How To Decrease Your Blog Page Load Speed
Blog Page Load Speed is one of my personal obsessions 
And not only because Google have decided to use it as one of the ranking factors but also because I KNOW that it impacts how your blog manages to retain the readers.
Obviously it helps if content on your blog also presents some information useful to your readers but hey, that is non-technical aspect I will not be talking about right now! What I’m concerned with is how to Decrease Your Blog Page Load Speed using technology and still retain functionality!
Improving Page Load Speed
While there are many ways to get the job done, and I have described a few options in my previous posts:
- Improve WordPress Site Speed To Improve Web Search Ranking
- How To Get More Traffic To Your Blog By Getting Rid Of Bloat
Today I want to talk about One Nifty plugin that will have dramatic impact on your blog.
It does one thing and it does it very well:
It concatenates all scripts and styles, minifies and compresses them, adds expires headers, caches them, and moves styles to the page head, and scripts to the footer. It also minifies the HTML code itself, making your page really lightweight.
I like the fact that it works exceptionally well with WP-Super-Cache plugin making optimization of your entire blog a lot simpler process, while still retaining your functionality and if necessary dynamic nature of it!
There are a few other good options I have considered but at the end chosen not to use that perform similar functions, in some cases a lot more extensively!
Other Plugins To Improve Page Load Speed
I have tested some of the plugins listed and only read about others, so please use your best judgment if you choose to implement any of them, as my personal preference right now is on combination of “WP Super Cache + Autoptimize” plugins:
This plugin is actually a complete caching system for your blog and should be used by itself as it provides pretty much every optimization to improve your blog speed that you need. I have to admit that I have attempted to use it but then gave up.
W3 Total Cache was not designed to run on server combination we have chosen to use on our sites: nginx+php-fpm.
Granted I could spend more time and based on initial tests – this plugin have outperformed WP-Super-Cache by at least twice with very little configuration but I was simply too short on time and settled for what I know works, as good enough! We are still in process of learning all the complex re-write rules we need for nginx and this plugin requires quite a few of them to run properly, which is a non-issue if you use standard Apache webserver!
Created by one of my favorite plugin coders Thaya Kareeson WP Minify allows you to integrate minify engine into your blog. And no, don’t worry – minify installation is extremely simple and can be done on shared hosting So there is nothing to stop you from using it!
How Does it Work?
WP Minify grabs JS/CSS files in your generated WordPress page and passes that list to the Minify engine. The Minify engine then returns a consolidated, minified, and compressed script or style for WP Minify to reference in the WordPress header.
Both of the alternative plugins I have provided require just a bit more involvement with your blog and additional steps but I think they return HUGE benefits if you take the time to do it. Just please read the instructions they come with and you will be rewarded!
but for those of you looking for simplicity of click and activate – combination I use right now on this blog: WP Super Cache + Autoptimize cuts down Page Load Speed in half!
Related articles on Page Load Speed
- WordPress Plugins to Reduce Load-time (performancing.com)
- Speeding Up Your Blog To Keep Your Readers Happy (wassupblog.com)
- Improve Your WordPress Performance With W3 Total Cache (maketecheasier.com)
- Web Performant WordPress | daverupert.com (daverupert.com)
More Options Print This Page! Subscribe With RSS Reader Subscribe by EmailFiled under WordPress |
Related posts: |
About The Blog Author
Alex Sysoef is an IT Consultant, Internet Marketer and ProBlogger who shares his passion and knowledge of WordPress, SEO, Social Media and traffic strategies on his blog WordPress Howto Spotter. Connect on Twitter or Facebook
Thanks for sharing this great tip and plug-ins that will help reduce the blog page load. Isn\’t there a down side to using such plug-ins? Wouldn\’t it interfere with other plug-ins or scripts that one have installed on his or her blog?
Hope to have answer to the above questions. I simple want to protect myself from having to start a new blog from scratch.
Those I shared above – work with what you already have. Just install and configure them – they simply help your existing blog to more efficiently serve pages
Wow! I can hardly believe what I am seeing. After reading your post, I opened up my slowest blog and downloaded Autoptimize WordPress Plugin and configured it.
