25 Ways to Speed up a WordPress Website – Part 2

16) Disable trackbacks and pingbacks

When a blog or webpage receives a link, the user will get notified through trackbacks and pingbacks. These are WordPress's two basic features. It would create unnecessary load on the servers whenever someone would link up the website and generate requests from WordPress back and forth. During the DDoS attacks, these features are going to get exploited. Hence, disabling these two features will improve the speed of the website. Google Webmaster is also an alternative that can be used instead of these features.

17) Keep a check on the number of post revisions stored

To keep post revisions to a minimum, install the Revision Control plugin . Do not set it too high that the entire back end gets cluttered with posts that aren't required. Set it to 2 or 3, that way the user will have something to resort to in case they have made a mistake.

18) Set up monitoring for uptime and website errors

Tools such as Pingdom provides automatic monitoring to measure the speed of the website. If it gets slowed down, Pingdom will send an email notification to the user to notify them. Users will need to get registered to receive the emails.

GTmetrix provides services such as monitoring visual render time and key metrics like server response time, and it is going to be appreciated by the website visitors and Google.

Uptime Robot notifies users through SMS or an email for any issues or downtime on the website. It also monitors several websites for users.

The problem can be solved only when the user is aware of it, "What gets measured gets managed" is a saying.

19) Disable leeching and hotlinking of your content

When other websites give a direct link to the images of a user's website in their articles, it is known as hotlinking. Hotlinking is bandwidth thievery, and it increases the load on the server. Instead of uploading images from the media library, the image will upload from a link to another website. Hotlinking is a method of using images that are not part of the website.

The server has to work to deliver the image to another website, it consumes bandwidth, and the user gets nothing in terms of traffic.

If the users do not disable the leeching and hotlinking, then they are decreasing their website performance, and leechers will get free access to their bandwidth.

20) Avoid using sliders for better conversions and speed

As sliders load extra JavaScript, it slows down the website speed. Due to low CTR (Click-Through Rate), they decrease conversions to as little as 1%. Sliders are not mobile-friendly for mobile users, and it does not provide a good user experience. It is better to go for a theme that users can use instead of sliders for their homepage. Sliders don't add any value to the website.

21) Go for a better social sharing plugin

JavaScript gets used a lot in social sharing plugins, and the more it is used, the slower the website is going to be. To improve the speed, the user can opt for displaying only social sharing icons without the counts. Although social counts help increase the traffic and with social proof, hence for better business results, it's ok to compromise a bit on speed.

Social Warfare is a light plugin developed for social sharing. It doesn't slow down the website, and also optimizes the website speed.

22) Remove query strings from static resources

URLs that contain "&" or "?" are known as Query strings. Removing query settings can improve the score when testing through GTMetrix or Pingdom, although it doesn't increase the loading speed of the website. This option can be turned on inside WP Rocket .

23) Keep your website secure by enabling HTTP/2 and HTTPS

Keep a check on the access log for any attempts to brute force attacks on the website. Resources that are getting used for preventing attacks cannot process queries to the database or the website's code. Security is another speed-up technique that goes unnoticed.

Hackers will try to exploit vulnerable plugins or break into websites to steal the website's resources. Likewise, DDoS (Denial of Service) attacks by unethical competitors on the website can slow it down, and drain its resources.

Always keep WordPress, and it's components like themes and plugins updated. Frequently check the server resources and log files to keep tabs on server load. Excessive server load can happen when bots are attacking the website. Ideally, users will get the notification if the server load is too high so they can investigate.

If the website is on HTTP, upgrade it immediately to HTTPs.

24) Minimize external HTTP requests

The website will experience a decrease in the page load speed because of too many HTTP requests getting generated by WordPress plugins and themes. To deal with this problem, users can reduce the external HTTP requests and keep them to the least by disabling styles and scripts that they don't use.

25) Secure Your Site

• Put a WordPress security plugin to place:

  A security plugin will keep a regular check on the activities taking place on the website, inspects for malware, and ensures the security of the website.

• Disable file editing:

  This setting prevents hackers from infusing malicious code to the WordPress plugins and themes in case they gain access to the admin panel of the website.

• Change your WordPress login URL:

  Change the WordPress login URL, by default it is "yoursite.com/wp-admin". Leaving the URL default will increase the chances of getting target by brute force attack to crack the password and username combination.

• Hide .htaccess files and wp-config.php

  - Hiding these files would prevent hackers from accessing them, and would be of great help in securing the website.

• Don't use nulled themes:

  Nulled themes can be from dubious websites, they are available to download for free, but are illegal, and not from official market places.

• Choose a strong password:

  Complex password or password with letter combinations, symbolic characters, and a variety of numbers is essential when setting a password for the website. Passwords are an integral part of the website. There should be no compromise on it.

• Install SSL Certificate:

  Websites that process sensitive pieces of information, such as credit card details, passwords, need to install an SSL certificate. It is mandatory to install. The search giant Google gives preferential placement to websites with an SSL certificate.

• Keep WordPress version updated:

  Regularly update the WordPress website to keep it secure. Developers are improving the security features through these updates. Keeping WordPress to the latest version will also protect users from becoming the target of any pre-identified discrepancies that hackers can use to get access to the website.

• Limit the number of login attempts:

  Default WordPress settings allow users to log as many times as they want. It increases the risk of brute force attacks on the website. Users can prevent brute force attempts by limiting the number of login attempts at the time.

To Summarize

Improving the website's loading time will give a better user experience to the visitors. It will boost the ranking in the SERPS. The website's conversions, bounce rate, and search rankings depend on the speed of the website.Even a few seconds can make a difference. The main aim is to develop a high-quality website for users. Fast website-loading and reduced bandwidth usage of user's hosting will benefit them in short as well as in the long run.