Download Speed Matters for WordPress Web Sites – 5 Tips

 

Actually, download speed matters on all Web sites. Even if your WordPress Web site has compelling content with graphics and pictures, image and user convenience are equally important. So your site’s download speed matters – a lot.

Download speed is important to search engines because they want to be known for providing fast access to sites for Internet users.

Google was a pioneer in the quest for fast downloads, as I explained in this 2010 column: In SEO, Your Site’s Download Speed Matters to Google.

Not satisfied more than a year later, Google offered to help sites to speed up, as I wrote this column: “Google’s Continuing Quest to Increase Page Speeds.”

In huge numbers, businesses, independent professionals and bloggers use WordPress to manage their content. WordPress is affordable, and is easy-to-use – even for non-technical folks.

But as a WordPress site grows in page-content, download speed can become a quandary. Unlike driving on an interstate freeway, don’t limit the speed of your site’s download time.

Here are five tips:

1. You should daily check your site’s Dashboard, as WordPress frequently issues updates. That’s where WordPress will advise you. Caution is advised, however – update your system after the bugs have been worked out in the Beta testing versions.
2. To insure picture-perfect resolution, do a couple of things – Don’t insert a larger-size picture than necessary, and consider installing the complimentary SmushIt Plugin. The plugin will shrink the size of the picture without damaging the resolution.
3. Don’t allow pingbacks from other sites – unless a site has a stronger Google page rank (PR) than your site. Google assigns a PR to each site on a scale of zero to 10. For example, if your site has a three PR and a site with a two PR pings to you, Google’s algorithms will likely penalize you, just as they do if you have too many links to other sites. Many WordPress users turn off the pingback and trackback feature, so their systems don’t slow down.
4. Personally, I don’t recommend it for small sites, but the jQuery Image Lazy Load plugin is known for speeding up download time, which you might find helpful if your site has a lot of pictures and graphics. It’s designed to initially accelerate the download time of images above the page’s fold. As your visitors scroll down a page, the other pictures will appear for the visitors to view.
5. Many WordPress sites utilize a cache plugin, especially the W3 Total Cache to increase download speeds.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are related links:

• Google Details its New Reasoning for Best Web Site Rankings
• Checklist: 14 Strategies to Rock on Google
• Google Insights – 23 Key Questions about Your Web Site
• SEO: Strategic Primer for a No.1 Rated Blog

“Fix your eyes on perfection and you make almost everything speed towards it.”

-William Ellery Channing

 

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.