Let’s cut to the chase. Having a site that loads quickly increases the chance that a new visitor will stay on your site.

You know this because from your own experience, a slow-loading site has made you impatient and irritated, causing you to go somewhere else. And in the back of your mind, you said, “I’m not going back to that place again.”

Now imagine all the potential visitors you could have had on YOUR site, if only they didn’t get irritated waiting for what they thought was interesting enough to read.

It’s IMPERATIVE, then, that you make your WordPress site load faster, right now!

Follow the 4 easy steps below and your visitors will love you for it.

*Disclaimer: As with any changes I recommend to your site, always back up your files/database before doing anything! These “fixes” are recommendations only. The author of this post is not responsible for sites broken by the steps recommended on this site. However, do know that I personally followed these steps and, as you can see, my site is still alive.

1: The Before Shot

Go to https://gtmetrix.com/ (it’s FREE) and enter the blog URL you want analyzed for site load speed.

Here’s my before shot:

For our purposes, please take note of the “PAGE LOAD TIME” under the “Page Details” box.

An average (and good) time to shoot for is 6 seconds.  So mine was way out there. Not good.

2. WP-Optimize Install

Go to your Dashboard and click on Plugins – Add New.

Search for WP-Optimize, Install Now, and Activate.

3. WP-Optimize Setup

Check the following: Post revisions, Auto draft posts and posts in trash, and Spam comments, and Optimize database tables.

FYI: Generally, I manually check the unapproved comments just in case a real person slips through Akismet! Wouldn’t want to lose a real visitor and commenter, would I?!

Click PROCESS!

4. The AFTER Shot

At this point, you can be done! Go back to https://gtmetrix.com/ and re-analyze your site.

Compare the page load time with your “Before.” Did it get better?  I hope so!

Here’s my AFTER shot:

I started with 11.7 seconds, but after WP-Optimize, it went down to 8.7 seconds.  I’d say that’s a big difference!

5. OPTIONAL Extra Step to get even faster…

If you really feel the need for speed, try more suggestions from DesignerBlogs.com.

If your site is heavy on images, for example, you might want to try WP-Smush It to automatically reduce your image file size (even ones already uploaded) without losing image quality.

I use WP-Smush It. Currently, here’s my page load time: 6 seconds!

I know I’ve still got a little more to go in order to reach optimal speed, so I’ll probably be trying some of their suggestions soon, too. BUT at least I’ve got a good head start!

And today, I hope that I’ve given you the same good start for a better year of blogging too.

Good luck and happy blogging, my friend.

P.S. Have you got any tips on how to make a WordPress site load faster besides what’s mentioned here? Please DO share with everyone! Thanks!