As Wordpress gains in popularity as a blogging tool across the web, it is essential that to draw in the reader. This is much easier if the website is running to the best efficiency possible. If it is running slowly, or links do not work, then no matter how interesting, informative, or humorous the content, people will avoid it.
There could be several reasons for this, many of which are easy to fix, and once you have fixed them, the website should work smoothly, or if you prefer, like a dream.
Here are some quick fixes, that can be a big help.
1. Plugins
Plugins are essential to wordpress, and it is important that you are using the most current ones, and old ones are deactivated, and are physically deleted off the web server. Wordpress checks all the plugins to see if they are active or not upon page load, and this can be a timely process, enough to drive traffic away. Developers upgrade plugins to improve them and look to minimise their coding to optimise their speed. Keep them current!
2. Minimise stress on the server
The load time of a page can be reduced if the page loads from static html files rather than the more complex PHP scripts. The beauty of the WP super cache plugin, is that it generates static html files from your dynamic wp blog, therefore every time the page loads, it does so from the static html files rather than loading content from the database, which takes the time.
3. Keep up with the admin!
By optimising your database every week or so, and therefore increasing efficiency, can save a lot of disk space. Select the optimise tables option and repair after logging into your myphpadmin. This can make all the difference.
4. Shrink O’matic could be a winner?
If you have trouble resizing images, then try this tool. It will resize and shrink images as you wish, and works with formats such as GIF,PNG and JPEG. Just drag and drop.
5. Relieve stress when using CSS files.
If you need to use @import files to a CSS file, but are wondering what’s happening for the user, then the WP CSS plugin could well be the answer. The plugin automatically strips whitespace and GZIPs CSS files. So when you use an @import file you no longer need to be thinking about what is going on at the user side of things, as it puts any @import files, into you’re your style.css file. It also allows the cache expiry time to be set.
6. Convert PHP database queries to HTML.
This is a lot like the earlier point and has the same principle. By converting all PHP queries to static HTML files, like dynamic wp blog pages, the load time is greatly reduced. Another one to implement.
7. Keep it optimised.
Another way to keep things running as they should do, is to use the plugin Optimise DB. This nifty tool, effectively defragments your wordpress tables. The advantages for frequently used tables are clear. When you click the optimise now button, the tool tells you how much space you are saving, as well as starting the defragment process.
8. Use the latest version of Wordpress
Goes without saying to really, but make sure you use the latest version of wordpress. Keep an eye out for the latest releases.
This is just a few hints that can make all the difference to your wordpress blogs and websites. There are many more, but these basics are good rules to follow to ensure efficiency and that you are fully optimising your site.
Wordpress is a great tool, and if used properly, can enhance your writing, and get be a great help to get your message out there.
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