Here's a step-by-step guide to improving WordPress load speed, including the importance of backing up and how to use Pagespeed to measure changes before and after your implementation. It also includes a combination of optimization plugins that are compatible with each other and with the Astra theme and the Google AMP plugin:
- Make a backup of the website: The first thing you should do before making any changes to your website is to make a backup. This allows you to restore the site in case something goes wrong during the optimization process. You can do this manually or by using a backup plugin, such as UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy.
- Measure the current performance of your website using Pagespeed: To know how much you can improve the performance of your website, you should measure its current performance using Google's Pagespeed. This will allow you to identify the main performance issues that you need to address. You can do this by visiting Google's Pagespeed Insights page and entering your website URL.
- Install the Google AMP plugin: The Google AMP plugin allows you to create mobile-optimized versions of your web pages. Installing this plugin can significantly improve loading speed on mobile devices. You can install the Google AMP plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
- Install the WP Fastest Cache plugin: WP Fastest Cache is a caching plugin that can significantly improve the loading speed of your website. This plugin creates a cached version of your web pages and delivers it to visitors instead of loading all the content anew each time they visit a page. You can install the WP Fastest Cache plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
- Install the plugin Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster: Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster is a plugin that allows you to disable unused JavaScript and CSS code on each individual page, and also allows you to delay the loading of certain scripts to improve page loading speed. This plugin is compatible with the Astra theme and can be used in combination with WP Fastest Cache and the Google AMP plugin. You can install Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster from the WordPress plugin repository.
- Check the performance of the website using Pagespeed after making the changes: After installing and configuring the optimization plugins, it is important to measure the performance of the website using Pagespeed again. This will allow you to compare current performance with past performance and see how much things have improved.
- Make additional adjustments as necessary: Depending on the current performance of your website and any performance issues identified by Pagespeed, you may need to make additional adjustments to optimize performance. Some areas you might consider include optimizing images, reducing the size of pages, and removing unnecessary plugins.
By following these steps, you should be able to significantly improve the performance of your WordPress website using a combination of optimization plugins that are compatible with each other and with the Astra theme and Google AMP plugin.
I want to improve the loading speed of my WordPress website
If you want a more specific guide to improve the loading speed of a WordPress website, fill out our Contact Form. In less than 72 hours we will send you the results of a preliminary SEO audit and an action plan that includes times and costs. Do not forget to include the url of the WordPress website whose speed you want to improve and an email to send you the results.
