Well, most of us use WordPress as a CMS for the purpose of Blogging.
But how many of us have really worked on Decreasing our Load time ? Load time is an important aspect of any site.
The more the time a site takes to load, the higher are the chances of your visitors exiting your site even before it loads completely.
It’s very important to Decrease load time as it also has an effect on your Blog’s SEO.
If you notice your Blog’s Installation Directory; you’ll find that WordPress as it comes with a large number of PHP Files. Moreover, if you add more lines of codes in your Theme files, then the load time of your Blog will decrease to a greater extent.
Let’s quickly see the 5 Ways which will help you in decreasing the load time of your Blog.
1. Reduce the No. of HTTP Requests
The first and foremost thing a blogger needs to look out for, while optimizing his blog’s load time is to reduce no. of HTTP Requests. Social Media Widgets which (with Counts enabled) usually are the root cause of Decrease load time of your blog.
Yes, we need to keep widgets for our readers to vote up/share. But just try to limit them, because each widget will require to call that particular site’s API leading to increased HTTP Requests.
2. Compress JavaScript & CSS Files using GZIP Compression
It’s always a good Practice to combine & Compress JavaScript & CSS Files. The more you code, the more time it takes to load it fully. Make use of GZIP Compressions to send the output by the GZIP Method.
You can use the W3 Total Cache Plugin for this purpose. It’s also important to reduce the no. of lines or comments in your CSS File. Use a CSS Compressor for compressing your CSS Files.
3. Make use of CSS Sprites
Sprites are nothing but a collection of images, which can be called at a particular area in a site using various CSS techniques. The stand out feature of CSS Sprite is that, they help in reducing the no. of HTTP Requests.
The Disadvantages of Sprite is that, the images cannot be repeated. Take a look at the Sprite Image we use on DailyBlogging. The Sprites concept may seem to be confusing before you start. You need to practise it a bit, if you want to master it. Here is a detailed tutorial on Sprites.
4. Put JavaScript to Footer
Make it a practise to put the heavy-weight JavaScript in the footer section of your blog. JavaScript Files take a long time load. So calling them at the start of the <body> tag will hinder the loading of your site.
First the JavaScript will be downloaded & then your main content. If you’ve a large no. of JavaScript files, try combining them into a single big script (Refer Step 2).
5. Make Use of a Good Cache Plugin
It’s very important to cache your content, theme files, etc. Caching helps to load the files, content quickly; thereby decreasing your load time. I would recommend W3 Total Cache plugin for the purpose of Caching.
Now some bloggers may even be using WP Super Cache, which is also a good alternative. I will soon come up with a Detailed Comparison between WP Super Cache & W3 Total Cache.
Use Thesis Theme to Decrease Load Time
I haven’t mentioned one important point i.e. To Use Less Number of Plugins. That’s because everybody knows that. You can take a look at the Top 10 WordPress Plugins I use on DailyBlogging if you want to reduce the no. of plugins & thereby decrease your blog’s load time.
Have you got some additional tips to add up to the above 5 ?