There are several methods to speed up a Wordpress blog like optimising images or reducing the HTTP Requests, etc but here I’ll describe to you the most important ones which you should first take into consideration before applying any other techniques. By following these 3 simple steps, you’ll will gain a considerable boost in speed right away.
- Use excerpts on frontpage
- Wordpress’ built-in compression feature
- Reduce your stylesheet’s size
Many people still doubt or prefer not using excerpts but indeed post excerpt has various benefits, one of which is to help you gain some speed. Instead of displaying several full posts loaded with images, clips, etc, use the excerpt feature on the frontpage making your blog load faster when someone is accessing it. Read the full details on using post excerpt at Things you should know when using post excerpt.
A really nifty feature of Wordpress which many of us don’t use is its really simple compression feature that can be activated at a click’s reach by logging to your Wordpress admin section > navigate to Options > Reading > WordPress should compress articles (gzip) if browsers ask for them. This will provide your visitors with a much lighter version of your blog by compressing some PHP down within it.
Do make sure though to deactivate the WP-Cache plugins if you’re using it since having both, the gzip compression and WP-Cache plugins on might mess things around.
Making your stylesheet(the style.css file found in your current theme’s folder) the smallest size possible will allow you to gain considerable loading speed since it’s loaded everytime.
The simplest way is remove the comments and coding things on the same line instead of several lines(left to right fashion instead of top to down one).
body {font: 62.5% Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif; color: #444;background: #EDEDED;text-align: center; margin: 0 0 30px;}
instead of
body {
font: 62.5% Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif;
color: #444;
background: #EDEDED;
text-align: center;
margin: 0 0 30px;
}
Else I would suggest you using the CSS Tweak which will do this automatically for you. Make sure though that you use CSS Tweak only if you won’t be touching your stylesheet in the near future since for those that are not used to reading code that way(all on the same line), this might well confuse them.
Just save your style.css and upload it to CSS Tweak. Select the various things you want removed from the stylesheet and click tweak. You’ll then be offered the optimised stylesheet(with a percentage of how much smaller it is) which you can then upload to your current theme’s folder overwriting the previous one. Always keep a copy of the unmodified stylesheet if there is a need to change things. Just name it to something else(e.g original_style) and keep it in your current theme’s folder itself.
After applying the various techniques, compare your speed before and after and see how much you’ve gained. Use Pingdom that will provide you a detailed analysis of your blog’s loading time with separate item’s loading time like how long your stylesheet, any scripts you might be using is taking to load,etc. Just enter your blog’s URL/address at the top and hit Test Now. The results will be displayed as follows : every items(post,images,etc) loading time and your blog’s overall loading results which you can see at the Website information.
Previously I also talked on gaining speed by displaying images properly on your blog, but make sure to check out DailyBlogTip’s 6 Ways to Speed Up Your Site which holds further tips you could apply after playing with the above ones.
Like I’ve said above, that should be the first steps to your blog speeding journey since this list isn’t a definitive one. Thanks for reading and do please leave your comment if you need help or subscribe to my blog if you enjoyed it.
Tags: 44 Comments
44 responses so far ↓
3 simples façons pour accélerer le chargement de son site…
Des trucs simples pour gagner en vitesse sur son blog….
Pingdom seems like a useful tool for a detailed look at your blog’s loading time.
Nice tips. Agreed with Brown ; Pingdom was a nice find.
Good tips, but I’m not a fan of excerpts on the front page. Actually, I’ll rarely click “read more” on a blog if I see excerpts. I know it’s an oft-debated issue (excerpts or not), but I think they take a way from the user’s ability to read / digest / enjoy the content.
Excerpts are particularly awful in feeds (but that’s another issue entirely!)
hey! love ur theme. am not very good at this so could u pleaseeeeee tell me how i can use/incorporate this thing for my blog???? thanks a ton!
Great tips!
I just moved to a new server, and I’ve seen a huge difference in speed-time. But, I’ll forward these tips to my web-chicks so we can make it even faster!
I wonder if my non-techie brain will be able to do #1.
Thanks
Hey Hans,
Great points! Worpdress (gzip) compression is especially helpful for the end-use experience - since most browsers have the built-in capability to un-compress web pages.
Have an awesome day!
Dan
Great tips!
Thanks for pointing out Pingdom. It’s a cool tool to use.
Hi Hans,
A couple of good tips there, and, as everyone else has said, Pingdom is quite useful.
