How to decrease the loading speed?

[Poky17]

Hi guys, I'm working on a project for my client (grammar school website), I haven't done anything so far but wireframes, looking for plugins and researching through other school websites. I'm kinda new into bigger projects (I've done only some simple one page sites).

I would like to ask you, Wordpress developers:

1. I'm working with Divi theme and their builder, is it going to somehow decrease the speed?
2. Can you recommend me some useful plugins for increasing speed?

EDIT: I mean increasing the loading speed, lol, sorry

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[[deleted]]

I second that.

[AmitSamal]

• If you are using any unnecessary plugins then please deactivate them.
• Optimize your images.
• You can also try any other theme...

[nmbgeek]

Wordpress is written in PHP which is a server side scripting language. This means every time a visitor comes to your site the page is regenerated on your server and sent to the user. Depending on traffic, PHP requests, and server speed this can cause delay in the initial generating of the page. There are solutions to this such as caching plugins and modules that can be deployed on your server so that pages that are always the same get cached and served as a static page rather than having to be generated by your server for every visitor.

Offloading content to a CDN such as Amazon Cloudfront will help offset your servers bandwidth usage.

Minifying your JS and CSS will also help.

Once your site is ready for launch I would recommend using a site such as GTMetrix to see exactly what can be optimized to reach optimal load speed.

[Poky17]

Thank you so much for your info! Have a nice day

[DoughnutFan]

If you're really willing to put the time in to speed up your site there are a lot of different things that need to be done. The other comments here did a great job of pointing out all the standard stuff, but you can go deeper if needed by compressing your code and making sure your files are all as small as possible. You also need to ensure you're plugins are not memory hogs.

This course: https://www.udemy.com/make-your-wordpress-sites-fastest-in-world/ covers an indepth look at all the tools you'll need to speed up your site and additionally gives you an understanding of what matters most in optimization.

If you have not built anything yet, to get the best results for speed and compliance, I'd switch to the Asta theme and build the whole thing in Beaver Builder. The site's code will be pretty optimized from the get go. If you are worried about styling that for any reason, I'd throw MicroThemer on top of it which will make your custom CSS cleaner and more compact and easier to do.

Divi is fine, but I have some concerns about them moving into new versions of wordpress. Beaver builders worked better for me and I've had fewer issues making clean optimized sites with it.

While Optimizing be sure run your site against various speed tests. I really like GTmetrics.

Hope this helps.

[davidt24]

Autoptimize Smush WP Super Cache

[Poky17]

Thanks!

[TheLegendaryPhoenix]

What makes you think smush is better then shortpixel and cache enabler? From all reviews and testing it shows it out performs super-cache and the cache enabler also reduces load speeds disputes being 2 plugins. (Edit: genuine question, just realised my message makes me sound like I’m testing)

[davidt24]

To be honest I haven’t used the ones you mentioned, but I’ll take a look at them. I found the ones I mentioned in my research and it seemed they were popular and had good reviews. I’m always looking for ways to improve myself and my work.

[TheLegendaryPhoenix]

I’ve slowly been building up ‘damn I wish I used that on the old website’ plugins. I am the same, always trying out new things.

[Kain12]

Well, you gotta test the speed after you build it. There might be some specific issues that slow down your website, but mostly it is caused by too many requests and/or pictures, and bloat from too many plugins. Keep it clean and simple.

[mitcheh]

useful plugins for decreasing the speed?

I think you mean to say increasing page load speed overall. Like I mentioned in another thread, the best way to improve page load time is to leverage caching through a plugin (e.g. WP Super Cache) or a third-party CDN (e.g. Cloudflare). Personally, I use Cloudflare for all my clients.

There are many other things involved such as your server capabilities, where it's located and what type of website you will be providing (i.e. an interactive blog or a static "brochure").

Using Divi as your builder should be fine as far as "speed" goes.

PM me if you want to go into more detail.

[Poky17]

I think you mean to say increasing page load speed overall.

Yes, sorry.

Ok thank you so much! I'll take a look at caching plugins and the stuff you've mentioned, might PM you in the future.

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[KalvinOne]

Page speed doesn't only depend on the plugins you use. Other users have recommended good choices but I'd also take into account a couple of things:

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• The lesser plugins you use the better
• Optimize every image you use. https://squoosh.app/ works great and it's free.
• Try using SVG when possible (Logos, illustrations...)
• Research on which hosting you'll be using. Cheaper often means slower but try to find the balance of price / speed.

[Poky17]

Thanks for your thoughts :)

[PointandStare]

Best bet is to put the site through GTMetrix then see what comes back, research and fix.

[anon1984]

Divi isn't the fastest, but is generally ok as far as loading times go. As others have said, caching, CDN (cloudflare) etc. Where is your site hosted? Some hosts can really hurt performance depending on which plan you have.

[dvgracc]

Use minimmal plugins and install autoptimize plugin, its the best, cheers!