This document discusses performance tweaks that can be made for WordPress sites on shared hosting. It is divided into three acts: inside WordPress, on the shared server, and off the shared server. Inside WordPress, it recommends right-sizing images, checking for 404 errors, keeping the database under control, and using caching plugins. On the shared server, it suggests updating to newer PHP versions, cleaning up the database, and using CloudFlare. Off the server, it only recommends using CDNs like CloudFlare for their free benefits.

1. Performance
Tweaks for
Shared Hosting
Jon Brown
j.Brown Studios
@jb510
http://jbrownstudios.com
Saturday, October 6, 12

2. Tweaking WP
Performance in 3
acts
Act 1 - Inside WordPress
Act 2 - On your Shared Server
Act 3 - O! your Shared Server
Saturday, October 6, 12

3. Prelude
Saturday, October 6, 12

4. What am I going to
cover today?
Performance Tweaks you can make on
or with most shared hosting (not that
they won’t help on any hosting)
Saturday, October 6, 12

5. What am I not going
to talk about today?
Geeky tweaks that are only suitable to
VPS/Dedicated servers
(ie. APC, Memcached, Hyper DB, etc...)
Saturday, October 6, 12

6. Where to go for the
advanced stu!?
http://wordpress.tv/
http://www.slideshare.net/
Joseph Scott
Barry Abrahamson
Ilya Grigorik
Iliya Polihronov
and many others...
Saturday, October 6, 12

7. Measuring
Performance
• It’s hard to impossible to measure
performance on shared servers
• How to measure anyway...
http://www.webpagetest.org
Saturday, October 6, 12

8. Why not use your
browser tools?
• FireBug
• YSlow
• PageSpeed
• WebKit DevTools,
• etc...
Saturday, October 6, 12

9. WebPageTest.org
Saturday, October 6, 12

10. 1
2
3
Saturday, October 6, 12

11. The challenge
with shared hosting
• Con"gured to run just about any type of
web site
• Generalized not optimized
• Many performance tweaks available to
dedicated/VPS hosting can’t be made
• Some performance tweaks you can make...
starting in WordPress
Saturday, October 6, 12

12. The goal of all
opitimization
• Reduce HTTP requests
• Reduce total data transfer
• Reduce CPU load
• Avoid Bottlenecks
Saturday, October 6, 12

13. Act 1
Tweaking
inside
WordPress
Saturday, October 6, 12

14. Inside WordPress
1. Right size/compress images
2. Check for 404’s
3. Keep your DB under control
4. Caching inside WordPress
Saturday, October 6, 12

15. Right sizing images
• Upload the maximum pixel size you
want to display, not larger
• Compress JPGs to 60-70% (aka 7 out of
12 in PhotoShop)
• Use WP Smush.it on already uploaded
images to "x your past mistakes
Saturday, October 6, 12

16. Checking for 404’s
WebPageTest.org
or
FireBug / Webkit Dev Tools
Saturday, October 6, 12

17. Keep your DB under
control
• Optimize DB
Plugin - WP DB Manager
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
wp-dbmanager/
• Tame Revisions
Plugin - Revision Control
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
revision-control/
Saturday, October 6, 12

18. Caching WordPress
• W3 Total Cache
• WP Super Cache
• WP Minify
• Others...
Saturday, October 6, 12

19. W3TC Con"g Guides
• http://c3mdigital.com/reduce-page-
loading-time-w3-total-cache/
• http://headwaythemes.com/screencast-
tuesday-using-w3-total-cache-part-1/
• http://www.kidnapcustomers.com/how-
to-make-a-website/w3-total-cache-
settings-wordpress-speed/
Saturday, October 6, 12

20. W3TC Do’s & Dont’s
for shared hosting
• Do test settings
• Don’t assume turning everything up to
11 will work well... it won’t.
• Do take the time to "gure out
minifying and combing "les it makes a
huge di!erence
• Don’t forget to prime your cache
Saturday, October 6, 12

21. W3TC Minify
Settings
Try Auto (Performance>General Settings)
Saturday, October 6, 12

22. W3TC Manual Minify
Use Manual (Performance>Min"y)
Lists all your CSS and JS
for easy manual addition
and ordering
Saturday, October 6, 12

23. After Mini"cation
Saturday, October 6, 12

24. Before Mini"cation
Saturday, October 6, 12

25. Act 2
On your Shared
Hosting Server
Saturday, October 6, 12

26. On your Server
1. PHP Version
2. DB Cleanup
3. Cloud#are (if your lucky)
Saturday, October 6, 12

27. Switch to a newer
version of PHP
“PHP 5.2 to 5.3 - WordPress 15% faster”
~ Dmitry Stogov http://news.php.net/
php.internals/36484
PHP 5.4 is even faster
Saturday, October 6, 12

28. How to change PHP
versions
• Ask your web host...
• In cPanel "nd PHP Con"g
• Sometimes set in .htaccess via
AddHandler
Saturday, October 6, 12

29. PHP 5.2 - 5.3 - 5.4
Saturday, October 6, 12

30. Keep Your DB under
control
• PHPMyAdmin to Optimize MySQL
Tables if you didn’t want to use the WP
DB Manager plugin to do it
Saturday, October 6, 12

31. CloudFlare
free awesomeness
CDN + Site Optimizer + Security
Saturday, October 6, 12

32. Some Host Integrating
CloudFlare with cPanel
• http://www.cloud#are.com/hosting-
partners
(DreamHost, BlueHost, many more...)
Saturday, October 6, 12

33. Enable CloudFlare in
your cPanel
Saturday, October 6, 12

34. Saturday, October 6, 12

35. W3 Total Cache
can control CloudFlare
Saturday, October 6, 12

36. One Caveat
Saturday, October 6, 12

37. Act 3
O! your Shared
Hosting Server
Saturday, October 6, 12

38. O! your server
1. CDNs (CloudFlare is Free)
Saturday, October 6, 12

39. CloudFlare
CDN + Optimizer + Security
Saturday, October 6, 12

40. Setup Cloud#are
1. Setup CloudFlare account (free)
2. Have CloudFlare scan your DNS
records (check your records)
3. Repoint your nameservers
4. Done
Saturday, October 6, 12

41. Why
• Reduces requests to your server
• Reduces requests to your CDN if you
use one
• Adds security
• Optimizer features (I use W3TC)
Saturday, October 6, 12

42. So where does it get
us?
Saturday, October 6, 12

43. Where we started
1
2
3
Saturday, October 6, 12

44. W3TC Mini"cation
1
2
3
Saturday, October 6, 12

45. W3TC + CloudFlare
1
2
3
Saturday, October 6, 12