You want your website to be fast, right? Of course you do! No one wants to click on a link and wait forever for the page to load.
Here are seven tips to get the maximum performance out of your web hosting service and keep those visitors coming back for more.
1). Host fewer domains on your plan
The number of domains you host on your web hosting plan directly affects its performance. The more domains you have, the slower it will be.
To get the maximum performance out of your web hosting service, only host a few websites on one account. If possible, try not to exceed 10 sites per account.
2). Choose the right host
It all starts with your hosting partner.
As such, only select a good quality server provider in terms of CPU and memory resources available for each user/account or site hosted by them.
3). Enable caching on your website
Caching is a process of storing frequently accessed data in memory so that it can be quickly retrieved when needed. This can significantly improve the performance of your website, especially if your website is heavily trafficked.
Luckily, there are a number of tools available that can help you easily cache your website’s data, such as the W3 Total Cache WordPress plugin.
4). Use a content delivery network (CDN)
A CDN is a large distributed system of servers that deliver webpages and other web content to users based on their geographic location.
Using a CDN can greatly improve the performance of your website as it takes the load off of your server and speeds up the delivery of your content. There are many reputable CDNs available, such as Cloudflare, MaxCDN, and Amazon CloudFront.
5). Optimize your database
Your database is where all of your website’s data is stored, so it’s important to keep it optimized for performance.
Luckily, there are a number of tools that can help you easily optimize your WordPress database, such as the WP-Optimize plugin.
6). Use a lightweight WordPress theme
Themes play a big role in the performance of your website as they control how your content is displayed.
That’s why it’s important to use a lightweight WordPress theme that is well-coded and doesn’t have any unnecessary features or bloat.
A few great examples of lightweight WordPress themes are GeneratePress, Astra, and OceanWP.
7). Keep your WordPress installation up to date
One of the most important things you can do to keep your WordPress website fast and secure is to always keep your WordPress installation, themes, and plugins up to date.
Whenever a new version of WordPress is released or a plugin/theme update becomes available, make sure to install it as soon as possible.
You can easily set up automatic updates for both WordPress itself and your installed plugins/themes by using the Easy Updates Manager plugin.
8). Use fewer plugins if possible
While plugins are great for adding features and functionality to your WordPress website, they can also slow down your site if you have too many installed.
So if possible, try to use as few plugins as possible on your website.
9). Avoid using excessive images/videos on your pages
Images and videos are great for making your content more engaging, but they can also slow down your pages if you use too many.
So try to avoid using excessive images/videos on your website, or at least optimize them properly for performance. You can easily optimize your WordPress images by using a plugin like WP Smush Pro.
10). Don’t host audio/video files on your own server
Instead of hosting audio/video files on your own server, which can take up a lot of resources and slow down your website, you should instead use a third-party service like Amazon S3 or YouTube.
11). Use lazy loading for images
Lazy loading is when images are only loaded as they come into view while scrolling down the page.
This can help improve performance as it means that images below the fold don’t need to be loaded until someone scrolls down to them.
You can easily add lazy load functionality to your WordPress website by using a plugin like BJ Lazy Load or WP Rocket (both have paid versions with more features).
Final thoughts
We hope this article helped you learn how to get the maximum performance out of your web hosting service.
You might also want to check our guide on Hot Web Hosting Trends You May Have Missed and What You Need To Know About Cloud Web Hosting.
Be sure to check out our hosting plans.