Optimizing WordPress Performance With Caching, Compression, And Query Analysis
A fast, responsive WordPress website leads to higher visitor engagement, lower bounce rates, and better conversions. However, over time, WordPress performance can degrade due to growing databases, unoptimized code, and inefficient workflows. By implementing caching, compression, query analysis, and other optimizations, site owners can dramatically improve WordPress speed and performance.
Caching Dynamic Content with Plugins
Caching stores recently generated web pages in a cache so that identical requests can be served the pre-generated files rather than rendering the page from scratch. This saves CPU cycles and database queries. Since WordPress dynamically generates each page based on variables like user state and database content, effective caching requires WordPress-specific solutions.
Setup of WP Super Cache Plugin
The WP Super Cache plugin generates static HTML files for each page, stores them on the server, and serves these pre-rendered files for subsequent requests, avoiding CPU-intensive PHP and database actions. The plugin offers flexible options like excluding specific pages from cache or only serving cache files to visitors and not logged-in admins.
- Install WP Super Cache from the plugin directory and activate.
- In the Settings menu, browse options like cache timeout durations, cache testers, and advanced debug developers.
- Under the “Cache Tester” section, utilize tools like caching statistics and cache disabling features.
WP Fastest Cache Premium Features
For large sites, a premium caching plugin like WP Fastest Cache offers advanced optimization features. The Timed Cache Update feature auto-refreshes stale cache files based on site activity levels. Meanwhile, the AMP support generates cached mobile pages.
Key Advantages of Caching Plugins
- Reduced server load and faster perceived site speed
- Improved server capacity and site scalability
- Decreased database queries for commonly accessed pages
Enabling GZIP Compression
GZIP compression shrinks text file sizes by 50-80% by substituting repetitive strings with smaller tokens. This reduces bandwidth consumption and speeds up page loads. Since HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and text-based assets compress well, enabling GZIP can optimize WordPress sites.
Basic GZIP Configuration
Many shared hosting providers include GZIP compression features in their Apache/NGINX web servers. Site owners can often activate this via a checkbox. Additionally, the WP Better Settings plugin modifies wp-config.php to enable GZIP by default. Review hosting documentation for available options.
Verification via Developer Tools
Verify GZIP activation by inspecting the HTTP response headers in browser Developer Tools. The “Content-Encoding” header should show “gzip” rather than plain text assets. Check text-based assets like CSS and JS files for compression savings.
Special Cases
Some plugins and resource links may bypass default GZIP settings. Use .htaccess tweaks like mod_deflate directives for problematic file types failing to compress properly. Prioritize HTML, JSON, XML, CSS, JS, and SVG assets.
Optimizing Database Queries
Inefficient database queries can drag down WordPress performance severely. Repeated identical lookups trigger heavy database server load. By optimizing queries, utilizing persistent caching, and structuring tables efficiently, site owners can minimize this bottlenecks.
Analysis via Debug Bar Plugin
The Debug Bar and Debug Bar Extender plugins reveal key diagnosis data like active plugin/theme queries, alert warnings for duplicate queries, total SQL query counts and processing times, and cache efficiency stats. Study this regularly to detect optimization areas.
Tweaking wp-config Settings
Several wp-config tweaks can optimize MySQL behavior globally: expanding cache sizes via WP_CACHE_KEY_SALT, raising max connections with DB_MAX_CONNECTIONS, ignoring priority transient options, etc. Execute UPDATE queries judiciously.
Persistent Object Caching
Leverage persistent object caches like Memcached and Redis to keep frequently accessed database query results in faster memory stores outside MySQL. This reduces SQL queries dramatically. Object cache plugins add drop-in WordPress compatibility layers.
Using Content Delivery Networks
CDNs store cached static copies of website assets on geo-distributed networks of edge servers. By serving files from nearby locations, CDNs can accelerate site loading times globally. Typical CDN use cases include downloads for software updates, media assets, app installs, etc.
