Why is my WordPress site slow?
Your WordPress site can be slow due to a variety of different reasons. Common causes include:
- Media Files – One of the most common sources of slow web pages is unoptimized media, such as non-compressed images, complex animations, and uploaded videos. These files can be very large if not tailored specifically for web viewing, and thus significantly slow down page load times.
- Updates and Maintenance – WordPress has regular updates to improve the security and functionality of it’s service, and many popular plugins frequently introduce updates as well. Outdated versions of WordPress and plugins can slow down, or even break, parts of your WordPress site. While the WordPress interface makes it easy to apply these updates, you have to be careful that the new updates don’t conflict with the existing code. Check out our WordPress maintenance page for more information on keeping your WordPress site up-to-date.
- Caching – Implementing server caching, plugin caching, and browser caching can decrease the amount of data transfer needed between the server and the site’s visitors.
- External scripts – Ads, widgets, font loaders, and other external scripts can significantly slow down your WordPress site, especially if they have to load before the web page can finish loading.
- Plugins – Using too many plugins, or poorly-made ones, can slow down your website. While plugins can be very useful, even help in optimizing your WordPress site, remember that each additional plugin adds on to the site’s load time.
- Redirects – If links to your site use old URLs, or if too many redirects have been manually implemented on your site, then the amount of extra time needed to load the existing page can be significant.
- Mobile – If your website’s visitors include mobile users, you should make sure your code and design is responsive to mobile devices. To test the mobile experience, and see how your site looks on mobile screens, consider using the Google Mobile Friendly Test.
If you’re not sure what is slowing down your website, many free speed testing tools are available, such as Google Page Speed Insights, GT Metrix, and Pingdom.