Engine or SiteGround.

At WPBeginner, we use SiteGround to host our website.

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix a slow loading WordPress dashboard. You may also want to see our complete WordPress security handbook or see our pick of the best WordPress plugins to grow your business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Fix a Slow Loading WordPress Dashboard (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

September 1, 2021

How to Easily Optimize WordPress CSS Delivery (2 Methods)

Would you like to optimize your WordPress CSS delivery?

CSS files control the visual formatting and style of your WordPress website. But if your CSS code isn’t delivered in an optimal way, then it could be slowing down your website.

In this article, we’ll show you two easy methods to optimize your WordPress CSS delivery.

How WordPress CSS Delivery Affects WordPress Performance

CSS files are used to define the visual appearance of your WordPress site. Your WordPress theme contains a CSS stylesheet file, and some of your plugins may also use CSS stylesheets.

CSS is necessary for modern websites, but it’s possible for CSS files to slow down your site’s speed and performance depending on how they’re set up.

Even a small delay in site speed creates a bad user experience and may affect your search rankings and conversions, resulting in less traffic and sales.

One way that CSS files can slow your website is if they need to be loaded before the page can be displayed. That means your visitors will see a blank page until the CSS file has loaded. This is known as render-blocking CSS.

Another common reason CSS files can slow your website is when they contain more code than is needed to display the visible part of the current page. That extra code means that they will take longer to load.

The good news is, you can improve your WordPress site’s performance by optimizing the way the CSS code is delivered.

That’s done by identifying the minimum CSS code needed to display the first part of the current web page. This is known as critical CSS.

This critical code is then added inline to the page’s HTML, instead of in separate stylesheets, so that the code can be rendered without needing to load the CSS file first.

The rest of the CSS can then be loaded after your visitors can see the contents of the page. This is known as ‘deferred loading’.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you two methods to optimize WordPress CSS delivery, and you can choose the one that works best for you.

Method 1: Optimizing WordPress CSS Delivery with WP Rocket
Method 2: Optimizing WordPress CSS Delivery with Autoptimize

Method 1: Optimizing WordPress CSS Delivery with WP Rocket

WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin in the market. It offers the simplest way to optimize your WordPress CSS delivery. In fact, it’s as easy as checking a box.

WP Rocket is a premium plugin, but the best part is that all features are included in their lowest plan.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Rocket plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once activated, you need to navigate to the Settings » WP Rocket page and switch to the ‘File Optimization’ tab.

Next, you need to scroll down to the CSS files section. Once there, you need to check the box next to the ‘Optimize CSS delivery’ option.

This feature will intelligently identify the critical CSS needed to format the part of the web page your visitors see first. Your pages will load more quickly, and the rest of the CSS will be loaded after your visitors can see its contents.

All you need to do now is click the Save Changes button and wait for WP Rocket to generate the necessary CSS file for all your posts and pages.

It will also automatically clear the cache for your website, so that your visitors will see the new optimized version of your site instead of the any unoptimized versions stored in cache.

There are plenty of other ways that WP Rocket can help you improve your website’s performance. To learn more, see our guide on how to properly install and setup WP Rocket in WordPress.

Method 2: Optimizing WordPress CSS Delivery with Autoptimize

Autoptimize is a free plugin designed to improve the delivery of your website’s CSS and JS files.

While Autoptimize is a free plugin, it doesn’t have as many features as WP Rocket and takes more time to set up.

For example, it’s not able to automatically identify critical CSS like WP Rocket can. Instead, Autoptimize requires the help of a premium third-party service which is an additional cost and requires extra time to configure.

However, it could be a good option if you’re on a tight budget and don’t need all the other features of WP Rocket to speed up your site.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Autoptimize plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » Autoptimize page to configure the plugin settings. Once there, you need to scroll down to the CSS Options section and check the Optimize CSS Code box at the top.

Once you do that you need to make sure that ‘Aggregate CSS-files’ option is unchecked and then check ‘Eliminate render-blocking CSS’.

You can now click on the ‘Save Changes and Empty Cache’ button to store your settings.

But the plugin will not work properly until you sign up for a Critical CSS account. This is a premium subscription service that will provide Autoptimize the critical CSS code it needs to optimize your WordPress CSS delivery.

To do that, navigate to the Critical CSS tab in Autoptimize’s settings. Here you’ll find the information you need to sign up with Critical CSS. You can get started by clicking the sign up link in the third paragraph.

Once you’ve received your Critical CSS API key, scroll down to the API Key section so you can paste it into the ‘Your API key’ text box. After that, make sure you click the Save Changes button.

Autoptimize now has all of the information it needs to add the critical CSS inline and defer loading the stylesheets until after the page has been rendered. As a result, your website will load more quickly.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to optimize WordPress CSS delivery.

You may also want to see our ultimate guide on how much it really costs to build a WordPress website, and our comparison of the best managed WordPress hosting companies.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Optimize WordPress CSS Delivery (2 Methods) appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 16, 2021

How to Remove Unused CSS in WordPress (The Right Way)

Do you want to remove unused CSS in WordPress so your site will load faster?

Unused CSS is any CSS code added by your WordPress theme or plugins that you don’t really need. Removing this CSS code improves WordPress performance and user experience.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily remove unused CSS in WordPress without breaking your website.

What is Unused CSS in WordPress?

Unused CSS in WordPress is CSS code that loads on your website but isn’t actually needed in order to display the page.

The extra code can make a visitor’s browser take a bit longer to render a page, which creates a bad user experience. The slower loading times can even affect your search rankings, resulting in less traffic to your site.

You can see how unused CSS code is affecting your website by using Google Pagespeed Insights. It will show you a section titled ‘Remove unused CSS’ with details of which CSS files are affecting your loading times.

Why Is Unused CSS Added in WordPress?

CSS is used to style the appearance of your WordPress website. Your WordPress theme includes CSS, with most of it included in a single style.css file.

In addition to your theme’s CSS, your WordPress plugins will also load their own CSS. For instance, WooCommerce will load CSS to display products, a page builder plugin will add its own CSS to display your custom pages, and a form builder plugin will include CSS to style your forms.

Then, you have your web fonts, icon fonts, and other elements that will need to add their own CSS files as well.

Usually, these files are very small and load quickly. However, if your WordPress site has a lot of them, then the effects can add up and have a noticeable impact on your site speed.

How to Remove Unused CSS in WordPress?

