Objective: Load a WordPress site in 3s or less
First, test the page load speed and take a screenshot for your records. You can use a https://tools.pingdom.com/
Step 1
Putting the following Code in htaccess file (from Cpanel):
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
</IfModule>
## EXPIRES CACHING ##
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/png "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/css "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access 1 year"
ExpiresDefault "access 2 days"
</IfModule>
## EXPIRES CACHING ##
Step 2
After putting the above code, we then have to install two WordPress plugins. They are
1. GZip Ninja Speed Compression: to activate gzip for a site
2. WPFC: For Clear the web page cache automatic
Important Note: First you have to activate WPFC and from its settings check all the available options. See the the image below as an example:
Step 3
Lastly, we need to optimize all web images. Make sure when you upload any image to the site try to use images that are less than 200kb. Note:keep good image resolution.
There are two plugins we use to optimize all images on a website. The first 500 image compressions are free. The plugins we use are:
1. ShortPixel Image Optimizer
2. Compress JPEG & PNG images
There are many other options, but these are what we use.
Follow these steps and your site will be Super fast and should load in less than 3s.
Step 4
Test the page load speed and take a screenshot for your records. How much faster is your site loading? Post your results below:
Make My WordPress Site Faster, Please!
We include monthly site optimization in all of our Web Care Plans. Let us know if we can help do it for you, too!
