A fast, well-optimized site is one of the best investments you can make in your business. A quick-loading site means happier readers, stronger SEO, and higher earning potential — because when people can access your valuable content quickly, everyone wins.
Google prioritizes websites that deliver a great experience. Readers stick around longer, and advertisers prefer sites that keep people engaged. Let’s go over what you can do to make your site fast, efficient, and ready to perform at its best.
1. Choose a high-quality host
Your hosting provider is the foundation of your site’s performance. Cheaper hosting often means your site shares resources with many others, which can cause slowdowns.
Look for WordPress-optimized hosting that offers features like “containerization,” which keeps your site’s resources separate from those of others on the same server.
A good host will also:
- Keep server software (like PHP and MySQL) up to date
- Provide strong caching and security
- Offer easy staging environments and support
2. Use a lightweight WordPress theme
Your theme affects how quickly your pages load. Lightweight themes are built with clean, efficient code and fewer unnecessary features.
This doesn’t mean your site has to look plain — it just means your theme is built to load fast and perform well. Ask your host or developer about lightweight, performance-focused themes that still match your design goals.
3. Keep plugins and widgets to a minimum
Every plugin adds some “weight” to your site. While plugins can be powerful tools, too many can slow things down.
Do a quick plugin audit every few months:
- Remove any you don’t actively use
- Avoid duplicate plugins that do the same thing
- Keep plugins lean — quality matters more than quantity.
If you’re unsure about a plugin’s impact, you can test your site speed before and after disabling it.
4. Optimize your images
Images are often the biggest files on your site — and unoptimized images are one of the most common reasons pages load slowly.
Best Practices:
- Compress your images: Aim for under 100KB per image. Tools like ShortPixel, Imagify, or Smush can automatically compress images when you upload them.
- Match display size: Upload images at the same size they’ll appear on your site.
- Use modern formats: WebP is smaller and faster than JPEG or PNG.
5. Lazy load images and videos
Lazy loading means your page only loads images and videos when a reader scrolls to them. This speeds up the initial page load, especially for long posts with numerous images and videos.
Plugins like WP Rocket or Autoptimize can enable lazy loading with a few clicks.
6. Optimize your fonts
Fonts play a bigger role in site speed than most people realize — every custom font adds extra files that browsers have to download. To keep things fast and looking great:
- Limit your fonts: Stick to 2–3 fonts total (for headings, body text, and maybe one accent).
- Use system fonts when possible: They’re already installed on your readers’ devices, so they load instantly.
- Preload important fonts: If you use Google Fonts, enable font preloading in your optimization plugin (like WP Rocket) to speed up rendering.
- Prevent invisible text: Add font-display: swap; in your CSS so fallback text appears right away while your custom fonts load.
- Load only what you need: Limit font weights and styles to just the ones you actually use
Optimizing your fonts not only makes your pages load faster but also improves your Core Web Vitals and keeps your site looking polished and professional.
7. Use caching
Caching stores ready-to-go versions of your site so visitors don’t have to load everything from scratch each time.
Ask your host if caching is already handled at the server level — many top-tier hosts include this automatically.
If not, plugins like WP Rocket can manage caching for you.
Tip: Avoid using multiple caching tools at once; they can conflict with each other and cause issues.
8. Use a content delivery network (CDN)
A CDN stores copies of your content on servers around the world, so your site loads from the location closest to each visitor.
Popular options, such as Cloudflare, offer both free and paid plans. CDNs can significantly reduce server strain and improve your site's speed for global audiences.
9. Optimize your site’s code
Optimizing your code helps your site load in the right order — so the most important parts (your content!) appear first.
Plugins like WP Rocket or Autoptimize can help you:
- Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML (remove unnecessary spaces and comments)
- Defer non-essential scripts so they load last
Important: if you are using an optimization plugin, please ensure that Raptive ads are not delayed or deferred.
10. Make sure you’re using the latest version of PHP
PHP runs your WordPress site behind the scenes. Using an older version can make your site slower and less secure.
Ask your host what version of PHP you’re on — updating to the latest version can instantly double your site speed in some cases.
Website speed can feel overwhelming at first, but every improvement helps. Start with one or two changes, such as optimizing images or updating PHP, and build from there.
The goal isn’t just a high score on a speed test. It’s about creating a smooth, enjoyable experience for your readers that keeps them coming back (and keeps your earnings strong).