There are a few different ways that you can reduce unused CSS on your WordPress website.

However, it would be quite a difficult task to completely remove all unused CSS in WordPress. Because of the way WordPress works behind the scenes, some unused CSS may be hard to find and remove.

That said, we’ll show you two methods to remove unused CSS, and you can choose the one that works best for you.

Method 1. Remove Unused CSS in WordPress using WP Rocket

This method is easier and is recommended for beginners. It greatly improves the overall delivery of CSS files on your WordPress website, including removing most of the unused CSS.

We think it is the best solution for beginners because it is easier and achieves the main goal of providing a better experience for your users. This means your website loads fast on speed testing tools and also feels fast to your users.

First, you need to install and activate the WP Rocket plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » WP Rocket page and switch to the ‘File Optimization’ tab.

Next, you need to scroll down to the CSS files section. From here, you need to check the box next to the ‘Optimize CSS delivery’ option.

This option generates a CSS file that only contains the CSS code needed to display the visible part of your website. It loads that file first, displays the page to your visitors, and then loads other CSS files using a technology called deferred loading.

By removing this render-blocking CSS, your website becomes viewable to users much more quickly than it would if you had to load all the CSS files before the page is displayed.

After enabling the ‘Optimize CSS delivery’ option, click the Save Changes button and wait for WP Rocket to generate the necessary CSS file for all your posts and pages. It will also automatically clear the cache for your website.

Once finished, you can go ahead and test your website performance again using Google Pagespeed Insights.

Additional File Delivery Tweaks to Boost Performance

WP Rocket also allows you to remove query strings from static files, combine Google Fonts files, and minify HTML. All of these tweaks add tiny improvements to your overall speed, which add up to a faster loading experience for your visitors.

You’ll also see options to minify and combine CSS files. These options will reduce HTTP requests and give you an additional speed boost.

However, you’ll need to carefully check your website to make sure that nothing is broken after enabling these settings.

Additionally, you can apply the same optimization for JavaScript files on your website. You can minify and combine them to serve as a single file and defer loading for JavaScript files to improve performance.

For more details, see our step by step tutorial on how to properly setup WP Rocket in WordPress.

Method 2. Remove Unused CSS in WordPress using Asset CleanUp

This method is a little advanced but incredibly powerful and will let you easily remove any unused CSS from any page of your WordPress website.

However, it is a bit complicated and you will need to test your website functionality and appearance thoroughly to make sure nothing is broken.

First, you need to install and activate the Asset Cleanup plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Asset CleanUp » Settings page and switch to the Test Mode tab. From here, you need to turn on the ‘Enable Test Mode’ option.

This allows you to try out different settings and test them as an administrator without affecting website visitors.

After that, you need to visit the Asset CleanUp » CSS/JS Manager page. From here, you can unload unwanted CSS and JavaScript files on a page by page basis.

It will first fetch your homepage and will show you all the CSS and JavaScript files loaded on that page.

You need to scroll down and review the loaded files. If you see a file that you don’t need, then you can unload it for that particular page, post type, or sitewide.

The plugin also allows you to choose specific posts or pages from here, or you can access the same options by editing the post or page as you normally would.

On the post edit screen, you’ll find the Asset CleanUp box just below the post editor.

The plugin will automatically fetch and list all the files and assets loaded when a visitor views this page on your website. You can then simply unload the unused CSS or JavaScript files that you don’t need on that page.

Important: Don’t forget to test your website after removing any unused CSS or JavaScript to make sure that everything is working fine.

Once you are done unloading and removing unused CSS and JavaScript files, you can go to back to the plugin’s settings page and switch off the ‘Test Mode’.

Don’t forget to click on the Update All Settings button to store your changes.

You can now test your website using Google Pagespeed Insights to see the change in the unused CSS notice.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily remove unused CSS in WordPress. You may also want to follow our complete guide on how much does it cost to build a website, and check out our list of the best managed WordPress hosting.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Remove Unused CSS in WordPress (The Right Way) appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 1, 2021

How Fast PHP & MySQL Can Boost Website Speed (Beginner’s Guide)

Ever wondered what’s the impact of PHP and MySQL on your website speed?

WordPress is written in PHP programming language and uses MySQL as the database. Both programs run on your web server thus impacting overall performance.

In this article, we’ll discuss how fast PHP and MySQL can boost website speed. We’ll also talk about how to enable it for your website.

How Faster PHP + MySQL Affects WordPress Performance

WordPress is mainly written in PHP, a programming language that runs on your web server. It stores your website content in a MySQL database.

Both PHP and MySQL run on your web server as an application. When more users visit your website, PHP and MySQL take up more server resources.

Most websites address this by using a WordPress caching plugin. However, processes like .htaccess rules, PHP extensions, and SQL queries can still increase server load.

Faster PHP and MySQL optimize these regular processes to improve their performance and speed. The more traffic your website gets, the more of a performance improvement you’ll see.

This is where Ultrafast PHP can help.

What is Ultrafast PHP?

Ultrafast PHP is an optimized version of PHP which is built by the team at SiteGround. Since WPBeginner is hosted on SiteGround’s Enterprise hosting plan, we were one of the first websites to try it and see the speed benefits.

Now SiteGround is making this feature available to all their customers on their GrowBig, GoGeek and Cloud hosting plans.

For high-traffic websites, Ultrafast PHP can increase performance by up to 30% and reduce TTFB (time to first byte) by 50%.

Your server load will also be reduced, and it will be able to run up to 20-30% more processes while consuming 15% less memory (RAM).

SiteGround is one of the best WordPress hosting companies on the market. They are also an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

Since they use Google Cloud Platform for their servers, this allowed them the flexibility to work on an optimized PHP setup (Ultrafast PHP) that is optimized for their customers’ needs.

Who Needs Ultrafast PHP?

If you have a medium sized WordPress website or an online store, then you need Ultrafast PHP to help you boost performance.

Ultrafast PHP is currently available to users on the GrowBig, GoGeek, and Cloud plans. Usually, these are the users with busier websites that often end up hitting server resource limitations.

This feature is not available to users using the old control panel on SiteGround. However if your hosting account dashboard is using SiteGround’s new client area and Site Tools control panel, then you can turn on Ultrafast PHP. We’ll show you how below.

If your website is super small, then you may not notice much difference. We recommend that you use a caching plugin like WP Rocket or SiteGround’s own SG Optimizer plugin.

