I have been exploring this question and have repeatedly addressed this topic over the past few years. Even though there seem to be countless blog posts on this subject, I am happy to take the time to share my personal experiences with you here in a way that is easy to understand. First of all, a comprehensive content management system such as WordPress comes with significantly more baggage than simple HTML-based websites; I think this should be clear to everyone. However, this does not necessarily mean that your web server cannot handle it properly. WordPress has been continuously developed since the beginning of the open source project and, to anticipate this point, WordPress has even managed to enable very good PageSpeed values for websites.
Are Google Page Speed scores of 100% realistic?
During my research, I repeatedly came across dubious YouTube videos boasting a perfect score of 100% according to Google Page Speed Index, which had been achieved by focusing exclusively on this metric. Upon closer inspection, these WordPress websites often consisted of little more than a few blog posts and one or two heavily compressed images – congratulations.
Over time, the idea has unfortunately taken hold that Google's Page Speed is one of the most important factors in determining a great, high-performance website, and that pages that are not incredibly fast, with scores above 90, will immediately suffer enormous ranking losses in Google's algorithm. This is a big mistake.
It is true that speed plays a more important role than it did a few years ago, but this factor is certainly not among the top 10 ranking factors at present. The Google algorithm is so complex that nowadays, well over 1,000 factors with more than 10,000 different signals determine a website's ranking.
Basically, the user experience of the website plays the most important role. Your website must be the best possible match for the searcher or search query. A lot of other factors are important here, such as high-quality content, relevant terms, formatting, further sources, grammar, language level, on-page factors (keywords, meta, etc.), duplicate content, page architecture, and much more.
When it comes to PageSpeed, it's enough if your site loads properly and is usable on mobile and desktop devices. If you go by PageSpeed Insights, you should have at least ⅗ of the most important things covered and be in the upper orange range at least—don't drive yourself crazy here and instead invest your time in essential adjustments in the course of search engine optimization (SEO) rather than chasing after the points there.
What about WordPress itself?
The good news is that WordPress itself will not hinder fast loading times; it just depends on how you use the system for your purposes. As a test, you can install WordPress in its raw version with a lightweight standard theme from the library on your server and, provided you have found a reasonably professional hosting provider, you will be able to enjoy excellent Google Insights values. Everything that happens after that requires more attention and should be done with care.
So why is my WordPress website so slow?
There is no general answer to this question, as it depends on many different factors. However, as described above, I would always start with a clean framework, i.e., a fresh WordPress installation, because the next step can be absolutely crucial: choosing a theme. This is often where things go wrong and the course is set for WordPress sites to perform well or poorly.
Most of the highly developed and large themes on the market are, first and foremost, one thing—big. This is because, as sales and user numbers increase, more and more requests for possible functionalities and settings arise, and the theme options alone usually span many pages. Just consider that behind each of these settings there is at least one more feature that is loaded. And let's be honest, how many of these features do you really need?
The same applies to the WordPress system in general. This alone offers a lot of features that you don't necessarily need for your website. Therefore, you can deactivate unnecessary WordPress features immediately after installing WordPress. Most people don't know how to do this, at least not manually – but there is a useful plugin that can help you with this. You can find it in my top 8 WordPress plugin list at the bottom of the blog.
What about WordPress plugins in terms of PageSpeed?
As is so often the case, the golden rule here is: less is more. With every plugin you install, you expand your WordPress system with new functionalities and options that are loaded when your website is visited. This often results in unsightly render-blocking resources, as plugins often use external sources and scripts and add additional ballast that is not necessarily needed for your purposes. In addition, conflicts often arise between different plugins, which get in each other's way and, with each additional plugin, create a potential security vulnerability in your system.
This is the big disadvantage of the millions of different plugin providers in the WordPress pool: you usually never know how good the code behind them is and, when installing them, you have to blindly trust in the accuracy and diligence of the respective programmers of these plugins—as I can tell you from experience, there are a lot of black sheep among them. Therefore, choose your plugins carefully and remove all unused ones from your system.
What is making my WordPress website particularly slow?
So, if we compare the points mentioned so far—theme selection, number of plugins, overload of WordPress functionalities—these factors are even less important than the next important point on this list: the sensible use of media.
