Page load speed directly affects both visitor satisfaction and your Google ranking. The cause is usually the site itself, and the steps below can fix most of it.
1. Measure first
Test your site with PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) or GTmetrix. The report shows what slows the page down most. If the server's first response time (TTFB) is under 1 second, the problem is most likely in the page content.
2. Make images smaller
- Resize images before uploading; do not show a 4000-pixel photo at 800 pixels wide.
- Use the WebP format. In WordPress, plugins such as Smush, ShortPixel or Imagify do this automatically.
- Turn on lazy loading.
3. Use caching
- For WordPress, install a cache plugin such as LiteSpeed Cache, WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache.
- In Plesk, you can turn on nginx caching and gzip compression under Apache & nginx Settings.
4. Review plugins and theme
- Delete plugins you do not use. Every plugin loads extra code on the page.
- "All-in-one" themes with many features can be slow.
- The Query Monitor plugin helps you find the plugin that slows the page down most.
5. PHP and database
- Use a current PHP version (8.1 or higher); it is noticeably faster than old versions.
- In WordPress, clean up revisions, spam comments and transients with a plugin such as WP-Optimize.
6. Other causes
- Bot traffic or attacks can use up your account's resources. See our article on WP bot attacks.
- If your site has grown and keeps reaching the account's resource limits, consider moving to a higher plan or a VDS.
If the site is still slow after these steps, open a support ticket with the link to your test result.