If you have a small business website or new blog with not much traffic yet, then you may not need Ultrafast PHP because the latest version of PHP is already optimized for performance. So make sure you are using the latest PHP version for your website.

How to Enable Ultrafast PHP on SiteGround

It is super-easy to enable Ultrafast PHP for your WordPress website on SiteGround. Your hosting account should meet the following criteria:

Your sites are hosted on SiteGround’s GrowBig, GoGeek or Cloud plans
Your account is using the new client area and site tools control panel

Simply log in to your account and click on the ‘Websites’ menu on the top. After that, click on the Site Tools button next to the website where you want to enable Ultrafast PHP.

From here, you need to click on the PHP Manager menu located under the Dev tab in the left column.

Now, you need to click on the Standard PHP option to change it. This will bring up a popup where you can switch to Ultrafast PHP.

Click on the Confirm button to continue.

You will now see a success message informing you that Ultrafast PHP is now enabled for your website.

Testing Your Website Speed after Enabling Ultrafast PHP

You can use Google Pagespeed Insights or any other website speed testing tool to test your performance.

Take a look at metrics like server response time and time to first byte to gauge the performance of your website.

We hope this article helped you learn how fast PHP and MySQL can boost website speed. You may also want to see our complete WordPress performance optimization guide for more tips to speed up your website, and check out the best email marketing services for small business.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How Fast PHP & MySQL Can Boost Website Speed (Beginner’s Guide) appeared first on WPBeginner.

April 28, 2021

How to Use WebP Images in WordPress (3 Methods)

Do you want to use WebP images in WordPress?

WebP images are a modern image format that offers better image compression by reducing the file size. This makes your website load faster and saves bandwidth.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily use WebP images in WordPress.

What is WebP & Why Use WebP Images in WordPress?

WebP is a new file format for images to be used on the web. By using the WebP image format, your images will be 25-34% smaller in file size than PNG and JPEG without losing quality.

If images are slowing down your website, then converting them to WebP format can improve your page load speed test scores.

To learn more about image compression, see our guide on how to optimize images for the web.

Since WebP is a new file format, it is not yet supported by all browsers. However, most modern browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge support WebP images.

Should You Use WebP images in WordPress?

WebP images can help you speed up your WordPress website. It is a recommend best practice to be used along with a WordPress caching plugin, CDN, and more.

By default, WordPress doesn’t support WebP images and uploading a WebP image will show an error.

To fix that, you will need to use an image compression plugin to convert images into WebP image format. You’ll still upload your images in WordPress supported file formats like PNG, JPEG, and GIF, so that they can be used as a backup.

If your site uses lots of images, and they are slowing down your WordPress blog, then you should definitely consider using WebP images.

Here is how to use WebP images in WordPress. We’ll show you multiple methods, so you can choose one that works best for you:

Using WebP Images in WordPress with EWWW Optimizer
Using WebP Images in WordPress with WP Rocket
Using WebP Images in WordPress with SG Optimizer

Method 1. Using WebP Images in WordPress with EWWW Optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer plugin is one of the best WordPress image compression plugins that allows you to optimize your WordPress images. It also supports WebP Images and can automatically show them on supported browsers.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the EWWW Image Optimizer plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to the Settings » EWWW Image Optimizer page to configure plugin options. You’ll be greeted by a setup wizard, but you can click on the ‘I know what I am doing’ link to exit the wizard.

On the next screen, you will see a bunch of plugin options. Scroll down and check the box next to the ‘WebP Conversion’ option.

After that, click on the Save Changes button to store your settings.

Next, you need to scroll down to the WebP Conversion section. The plugin will now show you some rewrite rules with a red preview image.

You need to click on the ‘Insert Rewrite Rules’ button, and the plugin will automatically try to insert these rewrite rules to your .htaccess file.

If the plugin is successful in adding those rules, then the red image preview will turn into green with the ‘WebP’ text.

Sometimes, the plugin may not be able to insert the rules. In that case, you need to copy the rewrite rules from the plugin’s settings page and paste them at the bottom of your .htaccess file manually.

Once you’re done, return back to the plugin’s settings page and click on the Save Changes button again. If the preview image turns green, then this means you have successfully enabled WebP image delivery on your WordPress site.

Alternately, you can choose from JS WebP Rewriting or <picture> WebP Rewriting methods as your WebP delivery options. These are a little slower than the .htaccess method, but it will get the job done.

Bulk Convert Your Old Images to WebP Version

EWWW Image Optimizer allows you to easily convert your previously uploaded image files to WebP images. Simply go to Media » Library page and switch to the list view.

Next, you need to click on the Screen Options button and change the ‘Number of items per page’ to 999. If you have 1000+ images, then those images will appear on the next page.

This way you will be able to quickly select a large number of images for bulk optimization. Next, click on the Select All checkbox at the top to select all images.

After that, click on the Bulk Actions drop-down menu and select Bulk Optimize option. Finally, click on the Apply button.

On the next screen, the plugin will give you an option to skip the image compression and only convert them to WebP. You can check this option if your images are already optimized.

After that, click on the ‘Scan for Unoptimized Images’ button to continue. The plugin will then show you the number of images it found, so you can click on the Optimize button to proceed.

Your images will now be optimized, and EWWW optimizer will generate WebP versions for your images.

Testing Your WebP Image Delivery

Once you have optimized your images, you can go to a blog post or page containing several images. Take the mouse over to any image and right-click to open the image in a new tab.

This will open the image in a new browser tab, and you’ll be able to see that it has a .webp extension in the address bar.

If the plugin is unable to serve the webp image, then you can go back to the plugin’s settings page. From here you can change the WebP delivery option to ‘JS WebP Rewriting’ or ‘<picture> WebP Rewriting’ methods.

Method 2. Using WebP Images in WordPress with Imagify

Imagify is a WordPress image optimization plugin created by the folks behind WP Rocket, the best WordPress caching plugin. It allows you to easily optimize and convert images to WebP image format.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Imagify plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Imagify page to configure plugin settings. From here. click on the ‘Create a Free API Key’ button to continue.

You’ll be asked to enter an business email address after that you can check your inbox for an email containing your API key. Copy and paste the key on plugin’s settings page and click on the Save Changes button.

Next, you need to scroll down to the Optimization section. There you need to check the options next to ‘Create webp versions of images’ and ‘Display images in webp format on the site’ options.

