Last updated on Sep 4, 2024

Outdated systems are slowing down your website. How can you revamp performance optimization efforts?

If your website feels like it's moving at a snail's pace, you're not alone. Outdated systems can significantly drag down your site's performance, leading to frustration for both you and your visitors. In the fast-paced world of the internet, ensuring your website operates at peak efficiency is crucial. Revamping your performance optimization efforts can breathe new life into your site, making it faster, more responsive, and ultimately more successful in retaining and converting visitors.

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1 Audit First

Before you can enhance your website's performance, you need to understand where it currently stands. Conduct a comprehensive audit to identify bottlenecks. This means checking your server response times, looking for outdated plugins or themes that may be slowing things down, and assessing whether your content management system (CMS) is up to date. A thorough audit provides a clear picture of what aspects of your website need immediate attention and sets the stage for effective optimization.

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Nathan P.

IT Manager at Radical Forge
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This is so essential and often overlooked. Website owners are quick to over look the basics. Check everything before you change anything

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2 Update Regularly

Keeping your software up to date is a fundamental step in performance optimization. Regular updates to your CMS, plugins, and themes can fix security vulnerabilities and improve speed. Outdated components not only slow down your website but also pose security risks. Ensure that you have a process in place for regularly checking and implementing updates, which can often include performance enhancements and new features that contribute to a faster website.

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Nathan P.

IT Manager at Radical Forge
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You can mitigate this somewhat by enabling automatic updates for plugins and Wordpress but be careful as some updates can and will break your theme causing your website to fail. Have a test site that’s a duplicate of the real one on a subdomain locked too your business ip or store it locally. Update and test there before you deploy too your live system

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3 Optimize Code

Efficient code is the backbone of a fast-loading website. Take the time to review and optimize your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Minify your code by removing unnecessary characters, such as whitespace, comments, and new line characters, to reduce its size. Use async or defer attributes in your scripts to control how JavaScript loads, preventing it from blocking other elements. Efficient coding practices can make a significant difference in loading times and overall performance.

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Nathan P.

IT Manager at Radical Forge
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Minify is your friend, the browser doesn’t care if the code looks nice, it finds it so much more efficient too read code from one line of text without indents and spaces.

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4 Rethink Hosting

Your hosting service plays a pivotal role in your website's performance. If you're experiencing slow speeds, it might be time to consider upgrading your hosting plan or switching to a more robust provider. Shared hosting might be economical, but it can lead to slower response times during peak traffic hours. Explore options like dedicated hosting or a virtual private server (VPS) that offer more resources and better control over your website's environment.

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Nathan P.

IT Manager at Radical Forge
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Once you’ve done all of the above look at your hosting, do speed tests of the read/write and see if it’s performing correctly. If it’s fine and your site is still slow move to a more powerful plan such as a VPS with SSD/NVME storage. Shared hosting is cheap for a reason

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5 Compress Media

Large images and media files can be the culprits behind a sluggish website. By compressing images and videos, you reduce their file size without significantly compromising quality. Tools exist that can automate this process, ensuring all media uploaded to your site is optimized for web use. This simple step can dramatically improve load times, especially for users on mobile devices or slower internet connections.

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6 Leverage Caching

Caching is a powerful tool in speeding up your website by storing copies of files so they can be served faster to your visitors. Implementing browser caching through settings in your .htaccess file allows users' browsers to store certain files for a set period. Moreover, server-side caching can reduce the load on your server by not having to generate each page from scratch for every request. By leveraging both browser and server caching, you can significantly cut down on load times and server resources.

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Outdated systems are slowing down your website. How can you revamp performance optimization efforts?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Audit First

2 Update Regularly

3 Optimize Code

4 Rethink Hosting

5 Compress Media

6 Leverage Caching

Internet Services

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Outdated systems are slowing down your website. How can you revamp performance optimization efforts?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Audit First

2 Update Regularly

3 Optimize Code

4 Rethink Hosting

5 Compress Media

6 Leverage Caching

Internet Services

Rate this article

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