Let’s cut right to the chase! Okay, so you run a WooCommerce shop and the target is to improve the Google ranking. You most probably have two questions hovering in your mind right now:
Why is speeding up my WooCommerce shop crucial?
How could I get it done? And by it, we mean, enhance its performance and hence have your pockets filled with bucks. It is fundamental for you to understand how far you could reach by managing to optimize the speed of your WooCommerce shop – and to help you have a brighter look at it, we prepared you a list of why you should get it done:
Think of “pulling off a successful page on the internet” as participating in a race where there are hundreds and hundreds of other competitors. Search engines (e.g., Google) are like the fields you’ll be running over. Therefore, keep in mind that the faster your site is, the higher your rank will be. Likewise, improving your position in the SERPs depends mainly on how fast your website loads.
It has been demonstrated that a speed of more than 2 seconds appears in about 47% of visitors looking up the website. Meaning, in order to keep about half of your visitors coming but also interested, you have to work on speeding up your WordPress. Never fail to forget that we live in this ever-accelerating world where no one has patience for anything anymore – especially online buyers! We all wish to have the page load within a second. Therefore, and keeping it simple: To run a more profitable business, step one would be to make major improvements to enhancing your site speed.
Now that we know why we should do it, let’s dive right into how we could it. Here are ten easy steps to how you could speed up your WooCommerce shop:
First Things First, Test Your Site’s Loading Speed
There are numerous websites out there to help you test your website’s load time.
Among which are the following:
WebPageTest.org
Tools.Pingdom.com
Optimization and Compression of Images
Beautifying your pages with imagery is non-negotiable, yet, when doing it, bear in mind that the more you add, the slower your site becomes. Do not let it go over your head that images add up to more than half of a page’s size. Meaning, serious performance reductions could take place if you upload way too many pictures.
An easy solution is through image compression. This means you could reduce that the size of your images without effecting their qualities. Check out image-compression plugins that you can use on your WordPress site to improve its speed.
Make Full Use of a CDN
You don’t know what your chances are, anyone from LA to Tokyo could be paying your website a visit. The matter which means, the site-loading speed will vary accordingly. You can find multiple CDN (Content Delivery Networks) that help in keeping the site-loading speed to a minimum for visitors from various countries. How a CDN operates is simple, it provides the webpage to a visitor from the nearest location possible. Check out either of the following for CDN services: Cloudflare, MaxCDN.
Decide on a Lightweight Theme and Delete any Unwanted Plugins/Themes
Some WooCommerce themes are better written than others so make sure to keep in mind that it would absolutely be of no help to have an aesthetic look to your page (which, more often than not, comprises a lot of code which has to load with every visit to your site) if it fails to load within seconds. Once you pick the one you like, toss everything else and don’t be a plugin/theme hoarder. You can find lightweight themes that are fast loading and just as visibly stunning as you wish.
Limit Comments Per Page
We all know how awesome it would be to get a great deal of comments on our posts, yet what we don’t know is that these same comments can slow our pages too.
You could always limit the number of comments that can appear per page, simply by changing your discussion settings.
Deactivate Pingbacks and Trackbacks
These can do a really good job at slowing down your page so it would be wise to have them turned off. You can simply disable them by changing your discussion settings.
Settle Upon a Dedicated Server
One thing to keep in mind is that a shared server could be sort of… troublesome. We resort to is since it is affordable but why do it if it’s only going to result in jamming of CPU and RAM?
Settling upon a dedicated server not only would help enhance your site’s performance –it would also protect it against spammers.
Keep Your Database Cleared Up
With time, your database will pile up clutter that would slow down your website. Therefore, it is rather necessary to do regular cleanups to make sure everything runs smoothly. Check out plugins that can assist you with clearing up any unnecessary post revisions, post drafts, spam comments and much more from your database.
Minimize External Scripts
Your web page could only take too many external scripts before it starts to tire down. Thus, it is advisable to cut down on the number of scripts you include on your page. Perhaps you could single out the necessary one, like these of tracking tools or commenting systems.
Run your WordPress Site with PHP 7
PHP 7 is known to be being an incredibly fast way execute code. Not only that, it also takes less resources to do it than other predecessors do. Studies have even proven that WooCommerce shops are twice as fast when they are running with PHP 7.
However, you should run a PHP Compatibility Checker before you take any further steps.
Conclusion
There are a great many advantages of lowering your website’s loading time but most important of all is the fact that it will help in improving the experience of your visitors. It will keep them coming and interested. Additionally, it will improve your rankings in the SERPs.