Below that, you can choose from two delivery methods to display WebP images in WordPress. The first one is .htaccess method, and the second one is by using <picture> tag.

The .htaccess method is faster, but it does not work if you are using a CDN service. <picture> tag method works with CDNs too, but it may break some WordPress themes.

You can choose either one that works well for your site. After that, click on the ‘Save & go to bulk optimizer’ button at the bottom.

This will bring you to Media » Bulk Optimization page. The plugin will automatically start optimizing all your WordPress images in the background.

If you have a lot of images, then this may take a while. Don’t worry, you can close the page and come back to it later because closing the page will not stop the image optimization process.

Testing Your WebP Images in WordPress

Once the optimization is done, you can visit a page or post containing a few images. Take your mouse over to an image and then right-click to select ‘Open image in new tab’.

This will open the image in a new browser tab, and you’ll be able to see .webp extension in the address bar.

Method 3. Using WebP Images in WordPress with SG Optimizer

This method is recommended if you are a SiteGround user.

SiteGround is one of the best WordPress hosting companies. They offer a free SG Optimizer plugin to their users which allows you to optimize your WordPress performance. It also includes the option to optimize WordPress images.

First, you need to install and activate the SG Optimizer plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item to your admin sidebar labeled ‘SG Optimizer’. Clicking on it will take you to the plugin’s settings page.

From here you can turn on the caching settings if you want to use SiteGround’s built in caching system.

After that, you can switch to the Media Optimization tab and turn on the ‘Generate WebP Copies of New Images’ option.

Below that, you’ll see the option to ‘Bulk Generate WebP Files’. Clicking on it will start generating WebP copies for all image files in your WordPress media library.

Once finished, your WordPress site will start serving WebP images.

Testing WebP Images in SG Optimizer

To see if your website is serving WebP images, you need to open a page on your site with a few images.

After that, right click and select Inspect tool. This will open the developer console where you need to switch to the Network tab.

From here, click on the ‘img’ tab and then reload the page (CTRL+R on Windows and Command+R on Mac). As your website reloads, you will see all the images loaded in the developer console.

We hope this article helped you learn how to use WebP images in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter, and our comparison of the best business phone services for your website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Use WebP Images in WordPress (3 Methods) appeared first on WPBeginner.

April 14, 2021

How to Optimize Core Web Vitals for WordPress (Ultimate Guide)

Do you want to optimize core web vitals for WordPress?

Core Web Vitals is an initiative by Google which helps website owners improve user experience and quality of their websites. These signals are crucial for the success of any website.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to easily optimize Google Core Web Vitals for WordPress without any special technical skills.

Here is a quick overview of what we’ll cover in this guide.

What are Google Core Web Vitals?
How to Test Your Google Core Web Vitals Score
Why are Core Web Vitals Important?
How to Improve Your Core Web Vitals in WordPress (7 Tips)

What are Google Core Web Vitals?

Google Core Web Vitals are a set of website performance metrics that Google considers important in a website’s overall user experience. These web vital scores will be a part of Google’s overall page experience score that will impact your SEO rankings.

The truth is that nobody likes a slow-loading website including Google.

Even if your website loads fast, it may not be fully functional for users to do what they want to do or access the information they need.

This is what Web Vitals helps you measure. How quickly does your website loads, becomes visible, and is ready for your users?

To do that, Google uses three quality tests (Web Vitals).

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
First Input Delay (FID)
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

Now the names of these tests may sound too technical but what they do is quite easy to understand.

Let’s see how each Web Vitals test works, what they measure, and how you can improve your score..

Largest Contentful Paint – LCP

Largest Contentful Paint or the LCP, looks for how quickly the main content (whether it is an image, article, or description) becomes visible to the users.

For example, your website might load fast, but the largest content may not appear on the screen as quickly as the rest of the page.

Other speed test tools will give you a high score, but from user’s point of view, the page is still slow.

This is why Google measures the LCP as part of their web vital score, so website owners can have a more clear understanding.

First Input Delay (FID)

First Input Delay (FID) measures the time it takes a user’s browser to actually be able to begin processing event handlers in response to a user’s interaction.

In plain english, let’s suppose a user is on your contact form page. They fill out the form and click on the Submit button. FID, will measure how quickly your website processes that interaction.

An even simpler example would be the time from when a user clicks on a link to the time their browser starts processing the next sequence of events.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures the time it takes for a website to become visually stable.

As a website loads, some elements take more time to load than others. During this time, your website’s content may keep moving on the screen.

For instance, if a user is reading a paragraph on a mobile device and a video embed loads above it, this makes the entire content move down. This can be really frustrating if a user was trying to accomplish an action such as adding a product to cart where the button shift down due to other items moving on the page.

How to Test Your Google Core Web Vitals Score

The easiest way to test your Google Core Web Vitals Score is by using the Page Speed Insights tool. Simply enter the URL you want to test and click on the Analyze button.

The core vital results are displayed under the section titled ‘Field Data’ section.

To make it simpler, you will see a message at the top saying ‘[…] field data shows that this page passes the Core Web Vitals assessment’.

In the chart below, you can view the actual score of all three core vitals. Here is how much you need to score to pass the core Web Vitals tests for each item.

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – 2.5 seconds
First Input Delay (FID) – Less than 100 milliseconds
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – Less than 0.1

How to View Google Core Web Vitals for Full Website?

Now Page Speed Insights tool allows you to check an individual page. If the page you are checking is the root of your domain name, then you can also click on the ‘Show Origin Summary’ checkbox.

This will show you the score for all pages served from this origin.

However, to really drill down deep, you can access the Core Web Vitals report in your Google Search Console dashboard as well.

This allows you to see how many URLs on your website passed the tests, which URLs need improvement, and which pages have a poor score.

To get even more detailed reports for Web Vitals, you can use the lighthouse speed test by going to Web.dev Measure tool, or by using the built-in test inside Google Chrome browser.

Simply open a website in Chrome, right click anywhere on the screen, and then select the Inspect option. In the tabs, you will see an option called Lighthouse.

After that, click the Generate Report button.

Note: You must do the Chrome test in Incognito mode for the most accurate results. Otherwise your browser extensions may negatively impact the core web vital score it shows you.

Why are Core Web Vitals Important?

Core Web Vitals are important because they reflect how your website performs for the users. It is focused not just on the faster loading of a website but on how quickly users can actually use it.

