Before jumping into caching or CDNs, start with the basics. These three fundamentals impact performance more than any plugin or speed hack.
1. Use Quality Hosting
Not all hosting is equal. Most budget providers run your site on shared servers, where CPU, RAM, and disk I/O are split between dozens—or hundreds—of other websites.
For simple brochure sites, shared hosting might be acceptable. But for eCommerce, membership platforms, or anything with logged-in users or dynamic content, shared hosting often causes delays and inconsistent load times.
Recommendations:
- Use VPS or cloud hosting with dedicated resources
- Choose providers that offer control over your stack (PHP versions, Nginx/Apache config, etc.)
- Prioritize reliability and support over flashy dashboards
2. Limit Plugin Use
Every plugin adds code that runs on every page load—whether you’re using its features or not. A typical marketing site can run efficiently with 15–20 well-chosen plugins.
More complex sites will naturally require more, but it’s important to:
- Avoid plugins with overlapping functionality
- Remove unused or rarely used plugins
- Audit for performance-heavy plugins (especially visual builders or analytics add-ons)
Bloated plugin setups lead to slower queries, longer load times, and more chances for conflicts.
3. Optimize Images
Image files are often the largest assets on a page. Uploading 3MB photos straight from your phone is a guaranteed way to slow things down.
Best practices:
- Resize images to the actual display size (e.g., 1400px max for most layouts)
- Compress images using tools like ShortPixel, Imagify, or TinyPNG
- Use modern formats like WebP where supported
WordPress doesn’t optimize images out of the box. You have to take the lead here.
Now the Technical Side
Once your hosting, plugins, and media are optimized, these techniques can push your performance even further.
Page Caching
Page caching stores the final HTML output of your site so that PHP and MySQL don’t have to run for every page view. This is especially important for high-traffic sites.
- Use plugins like WP Rocket, Cache Enabler, or LiteSpeed Cache (if supported by your server)
- For logged-in users, consider segmenting cache (e.g., with Varnish or Edge Side Includes)
Object Caching
Object caching stores the results of expensive database queries in memory. It’s critical for sites with lots of custom queries, like WooCommerce or membership sites.
- Use Redis or Memcached
- Requires server-level support and a plugin to connect (e.g., Redis Object Cache)
This reduces database load and speeds up repeated queries.
OPcache
OPcache is a PHP extension that stores precompiled script bytecode in memory. It speeds up execution by skipping the parsing and compilation step on each request.
- Enabled by default on most modern PHP installations
- No plugin required, but check your host’s settings to ensure it’s active and configured correctly
CDN (Content Delivery Network)
A CDN offloads your static assets (images, CSS, JS) to edge servers around the world. This shortens the distance between your users and your files, improving load times.
- Cloudflare is free and easy to set up
- BunnyCDN and KeyCDN are good paid options with better customization
- Combine with page caching for the best results
Bottom line:
Don’t start with plugins or CDNs. Start with your infrastructure, your codebase, and your content. Optimize those first. Then bring in the tools to squeeze out the last 20%.
