I recently undertook a small project aimed at improving the page speed of a WordPress website. I thought it would be valuable to share my experience with you.

The Challenge of WordPress Page Speed

When it comes to enhancing the page speed of WordPress websites, relying solely on free plugins can prove to be quite challenging. In my case, I decided to utilize two free plugins in order to achieve a faster-loading website.

Free Plugins and Initial Attempts

The first plugin I used was Smush, which effectively compresses and optimizes images to enhance loading speed. The second plugin was LiteSpeed Cache, which helped me minify CSS and JS code while also implementing caching mechanisms.

Despite configuring these plugins, the results were not as satisfactory as I had hoped. In fact, when I ran a Page Speed test on Google, the website only scored 45 out of 100.

This prompted me to delve deeper into the matter, and I discovered that hosting and server quality are major factors influencing page speed. I explained this issue to my client, who fortunately understood the problem and granted me permission to migrate the website to a different hosting provider.

The Crucial Role of Hosting in WordPress Page Speed

The choice of WordPress hosting can significantly impact page speed. Consequently, I moved the website to a reliable hosting server called Sideground. As a result, the page speed score increased to 88.

While we didn’t achieve a score higher than 90, I believe the length of the page may have contributed to this limitation.

In conclusion, this project provided valuable insights. Although I had prior experience with page speed optimization, it was during this particular assignment that I realized how crucial the server’s performance is in slowing down a website.

Feel free to share your own experiences in the comments section below. 😃