According to a recent study, a 1 second delay in page load time can lead to 7% loss in conversions, 11% fewer page views, and 16% decrease in customer satisfaction.

That’s why it is crucial to optimize your website for speed and performance. However, most performance measuring tools didn’t really account for the quality of user experience.

A faster website with poor user experience is still costing you conversions, fewer page views, and poor customer satisfaction. Improving core Web Vitals helps you remedy that.

User experience is also an important factor in SEO rankings. Google has already announced that starting in May 2021 the search algorithm update will include page experience as one of the ranking factors.

That being said, let’s see how you can easily improve your core Web vitals to offer a better user experience on your website.

How to Improve Your Core Web Vitals in WordPress (7 Tips)

Improving your core Web Vitals score in WordPress is not that difficult. Using some essential performance optimization tips you can easily pass the Web Vitals score.

1. Optimize Your WordPress Hosting

Your WordPress hosting company plays the most significant role in your website’s performance.

They are able to optimize their servers for WordPress which gives your website rock-solid platform to build upon.

We recommend using SiteGround for a high-performance website. They are one of the officially recommended WordPress hosting companies, and we use SiteGround for WPBeginner website.

To give your website the performance boost it needs, SiteGround uses Google Cloud Platform for their servers along with ultrafast PHP.

Their SG Optimizer plugin is used by over a million websites. It automatically makes further performance enhancements and turns on built-in caching which does everything WP Rocket does and more.

It’s important to note, that their SG Optimizer plugin only works on SiteGround hosting accounts, and these performance optimizations are available for all plans including the lowest option.

If you’re using another WordPress hosting provider, then we recommend using WP Rocket along with few other tools to achieve better core web vitals score.

WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin on the market. It allows you to easily set up caching on your WordPress website without going into any technical details of server management.

2. Improving Largest Content Paintful (LCP) Score

As mentioned earlier, the Largest Content Paintful (LCP) is literally the largest content part within the viewport of a page. For instance, on a blog post, this could be the featured image or the article text.

The quicker this content loads the higher your LCP score would be.

How do you know which content is considered the largest by the test? Well, you need to scroll down to the test results and expand the ‘Largest Contentful Paint element’ tab.

You’ll see the elements considered for the LCP score. If it is a larger image, then you can try replacing it with a smaller image or an image with lower file size and quality. See our guide on how to optimize images for web performance.

If it is text, then you can try breaking it into paragraphs and headings.

3. Improving First Input Delay (FID) Score

First Input Delay score measures the time between a user clicking on something on your website and their browsers starting processing elements.

The most important tip to improve that is by using a better web hosting or even managed WordPress hosting platform.

Another easy way to improve FID score is by using a caching plugin like WP Rocket. It comes with a built-in feature that allows you to optimize file delivery.

First you would need to install and activate the WP Rocket plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After that, go to Settings » WP Rocket page and switch to the File Optimization tab.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check the box next to the ‘Load JavaScript deferred’ option.

Don’t forget to click on the Save Changes button to store your changes.

Deferring JavaScript allows your website to load without waiting for JavaScript to be loaded. This improves First Input Delay (FID) Score for pages where JavaScript may be the cause.

4. Improving Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) Score

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) score is affected when different elements on a web page are loading slowly and making other elements on the screen move.

You can view which elements are affecting the CLS score by expanding the ‘Avoid large layout shifts’ tab in the Page Speed Insights results.

This will show you the elements that are causing the most layout shift impact during page load.

To make sure that the visual layout of your page does not shift as other items load, you need to tell browsers about the dimensions (width and height) of the elements like images, video embeds, Ads such as Google AdSense, and more.

WordPress automatically adds height and width attributes to images you add. However, you can still check all other media particularly embeds to make sure that all of them have height and width attributes.

One way to do that is by using the Inspect Tool. Simply right-click in your browser and select Inspect to open the developer console.

You can then point and click on different page elements to highlight their source code. There, you can see if the element has width and height attributes defined.

5. Eliminate Render Blocking Elements

Render blocking elements are the elements that are slower to load but are blocking other elements from loading first. This affects your overall Web Vitals score and user experience on your website.

Page Speed Insights results will show you the render blocking elements. These are usually JavaScript or CSS files added by your WordPress plugins, third-party tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Google Ads, and more.

However, most such elements are programmatically added to your site by different plugins or theme. This makes it harder for a beginner user to remove or properly load them.

We have a step by step guide on how to easily eliminate render blocking elements in WordPress without messing with any code on your website.

6. Properly Size Images in WordPress

Another common cause of lower core Web Vitals score is very large images. Many WordPress users upload high-resolution images to their websites which take longer to load and in most cases are not necessary.

This becomes even more problematic for users on mobile devices. Your responsive WordPress theme and WordPress will automatically fit the image to user’s mobile screen but they would still be loading a larger file.

We have a detailed guide on how to properly optimize images for your WordPress website without losing quality or affecting the performance.

7. Use a CDN to Server to Improve Web Vitals Score

CDN or content delivery network are third-party services that allow you to serve static content of your website from multiple servers around the globe.

This allows users to download those static files like images and CSS from servers that are nearest to them. It also reduces load on your website which can then continue loading other elements.

You can use a cloud firewall app like Sucuri which comes with a built-in CDN service. Sucuri also helps you block malicious and spam requests which further frees up your website resources.

You can also use Cloudflare free CDN as an alternative. It comes with a basic firewall protection and CDN service that would improve your website’s web vitals score.

We hope this guide helped you learn how to optimize core web vitals for WordPress. Another important aspect of good user experience is security. We recommend that you follow our WordPress security checklist to make sure that your website performance is not affected by spam or DDoS attacks.

You may also want to see our comparison of best video editing software and best webinar platforms to create performance optimized media content that doesn’t slow down your website speed.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Optimize Core Web Vitals for WordPress (Ultimate Guide) appeared first on WPBeginner.

January 8, 2020

How to Properly Run a Website Speed Test (8 Best Tools)

Do you want to run a website speed test? Most beginners don’t know where to begin and what to look for in their website speed test.

There are a ton of online website speed test tools that you can use. However, all of them present results in a way that it becomes incomprehensible for non-tech savvy users.

In this article, we’ll show you how to properly run a website speed test and the best tools to run your speed tests.

Best Tools to Run a Website Speed Test

There are a lot of free and paid website speed test and performance monitoring tools that you can use. Each one of them has some really cool features that distinguish them.

