We’ve heard all the upsides before, though, yet many of us still<\/em> ignore the warnings and plod along with unoptimized websites.<\/p>\n What gives?<\/p>\n This is part 1 of our quick two-part series on how to speed up WordPress.<\/p>\n In my opinion, it’s an issue of time and a lack of confidence. The ‘time’ part is self-explanatory, of course, but to inexperienced WordPress users, buzzwords like ‘optimization’ are intimidating. Articles on speed optimization contain lots of technical talk, resulting in many WordPress users (wrongly) believing that they can’t do it, so they focus their efforts elsewhere.<\/p>\n This simply isn’t the case, though. Anyone<\/em> can speed up WordPress and enjoy lightning quick load times, and today, we’re going to prove it.<\/p>\n So here’s my promise to you: 5 steps, each taking less than 10 minutes (most take under 2), that even an absolute beginner can perform. The end result: a much faster website.<\/p>\n Before you start, test your website speed using the free Pingdom tool<\/a>. In about an hour when we’re finished, I want you to test it again to see how much faster your website is!<\/em><\/p>\n If you only take one thing from this list, let it be this one.<\/p>\n No amount of on-site tweaking and optimization can undo the damage of a bad web host. So make life easier for yourself by spending 10 minutes or so selecting the right hosting provider for your website.<\/p>\n I know, I know\u00a0\u2013 bargain-basement prices can be tempting. But these hosting services are cheap for a reason: they cram so many websites onto their servers that each site can only use a tiny fraction of the resources available.<\/p>\n Remember: running a successful website starts with choosing a good host. Get the foundations right, and everything else will click into place.<\/p>\n High-quality hosting doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg either. Themeisle recommends SiteGround<\/a> for shared hosting and Flywheel<\/a> for managed WordPress hosting \u2013 prices start from $3.95\/month and $15\/month respectively.<\/p>\n Behind your hosting service, caching is probably the next best way to speed up WordPress. It’s so effective that caching can result in a 10x speed gain over a non-cached website.<\/p>\n Adding caching is as simple as installing a caching plugin \u2013 and we recommend W3 Total Cache<\/a> if you’re looking for a free solution.<\/p>\n\n
The easiest way to speed up WordPress in under an hour<\/h2>\n
1. Get yourself a good web host<\/h2>\n
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2. Use a caching plugin<\/h2>\n
![\"wp-rocket\"](\"https:\/\/mllj2j8xvfl0.i.optimole.com\/cb:c5QE.37290\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/themeisle.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/wp-rocket.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"WP-Optimize](\"https:\/\/ps.w.org\/wp-optimize\/assets\/banner-772x250.png?rev=2125385\")
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