Optimize Your WordPress Website For Speed and Conversions – John Peterson

Have you ever been on Facebook and saw a link to an interesting article and clicked on it… only to wait… and wait… and wait? Or maybe you clicked on an ad for a product you just had to buy but was taking forever to load. If you’re like John, you’ll wait a few seconds for the site to load, but any longer than that and you’re done.

In fact, according to the BBC, most visitors will give less than 3-seconds for a shopping site to load. Longer than that, and they are significantly less likely to buy. Significantly less likely to read, and significantly less likely to comment. Search engines know this, and that’s why Google has repeatedly emphasized that PageSpeed is a ranking factor.

During this presentation John Peterson of Develare will share the following actions that you can take to speed up your website without a developer:

• Optimize images: We’ll discuss multiple options for reducing image sizes by 50% or more.
• Minify scripts: Layers of CSS and multiple JavaScript files can be condensed with ease using free WordPress optimization plugins. We’ll share some of our favorites.
• Cache away: Why make your web server do the same thing over and over? With caching, you can massively speed up your site by letting the server “remember” how to do something.
• Stash copies in the cloud: Stash copies of your images and scripts in a Content Delivery Network or a CDN. That way pieces of your website can be loaded up quickly anywhere in the world. We’ll discuss how to identify an SEO friendly CDN.
• Compress those bulky pages: Drastically reduce page size before sending them down the wire. Your visitors will thank you!
• Identify problem plugins: A few problem plugins can drag your whole website down. Identify which plugins are the worst offenders, and take action.
• Scaling Images: Stop wasting bytes by cramming a big image into a small space.
• Combining Images: Use sprites to load those icons, logos and simple graphics in one fell swoop.
• Why HTTP/2 is so important for PageSpeed.

John will cover several options for each action above. From free to fabulous, you can learn some of the best steps you can take to speed up your website.