How to make WordPress faster

This guide lists the changes that make the most difference to a slow WordPress site, starting with the easiest.

Check where you are now

Run our free website health check before you change anything, and again afterwards. That way you can see what helped.

Use a current PHP version

Newer PHP versions run WordPress noticeably faster than old ones. You can choose the PHP version for each site in cPanel.

1. Check your theme and plugins support the version you want. Most current ones support recent PHP.
2. Follow how to change your PHP version.
3. Visit your site and check it still works. If not, switch back.

Install a caching plugin

A caching plugin saves finished copies of your pages, so WordPress doesn’t have to build each page from scratch for every visitor.

1. In WordPress, go to Plugins, then Add New Plugin. On older versions this is just Add New.
2. Search for a caching plugin. There are several well known free ones. Pick one with lots of active installs and recent updates.
3. Install it, activate it and follow its setup steps. The default settings are usually a good start.
4. Log out, or use a private browser window, and check your pages load and look right.

Only use one caching plugin at a time. Two will clash.

Make images smaller

Large photos are the most common reason a page is slow.

• Resize photos before you upload them. A picture shown 1,200 pixels wide doesn’t need to be 4,000 pixels wide.
• Use an image compression plugin to shrink the images you already have. Many can also create WebP versions, which are smaller.
• Lazy loading means images further down the page only load when the visitor scrolls to them. WordPress does this for most images by default, and many caching plugins add more options.

Remove plugins you don’t need

Every active plugin adds work to each page load. Go to Plugins, look down the list and ask if you still use each one. Deactivate and then delete the ones you don’t. Fewer plugins also means fewer things to update and secure.

Page builders, sliders and social feeds tend to be the heaviest. If a page uses a slider just for decoration, a single image may do the job.

If it doesn’t work

• The site breaks after installing a caching plugin. Deactivate it. If you can’t get into the dashboard, see how to fix the white screen of death.
• Changes you make don’t show up. Clear the cache from the caching plugin’s menu, then refresh.
• The dashboard is slow but the front of the site is fast. Caching doesn’t speed up the dashboard. Look for a plugin doing heavy work in the background, and keep everything updated.

Good to know

Every account has 2 CPU cores and 4 GB of RAM, so for most sites the biggest gains come from the changes above. Keeping WordPress, themes and plugins current helps too. See how to update WordPress, themes and plugins.

Still stuck? Open a support ticket and we’ll help.