Knowledgebase

Optimising Your WordPress Website (Firstserv Guide)

WordPress is a powerful and flexible platform, allowing you to create and manage websites using a wide range of themes and plugins. This flexibility is a big part of its appeal—but it also means that performance can vary depending on how your site is configured.

This guide outlines key best practices to help you keep your WordPress site fast, efficient, and reliable.

1. Keep Your Site Lean

Use Fewer Plugins

Each plugin adds additional processing and load to your website.

• More plugins = more server work per page request
• Poorly coded or outdated plugins can significantly slow your site

✅ Best practices:

• Only install plugins that are genuinely needed
• Choose plugins that are actively maintained and well-reviewed
• Remove unused or outdated plugins

2. Optimise Your Images

Large images are one of the most common causes of slow websites.

✅ Best practices:

• Resize images before uploading (to match display size)
• Use 72–96 DPI resolution for web use
• Compress images to reduce file size
• Aim for file sizes in KB rather than MB

💡 Tip: Use descriptive file names (e.g. product-name.jpg) to improve SEO.

3. Use HTTPS (SSL)

A secure website is essential for both user trust and compliance.

✅ Benefits of HTTPS:

• Encrypts data between visitors and your website
• Required for forms, logins, and e-commerce
• Improves SEO and browser trust indicators

After installing an SSL certificate:

• Ensure all site content loads via https://
• Fix any mixed content issues to enable the browser padlock

4. Use the Latest PHP Version

WordPress runs on PHP, and newer versions offer significant improvements in performance and security.

✅ Recommendations:

• Use the latest stable PHP version supported by your site
• Test your site after updating to ensure compatibility

Adjust PHP Memory

• Recommended setting: ~512MB
• Avoid setting excessively high values unless required

⚠️ If your site requires unusually high memory, it may indicate an issue with plugins or code.

5. Enable Compression (GZIP)

Compression reduces the size of files sent to visitors’ browsers, improving load times.

✅ Benefits:

• Faster page delivery
• Reduced bandwidth usage

6. Enable Caching (Essential)

Without caching, your server rebuilds pages on every visit.

With caching:

• Pages are stored temporarily and served instantly
• Server load is reduced significantly

Use LiteSpeed Cache

All Firstserv servers support LiteSpeed Cache, which:

• Dramatically improves page speed
• Reduces resource usage
• Provides built-in optimisation tools

✅ Additional features:

• CSS/JavaScript optimisation
• Image optimisation
• Lazy loading

Advanced (Premium Hosting)

If you’re on a higher-tier plan, you can also enable:

• Redis Object Cache – improves database performance for dynamic sites

7. Disable Default WordPress Cron

WordPress runs scheduled tasks (wp-cron.php) on every page load, which can:

• Increase CPU and memory usage
• Cause performance issues on busy sites

✅ Recommended approach:

• Disable WordPress cron
• Replace it with a controlled cron job via cPanel

8. Optimise Your Database

Over time, your database can become cluttered with:

• Revisions
• Spam comments
• Temporary data

✅ Regular optimisation improves:

• Query speed
• Overall site performance

9. Monitor Performance

Use performance tools to analyse and improve your site:

• Identify slow-loading elements
• Detect external services causing delays (e.g. fonts, APIs)
• Review loading “waterfall” data

⚠️ Remember:

• Performance scores are only guidelines
• Real-world speed and user experience are more important

Final Tips

• Always test changes after applying optimisations
• Use a staging site where possible before updating your live site
• Make incremental changes and monitor performance improvements

Summary

To optimise your WordPress site:

• Minimise plugins
• Optimise images
• Use HTTPS
• Update PHP
• Enable caching and compression
• Control cron jobs
• Maintain your database

By following these best practices, you can significantly improve your site’s speed, stability, and user experience.

If you need assistance optimising your WordPress website, the Firstserv support team is always available to help.