You don’t need to just test your website with one tool. You can use multiple tools and run multiple tests to be thorough.

However, we recommend users to just use these tools to improve your website performance. Trying to achieve a perfect grade or score on these tools is often extremely difficult and quite impossible in most cases for real-world functioning websites.

Your goal should be to improve your page load speed for your users, so they can enjoy a faster and consistent user experience on your website.

Having said that, let’s take a look at the best tools to run a website speed test.

1. IsItWP Website Speed Test Tool

IsItWP’s free website speed test tool is the most beginner-friendly website speed testing tool. It allows you to quickly check your website performance, run multiple tests, and drill down the results to find out what’s slowing down your website.

You also get improvement suggestions neatly organized. You can click on each category to see the steps you can take to troubleshoot performance issues. The website also offers server uptime monitoring and other useful tools for website owners.

2. Pingdom

Pingdom is one of the most popular website performance monitoring tool. It is easy to use and allows you to select different geographical locations to run a test which is really handy.

The results are presented with an easy to understand overview, which is followed by the detailed report. You get performance improvement suggestions at the top and individual resources as they loaded.

3. Google Pagespeed Insights

Google Pagespeed Insights is a website performance monitoring tool created by Google. It gives you website performance reports for both mobile and desktop views. You can switch between these reports and find some issues that are common among both reports and some that Google recommends being fixed in the mobile view.

You also get detailed recommendations for each issue, which is helpful for developers. However, the tool itself is a bit intimidating for beginners and non-developer users.

4. GTmetrix

GTmetrix is another powerful website speed testing tool. It allows you to test your website using popular tools like pagespeed and YSlow. You can change geographic location and browser by creating an account.

It shows detailed reports with a brief summary of the results. You can switch between the two tools and view recommendations. Clicking on each recommendation will provide you with more details.

5. WebPageTest

WebPageTest tool is another free online speed test tool that you can use. It is a bit more advanced than some other tools on our list. However, it does allow you to choose a browser and geographic location for your tests.

By default, it runs the test 3 times to get your website speed test results. It shows a detailed view of each result which you can click to expand and view the full report.

6. Load Impact

Load Impact is slightly different than other website speed test tools on this list. It allows you to see how your website slows down when more visitors arrive at the same time.

It is a paid service with a limited free test, which allows you to send 25 virtual users within 3 minutes. The paid version allows you to test larger traffic loads. This helps you test website speed test, while also testing how increased traffic affects your website.

7. Uptrends

Uptrends is another free website speed test tool. It allows you to select a geographic region, browser, and switch between mobile and desktop tests.

Results are simple and easy to understand as it also shows your Google pagespeed score in the summary. You can scroll down for details and comb through your resources to understand the performance issues.

8. Byte Check

Byte Check is another free website response time checker. It is made specifically to check TTFB (time to first byte) measurement, which is the time your website takes to deliver the first byte of data back to user’s browser. It is a highly effective way to test how faster your WordPress hosting server is.

You can use any of the tools mentioned above to check your website speed and performance. However, simply running the tests alone would not help you much.

You’ll need to learn how to run these tests properly and use the data to optimize your website.

How to Properly Run a Website Speed Test

Running website speed tests is not guaranteed to tell you exactly how your website performs.

You see, the internet is like a highway. Sometimes there is more traffic or congestion which may slow you down. Other times, everything is clear and you can run through it much quicker.

There are several other factors involved which would affect the quality and accuracy of your results. It is important to run these tests thoroughly before you start analyzing the data.

Let’s see how to properly run a website speed test to get more accurate results.

1. Run Multiple Tests

There are multiple factors that can affect your test. Even though most website speed test tools run over the cloud at the fastest internet speeds, each test would show you slightly different results.

The most important difference you will notice is the time it took to download the complete webpage. We recommend running at least 3 tests to get a more accurate picture.

You can then take out an average result and use it to decide whether or not your website needs improvement.

2. Test from Different Geographic Locations

If most of your customers visit your website from Asia, then testing your website speed using servers located in the USA would not be ideal.

The test results will show you a different user experience than what your actual users are feeling when they visit your website.

This is why you need to use Google Analytics to see where your users are coming from. After that, use that information to select a geographic region for your tests.

For example, if you learned that most of your website users are coming from Europe, then choosing a test server in Germany will give you the closest results.

If your website visitors are from all over the world, then you can run multiple tests to find out how your website performance varies for different regions.

3. Make Sure Your Website Caching is Turned On

Make sure that your website caching is turned on before running the tests. This would allow you to test website caching and how effective it is in improving the performance.

Now the problem is that some caching solutions only store cache when a user requests the page. This means cache takes some time to build and may expire by the time you run the tests.

This is why we recommend WP Rocket. It is the best WordPress caching plugin that lets you setup your WordPress cache with a few clicks and without learning technical stuff.

The best part is that it proactively builds your website cache, which significantly improves your website performance. See our guide on how to set up WordPress cache using WP Rocket for more details.

4. Check the Performance of Your Website Firewall / CDN Service

While WordPress caching plugins can do a lot, they definitely have their limitations. For example, it cannot block DDOS attacks and brute force attempts. It also does nothing against spambots which means your server resources get wasted a lot.

This is where you need Sucuri. It is the best WordPress firewall plugin which improves your server performance by blocking malicious requests.

Now, normally all your website files are served from the same server. You can improve this by adding a CDN service to your website. We recommend using MaxCDN (by StackPath), which is the best CDN solution for beginners.

A CDN service allows you to serve static website files like images, stylesheets, and scripts through a network of servers spread around the globe. This reduces the server load on your website, makes it load faster, and improves user experience for all your users.

Turning on your CDN service and the firewall will improve your test results significantly.

Understanding Website Speed Test Results

The most important parameter that you should look into is the time it takes your website to load.

This is the parameter that affects your users the most. If your website takes longer to load, then users may decide to hit the back button, have a bad impression of your brand, and consider your website of low quality.

If your website is taking longer than 2 seconds to load, then look at the drill-down reports. Find out which resources are taking longer to load.

Usually, these are images, stylesheets, scripts loading from third-party websites, video embeds, and so on. You would want to make sure that those images are served from the cache or your CDN service.

You would also want to pay attention to how long your server takes to respond to each request and how much time time it takes to deliver the first byte.

