Speed Up WordPress Site for Better Performance

Looking to speed up your WordPress website on Cloudways? Look no further! In this guide, we will walk you through the process of boosting your website’s speed and performance. Cloudways, a managed hosting platform, leverages highly managed Cloud Servers from Google Cloud, AWS, Linode, Vultr, and DigitalOcean to provide top-notch infrastructure.

Who doesn’t want a lightning-fast website? With a few tricks and technical know-how, you can easily speed up your WordPress website. As a WordPress user, there are several factors you need to consider, such as your hosting environment, software versions, and configurations.

Fortunately, Cloudways hosting optimizes these performance factors for you. With Cloudways, you can effortlessly enhance your website’s speed, achieving maximum scores on Page Speed Testing tools like GTMetrix, Pingdom Tools, and Google Page Speed Insights. Get ready to turbocharge your WordPress website on Cloudways!

Optimizing your WordPress website on Cloudways for improved speed is essential. By making some tweaks and adjustments within the hosting settings and utilizing caching plugins (both free and paid), you can enhance the performance significantly. Follow these steps to achieve the best possible results:

  1. Choose the Right Host and Nearest Data Center:
    Before diving into Cloudways, consider your budget and target audience. Ask yourself the following questions:
  • Where are you targeting your website?
  • What is your monthly hosting budget?
  • Which cloud provider suits your needs?
    Cloudways offers five cloud providers, each with different plans and pricing. Take your time to select the one that best aligns with your requirements.
    Also, remember to choose a data center that is closest to your visitors. This enables faster website delivery and contributes to higher conversion rates. If you have a global target audience, consider adding a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to further optimize your website speed.

Application and Server Details on Cloudways:
At this stage, you will select your server details. For example, I am currently using a Digital Ocean Droplet with a $10 monthly plan. However, feel free to choose a higher plan if you have more significant website traffic. Cloudways also provides the option to vertically scale your plan, allowing you to upgrade as needed.

By following these steps, you can successfully speed up your WordPress website on Cloudways, providing an engaging user experience and driving better results.

Upgrade to the latest PHP & SQL Version and Install Redis Cache
To enhance the performance and fix bugs, it is highly recommended to always use the latest PHP and SQL versions. Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Go to Server Management > Settings & Packages > Packages.
  2. Check the Cloudways PHP MYSQL version and Redis Cache.
  3. Upgrade the version to the latest and monitor your website for any issues. Remember, you can always revert back to the previous version, so don’t hesitate to upgrade.
  4. For my site, I upgraded PHP to the latest version, PHP 8.0, and SQL to MariaDB 10.4 (at the time of writing this tutorial).
  5. Consider installing Redis cache on your server to optimize WordPress database queries. However, keep in mind that Redis requires a significant amount of RAM, so it’s not recommended for basic plans.

Follow these steps to install Redis Cache in Cloudways and enhance your website’s speed and performance.

Here are some steps you can take to improve the performance of your WordPress website:

  1. Increase Memory Limit: If you encounter issues with uploading themes, plugins, or your site’s speed, consider increasing the memory limit to 256 MB. Keep in mind that 128 MB is typically sufficient for WordPress, but for Woocommerce, you may need more PHP memory.
  2. Use Breeze Cache Plugin: Breeze is a caching plugin developed by Cloudways that can significantly enhance your website’s performance. You can compare it with Autoptimize and choose the one that suits you best.

To install Breeze Cache:

  • Navigate to your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins.
  • Search for “Breeze” and install the plugin.
  • Activate the Breeze plugin.
  • Configure the basic settings, such as enabling minification, gzip compression, and browser caching. Ensure you test your site after enabling each setting.
  • To access advanced options, you need to enable basic settings first. In the advanced options, you can group, exclude, and defer CSS and JS files.
  • Additionally, you can optimize your database under the database settings. Remember to back up your database before making any changes.
  • If you use a Content Delivery Network (CDN), enter your CDN URL and activate it. CloudwaysCDN and BunnyCDN are popular options to enhance global speed at an affordable price.
  • If you have Varnish Cache enabled in your Cloudways Application, activate the Varnish option in Breeze to auto purge the Varnish Cache.

By following these steps, you can optimize your website’s performance and ensure a smoother user experience.

Want to make your site fly like a Rocket? Look no further than the WP Rocket Caching Plugin. With minimal configuration, this premium caching plugin helps make WordPress sites faster.

I’ve personally used WP Rocket on my website, and I’m thrilled with the performance. With just a few clicks, I was able to achieve a perfect 100 score on Google Page Speed Insights.

But that’s not all. Cloudways’ Engineers and WP Rocket’s Developers are collaborating to improve compatibility between Cloudways Hosting and WP Rocket Plugin. Exciting news for Cloudways users!

If you’re looking to speed up your WordPress website on Cloudways, this guide will walk you through the process. You can also consider plugins like Autoptimize, W3 Total Cache, Breeze, or WP Fastest Cache.

In addition to using the right plugins, choosing the right host and nearest data center for your visitors can significantly boost your site’s speed. Implementing a CDN is crucial for targeting a global audience. And don’t forget, avoid fancy plugins that slow down your site.

To further speed up WordPress, consider using the System Font Stack or hosting Google Fonts and Google Analytics locally.

With WP Rocket and a few smart tweaks, you’ll have a blazing-fast WordPress website in no time!