The correct handling of images is particularly important on the web. WordPress itself does a lot to help with this by generating thumbnails in various sizes from your image upload and usually inserting them in the right places. For example, only a medium-sized thumbnail is loaded as the blog cover image instead of the original size of your image, which WordPress then does for you. Unfortunately, this only works to a limited extent and misinterpretations often occur, or the user themselves uses the wrong sizes. For example, if you select an image in its original size from the media library in your blog post and use it in a container that only takes up ¼ of your website's width, you can be sure that your image is much too large for the rather small container and your website's speed will immediately suffer. Unfortunately, this is also mercilessly penalized by Google.
As a general rule, images should always be optimized for the web. I would recommend that you never allow your file size to exceed 300 kb and, in any case, always decouple all image metadata by exporting to the web in Photoshop or GIMP, for example, and stick to the standard image formats used on the web.
Simply by optimizing your images, you will already make up for most of the loading speed. Don't just rely on image optimization and compression plugins to fix everything automatically. These usually don't shrink your 2-4 MB image down to 300 kb, and if they do, they don't use a highly sophisticated algorithm like Photoshop to produce a sharp and cleanly compressed image for Retina Display even with 300 kb. But that's another topic altogether. A good plugin for optimizing your images is definitely useful, especially if you already have a running website.
How should I handle videos and fonts on the page?
Second, after your images, you'll usually have video embeds, and third, uploaded PDFs or custom fonts. I wouldn't upload videos to the WordPress media library myself, but rather use YouTube, which is GDPR-compliant, and use a modified iframe. This stops data from being sent to YouTube and videos from loading directly when someone visits your site. Before the GDPR outcry, it was very convenient to use fonts via Google, but unfortunately this is no longer possible without data transfer and it is best to use them locally. Unfortunately, this creates additional ballast, but it can be optimized with smart caching. Unfortunately, this is also an absolute standard in most WordPress themes, and even if you don't actively use Google fonts there, the connection to Google is usually not cut, so you bear both burdens every time.
What else is important for my website's performance?
These include topics such as caching, compression, lazy loading, CDN, and more, but they require a deep understanding to apply successfully. If you are not yet well versed in this area or lack the technical background, you can still get a lot out of your website by selecting professional plugins with just a few settings.
You can find my current WordPress plugin tips at the bottom of this blog. I will also write a post with more detailed information on this topic if you are interested.
Here is an overview of the most important points once again
- Professional website hosting
There are many providers and a lot of comparison portals out there. I would recommend a provider that specializes in WordPress, such as wpengine or raidboxes, as you will not only get a strong support team, but also a whole range of advantageous services that are perfectly tailored to your system. - Choosing the right WordPress theme
Carefully consider which features your WordPress website needs and don't just go for the biggest and most popular theme. As an advanced WordPress user, you can build your website on an absolutely lightweight and clean basic theme or create your own. - WordPress Basic System Configuration
Get rid of unnecessary ballast and deactivate WordPress functions that you don't need. - The lean and correct plugin selection
Limit yourself to the absolute minimum of plugins and save yourself unnecessary loading symbols and potential security gaps. - Using images and external media correctly
This is an absolute MUST for high-performance websites, and you should focus on this topic. - Caching, compression, lazy loading, CDN
Clean caching is essential, but fortunately this can be achieved relatively easily with good plugins. In addition, file and script compression, lazy loading of images and videos, and the use of content delivery networks (CDN) help to put the finishing touches on your site, which will ultimately earn you a few extra points.
My conclusion
As you have probably noticed by now, the topic of your website's PageSpeed depends on many different factors, which unfortunately often get too technical for non-experts. Nevertheless, I am confident that with a conscious and simple framework, anyone can build high-performance websites based on WordPress in just a few steps. With a little experience and know-how, it is even possible to achieve very good scores of 95 points and above according to PageSpeed Insights and similar tools, even for extensive sites with more functionality.
If you're interested in what my setup currently looks like and which plugins, themes, page builders, and hosting services I'm currently using, feel free to take a look at the article on web development & web design – agency work best practices 2023.