You would also want to make sure that browser compression (also called gzip compression) is working. This reduces the filesizes between your server and user’s browser by compressing them.

If your page has lots of images and videos, then you may want to consider deferred loading techniques also called lazy loading. This allows content to be loaded when a user scrolls down and only loads the content that is visible on the user’s screen.

As always, you definitely want to make sure your images are optimized for web by using an image compression tool.

The second important parameter you would want to test is the TTFB (time to first byte). If your web server is continuously showing a slower time to the first byte, then you may need to talk with your web hosting company.

All top WordPress hosting companies like Bluehost, SiteGround, and WP Engine have their own caching solutions. Turning on your host’s caching solution may significantly improve TTFB results.

We hope this article helped you learn how to properly run a website speed test and the best tools to run your tests. You may also want to follow our step by step WordPress speed and performance guide to boost your website speed.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Properly Run a Website Speed Test (8 Best Tools) appeared first on WPBeginner.

November 4, 2019

How to Properly Install and Setup WP Rocket in WordPress

Do you want to properly install and setup WP Rocket plugin in WordPress?

WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin in the market because it offers the most comprehensive set of tools to help speed up your website.

However, many beginners are not familiar with the techy lingo and may find it difficult to decide which plugin options they should turn on.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to easily install and setup WP Rocket plugin in WordPress. We will walk you through complete WP Rocket plugin settings, so you can get maximum performance benefits.

Why Use WP Rocket?

No one likes slow websites. In fact, a performance study found that a single second delay in page load time costs 7% less conversions, 11% fewer page views, and 16% decrease in customer satisfaction.

And it’s not just users, search engines like Google also don’t like slow websites. They give a priority to faster websites in search rankings.

This is where WP Rocket comes in.

It is the best WordPress caching plugin on the market and allows you to quickly improve your WordPress website’s speed and performance.

Here is how it works.

WordPress is a dynamic content management system. Every time a user visits your website, WordPress fetches the content from your database, generate a page on the fly, and send it back to the user.

This process takes up WordPress hosting server resources. If a lot of people visit your website at once, then this would slow down your website.

WP Rocket makes WordPress bypass all this.

It crawls and saves a static copy of your pages in the cache and allows WordPress to show the cached page to the user instead of generating a page on the fly.

This frees up server resources on your website and improves overall page load time throughout your website.

We use WP Rocket on many of our own websites including WPForms, OptinMonster, etc.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily install and set up WP Rocket on your WordPress website.

Step 1. Installing WP Rocket Plugin in WordPress

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Rocket plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

WP Rocket is a premium plugin, but the best part is that all features are included in their lowest plan.

Once installed and activated, the WP Rocket plugin works out of the box, and it will turn on caching with optimal settings for your website.

We ran speed tests on our demo site before and after installing WP Rocket. The performance improvement was incredible with just out of the box settings.

The performance improvement is instantly noticeable because WP Rocket doesn’t wait for user requests to start caching pages. It proactively crawls your website and preloads pages in the cache.

You can see caching status by visiting WP Rocket dashboard located under Settings » WP Rocket page.

Now that you have installed WP Rocket, let’s take a look at other WP Rocket options and how to set them up to further improve your website speed.

Step 2. Set up Caching Options in WP Rocket

Fist, you need to visit Settings » WP Rocket page and click on the ‘Cache’ tab.

WP Rocket has already enabled page caching by default, but you can tweak the settings to further improve your website speed.

1. Mobile Caching

You’ll notice that mobile caching is turned on by default here. However, we recommend you to check the ‘Separate cache files for mobile devices’ option as well.

This option allows WP Rocket to create separate cache files for mobile users. Checking this option ensures that mobile users get the full cached mobile experience.

2. User Cache

If you run a website where users need to login to your website to access certain features, then you need to check this option.

For example, if you run a WooCommerce store or a membership website, then this option will improve user experience for all logged in users.

3. Cache Lifespan

Cache lifespan is the time you want to store the cached files on your website. The default limit is set to 10 hours which would work for most websites.

However, you can set it to a lower value if you run a very busy site. You can also set it to a higher value if you don’t update your website frequently.

After the lifespan time has passed, WP Rocket will delete the cached files. It will also immediately start preloading the cache with updated content.

Don’t forget to click on the Save Changes button to store your settings.

Step 3. Minifying Files using WP Rocket

WP Rocket enables you to minify static files such as JavaScript and CSS stylesheets. You can simply switch to the File Optimization tab and check the boxes for the file types that you want to be minified.

Minifying static content makes those file sizes smaller. In most cases, this difference is too small to make any noticeable impact on your website’s performance.

However if you run a large traffic site, then this can definitely have a big impact in reducing your overall bandwidth usage and saving on hosting costs.

The one caveat is that minifying files can also have unexpected consequences like files not loading or not working as intended.

If you turn this setting on, then please make sure to thoroughly review your website pages to make sure everything is working as intended.

Step 4. Lazy Load Media to Improve Page Load Speed

Images are often the second heaviest item on a page after video. Images take more time to load than text and increase the overall page download size.

Most popular websites now use a technique called lazy loading to delay image downloads.

Instead of loading all your images at once, lazy loading downloads only the images that will be visible on the user’s screen. This not only makes your pages load fast, but it also feels faster to the user.

WP Rocket comes with a built-in lazy loading feature. You can enable lady loading for images by simply switching to the Media tab on the plugin’s settings page. You can also enable lazy loading for embeds like YouTube videos and iframes.

Note: While lazy loading images will help improve perceived website speed, you should always save and optimize images for web to get maximum results. Here’s how to easily optimize images for web performance (step by step).

Step 5. Fine Tune Preloading in WP Rocket

Next, you can review the preloading settings in WP Rocket by switching to the ‘Preloading’ tab. By default, the plugin starts crawling your homepage and follow links to preload cache.

Alternately, you can tell the plugin to use your XML sitemap to build cache.

You can turn off the preloading feature as well, but we do not recommend that.

Turning off preloading will tell WordPress to only cache pages when they are requested by a user. This means the first user to load that specific page will always see a slow website.

Editors note: Please keep preloading on to get maximum performance results.

Step 6. Set up Advanced Caching Rules

WP Rocket gives you full control over caching. You can switch to the Advanced Rules tab on the settings page to exclude pages that you don’t want to be cached.

You can also exclude cookies, user agents (browsers and device types), and automatically rebuild cache when you update specific pages or posts.