Normally at this time of the night, it would take ages to switch from one function to another. I thought it was because my server had more people using it at night, but I guess I was wrong.
Where before I would get fed up with the slow speed of my blog, after installing the plugin, I find the waiting time is hardly worth mentioning.
Thank you for the suggestion. I will download this plugin to every one of my blogs.
Marcie Snyder recently posted..Are Heritage Seeds Organic Seeds
I have installed the Autoptimize plugin as suggested, but I am unsure on how to properly configure it to work the best. could you indicate which settings is the most optimal?
Optimize HTML Code?
Keep HTML comments?
Optimize JavaScript Code?
Look for scripts only in ?
Add try-catch wrapping?
Use YUI compression?
Optimize CSS Code?
Look for styles on just ?
Generate data: URIs for images?
Use YUI compression?
Rewrite JavaScript URL?
Rewrite CSS URLs?
Rewrite Image URLs?
Can we write? Yes
Cached styles and scripts
Do not compress cache files Enable this if you want to compress the served files using your webserver?
Your advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks for this post.
Gavin recently posted..SEO Tips for Beginners
I’m a big fan of W3 Total Cache. Granted it’s not for the feint of heart, but it’s incredibly powerful and makes a huge difference to site performance. Like you, I have had issues getting it to work with some of my client’s hosting plans. My fall back is Hyper Cache. It’s not as robust, but does a pretty good job overall. It’s also not as feature rich and would require things like Minify and adding DEFLATE to your .htaccess file.
Real easy tip: Make sure your images are optimized and use the least amount of Javascript possible.
Larry recently posted..Increase blog traffic – 5 easy ways
It is a fact that Google recently announced that page load speed will be counted as part of their 200 ranking factors, but this is just as part and not entirely. On the other hand you can not always listen to Google, they will not tell you the exact combination of the lock.
I have a plugin uploaded in my directory called Super Cache (sorry if its been mentioned), it seems to work pretty well.
Matthew recently posted..Financial Advisors – Should you trust them
i drop down the list of plugin to gear up my blog loading speed, actually there were couple of plugin, which in think, were casuing slow downloading of web pages. This is important as site page load is also consider by Google for ranking and indexing.
Shanker Bakshi recently posted..Is Your Blog Ready for New facebook Search Engine
Excellent tools and suggestions as always.
Am off to install these plugins now. Like you, I might just go with the quicker options, and then delve into the more complex W3 Total Cache when I have some time to look at it more closely.
Keep it all coming
David
–
David Walsh recently posted..Has Your Client Got An Irresistible Product Launch Offer
Thanks David,
Yeah, WP-Super-Cache with Autoptimize should work for most blogs quite nicely and setup is very simple. Also “Autoptimize” has option for CDN integration which should GREATLY improve its effectiveness – I just never explored it.
All I can say is Thank God for Plugins. Without the really smart people who make them, people like me would never be able to implement the things necessary to keep up with changes like this particular one.
By the way Alex, you recently commented on my blog. I noticed your comment was flagged automatically by Akismet. You should check it out and get off that blacklist. You are probably losing a bunch of comments due to that.
I’m STUCK on w3 total cache even though the minifying part doesn’t work fine on my blog so I’m using Google’s minify script. My tutorials on setting up w3 total cache is presently accounting for about 40% of my google traffic
Udegbunam Chukwudi recently posted..How To Advertise On StrictlyOnlineBizcom For FREE!
Hi Spotter
I’ve read good things about W3 Total Cache and have found a great tutorial on setting it up.
I’ve asked a few questions in the tutorial and been told that the default settings are pretty good and give good results.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Keith Davis recently posted..Two way traffic
Thanks Keith,
And yes, defaults should work for most people on cPanel hosting
with standard LAMP setup. Do read their guide that comes with plugin – it might help you determine what settings might require additional attention from you
Great post, I use w3 Total Cache myself and have liked it so far.
BTW, you should probably rename the post title to:
How To Decrease Your Blog Page Load Time
OR
How To Increase Your Blog Page Load Speed