Posted April 18, 2022
When optimizing your WordPress website for download speed, mobile performance is particularly important. Although mobile network speeds now often rival wifi, they’re usually still slower than what’s available to a desktop computer that’s hard-wired to a local network. And users who are on-the-go may be even less patient than desktop users when waiting for pages to download. If your homepage takes more than a second or two to become interactive on a mobile device, you risk losing visitors and customers. What’s more, mobile performance is a ranking factor for SEO, so your site could be harder for users to find among better-performing competitors, if its performance is lacking.
There’s a lot that goes into optimizing a website for mobile. It can seem daunting at first. But here are 8 easy ways you can improve your WordPress website’s mobile performance:
All web hosts are not created equal. Especially among shared hosts, some are faster than others. Do your research and choose a host that is optimized for WordPress, known for its speed, and known to provide great customer service – because when you have a website issue, you’ll need reliable help to find a remedy quickly and easily. And if a shared hosting plan isn’t cutting it, consider investing in a Virtual Private Server (VPS) or dedicated hosting.
Caching refers to storing copies of files, pages, and queries that can be served to end users quickly, reducing the number of server requests and processes. Some hosts offer caching at the server-level, so add that to your criteria when selecting a host. And whether or not your host offers caching, you can still add caching to WordPress sites through the use of plugins like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache.
A Content Delivery Network speeds up your website by distributing cached copies of your website files to multiple servers spread across a service area. Using multiple servers distributes the load, so that each server has fewer requests to process – and it has the added advantage of proximity, meaning that it can use the server closest to a user’s location, to shorten the trip and the number of “hops” those files must take to reach the user. Using a CDN like Cloudflare is relatively simple to set up, and their base service level is completely free.
If you’re using an off-the-shelf theme, choose one that includes the specific features and functions you need – and as little else as possible. Themes that include every feature and option under the sun often require end-users to download every feature and option under the sun with every page view, whether they’re being used or not. That makes them inherently slower. Custom themes are tailored to your specific needs and provide faster load times because they come with less bloat.
Your WordPress core, theme, and plugins are updated regularly for security and performance. Be sure to download and install those updates regularly, for top performance. And if you tend to let that task slide, enroll in a professional Website Maintenance Program. The more often you update your software, the less likely it is that the next update is going to cause an issue. (Be sure to keep your PHP version up-to-date, as well. PHP is currently on version 8, but we still find sites that are running version 5!)
Like software updates, database optimization is a task that is often overlooked. If you make frequent content changes or have frequent data processing needs (like with an ecommerce site), your database tends to slow down over time due to little bits of unwanted data that get left behind. Regular optimization reduces the size of your database and keeps it running smoothly.
Images and Video files tend to be the biggest offenders when it comes to download time. But a well-built theme will load images that are physically sized for the specific layout requested (smaller on mobile than on desktop) and compressed to reduce that file size even further. You can easily optimize images with free plugins like Smush or EWW IO. Those plugins also offer “lazy loading” which means they only load images needed by the user’s current view; images further down the page aren’t loaded until scrolled into view.
Like images, video files can also be compressed without losing noticeable quality. You should also consider hosting your video on YouTube or Vimeo, instead of on your own server, to lessen the load on your server – leave streaming to the platforms that were built for that purpose. (You’ll save on bandwidth charges from your host, too!)
In some cases, video files are used as backgrounds or to provide subtle motion. But you might get the same effect by animating still images, creating a slideshow, or by using animated GIFs or CSS transitions. There are many options for adding motion and interest to your pages, so use video sparingly and only when it’s truly necessary.
Most of these options are one-time tasks that you can implement and then don’t have to think about again – just set it and forget it. So if you’re building a new site, add these tasks to your to-do list, prior to launch. And if your website is already up and running, make a point of tackling these one at a time – and measure your progress along the way, using Google’s PageSpeed Insights or GTMetrix. Little by little, you should be able to eke out additional performance benefits – and your end-users will thank you!
For help optimizing your WordPress website for mobile, reach out to PixelPeople. Our website experts will help diagnose problems on your site, find ways to improve site performance, and offer comprehensive Website Maintenance services that will keep your site running quickly and smoothly. We’d love to hear from you!
Tags: website maintenance, website optimization, website speed
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