What you’ll need
- WordPress admin access
- A backup taken today
- A speed testing tool such as PageSpeed Insights
- Ideally, a staging copy
Optimising without measuring means you never know which change mattered. You’ll record a baseline, make one change at a time, and re-test.
Steps
Step 1: Record a baseline
Test three representative pages (home, a post, a key landing page) while logged out. Note TTFB, LCP and page size for each, averaging three runs. How to measure website speed properly
Step 2: Update PHP and WordPress
Update core, plugins and themes, then move to the newest PHP version your site supports. Re-test. Choosing the right PHP version for WordPress
Step 3: Add page caching
Install one caching plugin, turn on page caching and browser caching, and exclude logged-in users and shop pages. Re-test logged out: TTFB should drop sharply. Caching WordPress on shared hosting
Step 4: Find heavy plugins
On staging, deactivate plugins one at a time and re-test the slowest page. Replace or remove any plugin that adds significant time. Choosing WordPress themes and plugins without slowing or breaking your site
Step 5: Optimise images
Install an image optimisation plugin, convert to WebP, bulk-optimise the library, and resize oversized originals. Re-test page size. How to optimise images for a faster website
Step 6: Reduce front-end weight
Remove sliders, unused page builder modules, extra font weights and third-party widgets you don’t need. Re-test LCP.
Step 7: Clean the database
Remove revisions, expired transients and spam; limit future revisions. Cleaning up and optimising the WordPress database
Step 8: Move WP-Cron to a real cron job
Stops scheduled tasks running on visitor page loads. WP-Cron: replacing it with a real cron job
Step 9: Compare with the baseline
Re-run the three tests and compare each metric with step 1.
Check it worked
Logged-out TTFB and LCP are measurably lower than your baseline on all three pages, and nothing on the site is broken.
If something goes wrong
| What happens | What to do |
|---|---|
| Layout broken after enabling minify/combine | Turn those options off; they’re rarely needed with HTTP/2. |
| Changes don’t show for visitors | Clear the plugin cache, and Cloudflare’s cache if you use it. |
| Still slow when logged in | Normal — admin isn’t cached. Focus on plugins. Why is WordPress slow? How to find and fix the cause |
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