Key Advantages
- Faster content delivery from nearby edge server locations
- Absorbs traffic spikes gracefully
- Easier IPv6 and HTTPS support globally
Integrating CDN Vendors
Choose CDN vendors like Cloudflare, Akamai, Amazon CloudFront based on global node counts, pricing models, and advanced traffic handling features. Point DNS settings to vendor CNAME records. Upload media assets into CDN repositories using desktop clients.
Minifying CSS and JavaScript
Minification tools process CSS and JS files to remove all unnecessary characters like whitespace, newlines, comments without altering functionality. This drastically reduces file sizes, improving page loading times. Enable this via plugins or build processes.
Plugin Options
The Autoptimize and WP Rocket plugins auto-minify CSS/JS served from WordPress sites for 5X savings. Simply activate the plugins and enable minification modules specifically under settings. Review before/after filesizes.
Build Process Integration
For fully customized processing, integrate minifiers into scaffolding tools like Grunt, Gulp, and Webpack using NPMJS packages like gulp-uglify, gulp-clean-css, and Terser. Set up tasks to handle production files separate from uncompressed development assets.
Considerations
Since minified code is harder to debug, exclude URLs and file types used actively during development and testing flows. Additionally, enable browser caching aggressively via headers like max-age=31536000 for minified production assets referenced infrequently.
Using Efficient Image Formats
Images often constitute over 50% of total page sizes. Optimizing images with careful format selection, compression levels, and delivery fine-tuning can significantly accelerate WordPress sites, especially on mobile networks.
Choosing Appropriate Formats
Use JPEG for rich photographic images at 60-85% compression levels, PNG for high-contrast diagrams with sharp edges, and GIF for animated graphics while leveraging exactly 256 colors. Upload native files from camera sensors without excessive edits.
Featured Images
Constrain featured images embedded in blogs and articles via width/height attributes to avoid serving massive unnecessary images. Set Photon resize limits matching page layout maximums like grids and columns.
Delivering Responsive Images
The WP Smush Pro and ShortPixel plugins creates multiple smaller image assets tuned to mobile, tablet, and desktop viewports from a single original file, saving bandwidth.
Upgrading to PHP 7
Migrating legacy PHP 5 codebases to PHP 7 can accelerate WordPress sites considerably thanks to the newer engine’s doubled performance and memory savings, namespace support etc. Follow WordPress recommendations when upgrading major versions.
Adjusting wp-config Settings
Review memory limits, error declarations, caching settings, and database credentials in wp-config.php when shifting PHP major versions and WordPress in parallel. Add defines like WP_DEBUG_LOG for logging warnings and notices during upgrade testing procedures.
Addressing Backward Compatibility Issues
Disable outdated plugins lacking recent support and upgrade plugins routinely to avoid deprecated syntax issues. Similarly, switch to well-maintained premium themes with dedicated support staff readily addressing compatibility problems and decrepit features.
Compartmentalized Upgrades
When managing large legacy codebases, isolate sites using docker containers, switch PHP versions incrementally for smaller groups of sites via .htaccess files to safely assess impact of changes with reduced downtime risks affecting all properties simultaneously.
Analyzing Site Performance
Routinely measure WordPress site speed benchmarks like time-to-first-byte, page load times, resource loading waterfalls, and user-centric ratings via diverse tools examining metrics aligned to impact goals.
Speed Test Tools
Online speed checkers like Pingdom Website Speed Test and GTMetrix generate performance grades integrating front-end timings with back-end diagnostics like page size and request breakdowns. Pagespeed Insights focuses on mobile experience.
User Experience Stats
Real User Monitoring analytics tools simulate geo-distributed site visitor journeys across actual endpoint networks and devices to calculate visual progressions, load times, failure rates, etc modeling living user experiences accurately.
Continuous Optimization
Compare speed benchmarks weekly post-launch using code profiling tools in staging environments. Drill-down detected performance regressions through delta analysis indicative of the precise upgrades and edits damaging speed.