I would like to disagree with your point about style sheets though. While it is obviously optimal to reduce the size of your CSS file, it isn’t the top priority thing to do in my opinion. This is because your CSS, as well as any javascript files, is cached by the user’s browser. Once they have visited your site for the first time and cached all the scripts and style sheets, further visits will be much quicker.
First impressions are undoubtedly important, but compressing a style sheet by removing white space is relatively useless.
@ Ben Yoskovitz
please give Things you should know when using post excerpt. a read which will tell you how to use excerpt properly(displaying full post,etc).
sure, using excerpt has got advantages when you really know about them else many might think it’s useless using it.
Thanks indeed for your comment and the visit.
@ posh
since you’re on Wordpress.com, you can use only those themes available under your Presentation section
else the theme is called MyJournal Hypereal if you ever host your own blog in the future and I’ll be too glad to help you get things right.
@ Ponn Sabra
for this, make sure to read that article which will describe you in easy steps how to use and display excerpts successfully. Else if you need further clarification, I would be glad to help you right away.
Thanks indeed for enjoying the tips.
@ Phil
Hi Phil, thanks for taking the time to put down your thoughts. First I think, making the stylesheet the smallest possible is a priority : for first time visitors. Those getting on your blog for the first time will have their browser loading all that big stylesheet. First impressions count and if a new blog is taking too long to load, it’s a lost visitor and no further revisit. That’s why I placed it among the first things to watch out for. Just like you mentioned it.
Many people like to have loads of fancy comments in their stylesheet which really bloat that thing up. Using such a tool like CSS Tweak, one can remove them.
I have tried the stylesheet method and found it gave me a considerable boost in speed. Didn’t it worked for you?
Yes, pingdom’s tool is nice. You might also want to try out Web Page Analyzer, a free online tool from Site24×7 to analyze web page load times.
nice post indeed. i didnt expect to find such practical and useful links in here. considering now everybody and anybody can write a post on speeding up blogs…lol
thanks!
Regarding using excerpt, well my page views of my blog has not been effected by removing post teaser plugin. I find it painful to click read more everytime i am browsing posts..its a lot easier to browse through posts when everything is displayed on one page..
You are better off compressing your CSS than making it unreadable it only takes a minute to do, but the effects can be amazing.
Open your themes header.php file and change
to.phpCreate a new file in your theme named style.css.php
Paste the following into the CSS file:
This method reduces the filesize of my style sheet from 9KB to 3KB, and by adding the php code into a seperate file it leaves you free to edit the style.css file normally.
These are some good practical tips. You now have a new subscriber!
Good advice. Css files are pretty small to start with. I think most important it to make sure all your images are optimized so they load faster to start with. Be sure to use gif and jpg instead of png which can be 10 times larger than a jpg of the same quality. Avoid or convert png images that come with your theme as that can cut more kb off your initial load time than compressing a css file. Of course, after caching this won’t matter, but it’s good practice.
Especially optimize images that appear only once with a post, not being part of the theme decoration. If you use Adobe/MM Fireworks you can expertly optimize images, and of course there are other programs i don’t have. For jpg use about 70% compression and reduce chroma. Images with less detail can be compressed more with little degradation. With gif don’t include transparency if you don’t need it.
I like to use an old program called Adobe Imagestyler that is very streamlined for optmization, but I doubt you can find it anymore.
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@ Sharique
Using post excerpt allows your visitors to save time and come back again for your contents, since reading the excerpt they will know whether a post pertains to a subject of interest to them. This will allow them to save time and thank you for that.
@ Aaron
thanks for this great tip. I’ll try implementing and tell you if I spot any speed change.
@ Erjati
thanks for your comments Erjati. On my side, I use Macromedia Fireworks, that might sound old but it worked well for me since I’m on a slow PC too. I just use the export image option then specify the dimension of the image I want(nice for putting them on post because of the content’s width).
I’ve also discussed about an important plugins that you should be implementing when using image. Make sure you have it on.
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That is a really good list of things for beginners to be aware of. I think another really important one is to optimize your images and use gif’s instead of jpg files when possible.
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Yeah, that’s good. Except that I can’t do a thing of what you say… probably we’re using an old Wordpress format…
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Thank you for these good tips. This really great articles.
If there is a way this can be done, bloggers should try as much as they can to make the their pages faster. It’s a good idea that bloggers should use Pingdom.
Thanks for the tip. I realized that speed also depends on the datacenter. A blog that is hosted in the states might load slow in Europe.