The default settings would work for most websites. If you are unsure about these options, then you need to leave them blank.

This settings area is for developers and power users who need custom settings because they likely have a complex website setup.

Also See: 19 types of websites you can build with WordPress.

Step 7. Performing Database Clean up using WP Rocket

WP Rocket also makes it easy to clean up the WordPress database. It has very little to no effect on your website performance, but you can still review these options if you want to.

You need to switch to the Database tab on the plugin settings page. From here you can delete post revisions, drafts, spam, and trash comments.

We don’t recommend deleting post revisions because they can be really useful in undoing changes to your WordPress posts and pages in the future. You also don’t need to delete spam and trashed comments as WordPress automatically clean them up after 30 days.

Step 8. Configure Your CDN to Work with WP Rocket

Next, you need to switch to the CDN tab. If you are using a CDN service for your WordPress site, then you can set it up to work with WP Rocket.

CDN or content delivery network enables you to serve static files from a network of servers spread across the globe.

This speeds up your website because it allows users browser to download files from the server closest to their location. It also reduces your hosting server load and makes your website more responsive.

For more information, see our guide on why you need a CDN service for your WordPress site.

We use MaxCDN by StackPath on our websites. It is one of the best CDN service for WordPress beginners.

Alternately, you can sign up for Sucuri, which is the best WordPress firewall and security plugin. Sucuri’s cloud-based firewall gives you a powerful CDN service to serve your static files.

If you are looking for a free alternative, then Cloudflare would work as well. However, Cloudflare’s free CDN offers limited protection against DDoS attacks, and the free plan is quite limited in terms of features.

WP Rocket has separate addons to easily set up Sucuri and Cloudflare on your website (more on this later).

Step 9. Reducing Heartbeat API Activity in WordPress with WP Rocket

Heartbeat API allows WordPress to send a periodic request to the hosting server in the background. This allows your website to perform scheduled tasks.

For example, when writing blog posts the editor uses heartbeat API to check connectivity and post changes.

You can click on the Heartbeat API tab to control this feature and reduce the heartbeat API frequency.

We don’t recommend deactivating the Heart Beat API because it offers some very useful features. However you can reduce its frequency to improve performance specially for larger sites.

Step 10. WP Rocket Addons

WP Rocket also comes with some ready to deploy features available as Addons. Let’s take a look at currently available addons on this list.

1. Google Analytics Addon

The Google Analytics add-on for WP Rocket allows you to host Google Analytics code on your own server. This does not have any significant performance improvement but some users want it to get a 100% page speed score.

This feature is compatible with popular Google Analytics plugins like MonsterInsights and ExactMetrics.

2. Facebook Pixel

If you are using the Facebook pixel for user tracking, then this addon will host the pixels locally on your server. Again, this will improve your pagespeed score but may not have any actual impact on website speed.

3. Varnish Addon

If your WordPress hosting company uses Varnish cache, then you need to enable this addon. This will ensure that the Varnish cache is cleared when WP Rocket clears its cache.

4. Cloudflare

If you are using Cloudflare CDN, then you need this addon to make it work alongside WP Rocket. Simply enable the addon and click on the ‘Modify options’ button.

After that, you need to enter your account credentials to connect WP Rocket with your Cloudflare account.

5. Sucuri

If you are using Sucuri, then you need to enable this addon and click on the ‘Modify options’ button. After that, enter your Sucuri account’s API key to connect your account.

Step 11. Managing Your WP Rocket Cache

WP Rocket also makes it easy for admins to manage and clear WordPress cache. Simply go to the plugins settings page, and you’ll find the options to clear WP Rocket cache on the Dashboard tab.

You can also start a preloading sequence to rebuild the cache on demand.

The plugin also makes it easier to import and export plugin settings. You can switch to the tools to easily export and import plugin settings. This is helpful when moving WordPress from local server to a live website and/or when moving WordPress to a new domain.

Below that, you’ll find the option to Rollback plugin to an earlier version. This comes in handy if a WP Rocket update didn’t work as expected.

If you want to have the same rollback feature for all your plugins, then see our guide on how to rollback plugins to older version in WordPress.

WP Rocket FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

As WP Rocket has grown in popularity, we have answered many questions related to the WP Rocket WordPress caching plugin. Here are some of the top WP Rocket questions:

1. Is WP Rocket free? Is there a free version of WP Rocket available?

No, WP Rocket is a premium WordPress caching plugin. There is no free version or free trial available. They do offer a 14 day money back guarantee.

You may find a nulled version of WP Rocket for free, but we strongly recommend against using those because sometimes hackers use nulled version as a bait to hack your website.

See 9 reasons why you should always avoid nulled version of WordPress themes and plugins.

2. Is WP Rocket worth the price?

Yes it is worth every penny. We are paying customers of WP Rocket and use it successfully on many of our websites including WPForms, OptinMonster, and others.

We also have plans to switch to WP Rocket on WPBeginner in the near future as well. We are closely working with their team to get one particular setting included for it to work on our complex multi-server enterprise hosting setup.

Curious to see what WPBeginner hosting setup looks like? Check out the detailed case study here.

3. Do I need to use WP Rocket with managed WordPress hosting platforms?

The short answer is yes. You can and should use WP Rocket in combination with built-in caching offered by your managed hosting company to unlock additional performance improvements.

A lot of managed WordPress hosting companies like WP Engine, SiteGround, Bluehost, etc have their own caching plugins built in.

WP Rocket plays nicely along those built-in caching options provided by your managed hosting provider while helping you get additional performance benefits with features like CDN, minifying files, lazy loading, smart cache preloading, and more.

4. How to check if WP Rocket is working and caching pages?

To check if WP Rocket is working properly, you need to log out of your site or open it in an incognito window.

Next, you need to open the browser’s source view of the page, and scroll to the bottom. At the very end, you should see a text like: “This website is like a rocket …”

If that text is there, then you know WP Rocket is working properly and caching pages.

5. What makes WP Rocket better than other caching plugins?

In our opinion, WP Rocket is better than other WordPress caching plugins like W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, etc because it offers the most comprehensive set of features, and it is regularly updated to keep up with modern browser standards.

This is the #1 reason why we have started switching all of our sites to use WP Rocket, and soon WPBeginner will be using WP Rocket as well.

We hope this guide helped you learn how to install and set up WP Rocket plugin in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate guide on how to speed up WordPress, and our list of the must have WordPress plugins.

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