Website speed is essential. We are not the first to say that, since Chrome announced for barely half a year, the release of the badge of shame will be applied on slow sites. For years, Google throws the book at every website with low speed, providing them with poor ranking. These are not the criteria looked for by either one of the users or visitors.
Fortunately, though, various methods have been developed to improve speed performance. Digital publishers’ professionals already know what they have on the plate: impressive content creation, up-to-date GDPR compliance, flawless SEO, robust website infrastructure, and website monetization are just a few of them. However, nothing is as important as site speed.
One of the easiest methods to accomplish this task is through WordPress plugins specially designed for speed optimization. Stick with us and keep on reading to find out more about them!
What is a WordPress speed optimization plugin?
Technically speaking, a plugin features a set of programming language functions that work together to make changes within a website. WordPress plugins are pieces of software written in PHP that fit perfectly within the rest of the website’s architecture. They are seamless; however, they add great features to any website.
Dealing with plugins has nothing to do with knowing how to code. This is the main reason they were created to help non-geeky website owners obtain impressive performance at the expense of a simple installation.
What are the advantages of using a WordPress speed optimization plugin?
According to February’s 2020 statistics, WordPress holds 63.6% of the CMS market share. Over 7 million downloads have been recorded only for WordPress 5.3. With these numbers on the plate, it is safe to say that WordPress is a global phenomenon.
Each website is created using lines of code. Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, and other content management systems are great to obtain a fine-looking website without looking into the code source. This is great for non-tech people out there since not everyone who has a website also knows how to code. When it comes to speed optimization, using WordPress plugins is total bliss.
Not only are they created with the help of WordPress professionals, but also they are periodically tested to ensure maximum safety. The constant search for vulnerabilities by both black and white hackers turn any plugin into a secure knot, with numerous patches released every once in a while.
However, there is more than that – a speed optimization plugin improves your website’s overall ranking. Most of your visitors will be likely to find your website among the first results, and this is total bliss to both the level of trust and website monetization.
Which are the best WordPress speed optimization plugins?
Finding the proper speed optimization plugin might be tricky. There are over 50 available, each one of them equally shaped to improve your website’s performance. Out of these, we have great views on the following:
WP Super Cache
With over 2 million active installations, WP Super Cache remains the best pick in WordPress plugins. It works on generating static HTML files. Once an HTML file has finished rendering, the webserver will not process WordPress PHP scripts – instead, it will serve that file.
Up to 99% of your daily visitors will receive the static HTML files, among which will be the following:
WP Super Cache comes with a three-type file caching. Whereas Expert features the best speed times, Simple works flawlessly to set up your files without prior coding experience. There is also great news on the go since WP Super Cache features excellent instructions on using the plugin and disclosing superior recommendation settings.
Autoptimize
Designed back in 2013 by a Belgian developer, Autoptimize made its way to the top covering more than one million active downloads to date. Throughout these years, it turned out to be the second-most popular WordPress plugin for speed optimization.
There is no wonder why since it has magnificent features. It minifies and caches both scripts and styles, but it automatically injects CSS right in the page head. When being used, the Google fonts are optimized, and the core emoji cruft is removed. What’s more, it minifies HTML and moves the scripts to the footer. You also get extensive API to tailor the plugin to your website’s specific needs.
LiteSpeed Cache
Third on the list is LiteSpeed Cache, covering more than 800.000 active downloads through WordPress. It features image optimization, private cache, browser cache support, HTTP/2 push, CDN support, database optimization, and many more. The crawler and edge side include (ESI) are extra points that can be automatically obtained when employing LiteSpeed Cache.
WP Rocket
Being one of the pay-for WordPress speed optimization plugins, WP Rocket has excellent highlights. Among them, you will find lazyload, GZIP compression, DNS prefetching, cache and sitemap preloading, database and Google fonts optimization, as well as mobile detection and defer JS loading. You will also benefit from the browser and page caching, not to mention the minification and concatenation features.
Being compatible with Cloudflare is an excellent highlight of WP Rocket. Moreover, it works amazingly with eCommerce and websites featuring multiple languages. Not to mention that it is a perfect tool for developers.
WP Fastest Cache
If you are looking for a WordPress speed optimization plugin with great reviews, WP Fastest Cache has been offered a 5-star in 95% of the cases. The number of active installations has exceeded 1 million. Among its features, you will find generated static HTML files, preload cache, combine CSS and JavaScript, as well as cache timeout.
As previously mentioned, these are just some of the WordPress speed optimization plugins aimed at improving your website’s performance. Each option comes with different advantages, t: the reason why you have to carefully choose the plugin that meets your expectations at most.
