Adam from RocketWP - https://rocketwp.co.uk: Adam Yates and I have been in the IT industry for more than 25 years. Fist got into WordPress as I got annoyed having to pay a developer whenever I wanted the most minor of changes. I soon realised that running WordPress requires regular maintenance like any other IT system. The hosting companies I had used where just not that great at doing this, the more I looked at other sites the more I realised that sites where not up to date and vulnerable to all sorts of threats, I also found that site were only being optimised for SEO and not for speed. So I setup RocketWP – we don’t design, develop or build websites, we don’t do email we just want to make sites run as fast as they possible can.

1. Making
WordPress fast
Guide to help achieving <3 second loading times

2. How to make WordPress Fly
The first thing a visitor does it
look up your IP address
DNS
Pick a quality host with a proven
track record with WordPress.
A fast host
Cache your site for fast page
delivery, use a CND to distribute
content.
Caching and CDN
Use plugins and themes from
valid sources.
Themes & Plugins
WordPress needs fine tuning to make sure your site loads fast – Google recommends your site should
load in 3 seconds or less.
KEY AREAS AFECTING SPEED

3. DNS
When a potential visitor enters your web address the first thing they carry out is a DNS look up.
You need to make sure your DNS lookup is quick and the service is reliable.
You need 2 DNS servers at a minimum – they should be on totally different networks.
Your server also needs to be using fast DNS servers to look up 3rd
party links and services.
@rocketwp

4. Use a Fast Host
There are literally hundreds of companies offering WordPress hosting so how do you choose?
Do your homework and test with a dummy site.
Build your own with services such as Digital Ocean or Vultr
Combine Digital Ocean with CloudWays or ServerPilot
Check that the platform is kept up to date
@rocketwp

5. Your hosting provider should support
• HTTP/2
• GZIP
Run up to date softwareincluding
• PHP
• MySQL
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6. Use Caching
WordPress dynamically creates each page as a visitor requests it. The server has to pull all the data
togeather – text, images, plugins etc every single time a visitor requests the page and for every
visitor.
This will not always cause performance issues when using a fast host but will speed up your site.
Caching works by generating a copy of every page, ready to send each visitor.
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7. Use a CDN
Using a CDN, a Content Delivery Network can help with Performance Grades but will not always
speed up your site. You need to choose a good CDN partner and make sure that any caching is
correctly configured.
@rocketwp

8. Themes & Plugins
Plugins and themes can have a massive effect on your site.
Always test new plugins to check for any effects that they may have on your site
Check themes – a lot of themes contain a whole host of ‘bloat’ that your site may never need.
Try using a frame work if possible.
@rocketwp

9. NO CACHE
VARNISH / WPROCKET & CDN
PUT IT ALL TOGEATHER
THE IMAGES BELOW WERE ALL FROM TESTING WITH PINGDOM
As you can see you need everythingto speed your site and get a good performance grade
VARNISH CACHE
VARNISH & WPROCKET

10. REMEMBER
Keep them up to date, only use
plugins and themes from valid
sources.
Plugins & Themes
Keep the core up to date.
WordPress Core
Backup is the best form of security
you can put in place on your site.
Backup
Implement basic security on
your site.
Secure
WordPress needs to be looked after

11. Optimisation is not a set it and forget it task
TEST TEST AND TEST AGAIN
Optimising your site for speed is not something that you do once and then
leave it. You should test your speed regularly and after any changes.
You need to monitor your site’s speed and remember to optimize individual
pages, especially those you are using on social media.
Use a tool such as Pingdom and understand what the waterfall display is
actually showing you.

12. We manage and maintain WordPress sites
Chapter 1: Bullet Slide Page: 12
300MANAGED SITES
100SITES HOSTED
20CUPS OF COFFEE
WE WORK WITH ANY HOST
Here are a few of our stats

13. Thank you!
WPINFO
PINGDOM
KeyCDN
WPROCKET
CloudWays
Digital Ocean
Vultr
RESOURCES
Below are some of the resources we use to manage and maintain
performance on the sites we manage.