Page speed affects the usability of your website as well as its ability to rank well in search. Did you know that 40% of users abandon websites that take over 3 seconds to load? Did you also know that for websites that generate $100,000 in daily revenue that a one-second delay in your site speed can result in an estimated annual revenue loss of $2.5 million?
Your WordPress site has the need for speed. Don’t leave sessions and conversions on the table. Contact SteadyRain today to learn how we can solve most of the issues impacting your WordPress website page speed scores and set your brand apart in the search results.
Why Does Page Speed Matter For My WordPress SEO?
For over a decade, page speed has been a confirmed component of Google’s algorithm. The speed at which a site loads on mobile devices became more important in 2017, with the introduction of Google’s mobile-first algorithm.
Put simply, faster sites rank better – and having tremendous pagespeed can provide a significant boost to websites that are doing everything else right – and a key advantage to websites that may have other pressing SEO issues, such as a light backlink profile.
Now and in the future, page speed continues to be a pressing SEO issue, with introduction of Page Experience to Google’s ranking signals in May of 2021, which includes evaluation of web core vitals including LCP, FIP and CLS.
When your WordPress site isn’t optimized for speed, you’re losing out on visitors and revenue. We take a tactical and strategic approach to addressing the issues that cause WordPress sites to underperform, so your site can blow past its competitors.
What Factors Influence WordPress Website Page Speed?
At SteadyRain, we focus on the opportunities that matter to search engines.
For someone managing a WordPress website, phrases such as “excessive DOM,” “remove unused JavaScript,” “preload key requests”, “enable compression”, “eliminate render-blocking resources” and “defer offscreen resources” may seem like a difficult ask – when all you want is a faster website that converts and engages better than before.
SteadyRain’s WordPress development and SEO experts are here to make sense of it all, making sure you have an SEO-friendly WordPress site built for long-term success.
How Do We Optimize WordPress Sites For Pagespeed?
For SteadyRain, improving WordPress pagespeed is not a set it and forget it solution. There is no single magic-bullet plugin available to WordPress users that rockets your pagespeed scores from 1 to 100. We take a multi-pronged approach to ensuring your site is running at peak performance, with both users and search engines in mind.
Managed Hosting
Any WordPress optimization strategy starts with managed hosting. We work with the top-tier hosting platforms to ensure you’re getting the most out of your hosting. We’ll help you pick the right vendor or address
your configuration needs if you’re already in a managed environment.
Plugin Remediation
Plugins can empower and extend WordPress capabilities, but with efficiency and security concerns, they need to be watched carefully or they can hurt your WordPress site. We will help you determine what plugins are a resource drain and what are not, and how to deal with and manage plugins that may impact your performance.
Code Review
Whether your site is a custom theme, a purchased theme, or built with a theme builder, the structure of your site matters. Excessive DOM, unused scripts or improperly used third-party scripts can wreck the performance of your website. We will help you understand what changes it will take to get you pointed in the right direction.
Image Optimization
Images play a huge role in the aesthetics of many websites. We will address and identify ways to efficiently compress and appropriately resize your website images and recommend and implement best practices when serving these images in “web-friendly” formats like WEBP, AVIF, and others.
Database Cleanup
Although it will only result in modest gains, a clean and well-kept database can help improve your backend performance, and it may even keep you safe from old tables and plugins that could be potentially threatening the security of your site. We will help you with some housekeeping, and as a result help you regain some piece of mind.
Ongoing Support
Optimizations and WordPress enhancements aren’t a “one and done” approach. With a rapidly evolving core, consistent plugins, and new changes to browser and search algorithms, WordPress site owners’ must be ready to stay on top of their game and will need to constantly monitor performance. While you focus on your business, we’ll stay on top of your performance with our skilled team and monthly maintenance agreements.
WordPress Page Speed Optimization FAQs
How Much Does It Cost To Fix My WordPress Pagespeed?
This depends on multiple factors. Generally, our team starts with a small block of hours to assess and technically evaluate your WordPress site. From there, we will build you a custom quote. We can safely bet the cost of improving your WordPress site will be less than the revenue you could lose with an underperforming site.
Will My Site Go Down While My WordPress Page Speed Is Addressed?
Not at all. Your site will remain hosted where it is. We will pull a backup and host it on our servers while we perform tests and audits.
What Results Can I Expect With A Custom Theme Or Page Builder?
Theme and page builders will come with their own set of unique challenges based on how they’re used, managed and updated. While these types of solutions can provide great efficiency in managing your website, the configuration can present issues if not approached in the proper way.
Do I Have To Migrate My Hosting To Get Better Results?
You may have to . . . eventually. This will be dependent on where you’re currently hosted and if that host can provide the appropriate environment for your WordPress site to run efficiently. You will have the final say in whether you choose to do so.
How Do I Know It Worked?
As a transparent and honest partner we never promise page 1 rankings with any of our SEO services including page speed optimization support for WordPress customers. There are simply too many other factors to use rank as a measuring stick.
We use several third-party tools to measure fully loaded page speed and other performance metrics as a benchmark. Our optimizations will result in a faster, more search-engine friendly website, but depending on factors such as your host and theme, your website’s ceiling may not be 100. Our team works diligently to make sure that your WordPress site is as fast as can possibly be – setting it up best for improved user behavior and search engine rankings.
Contact Us Today For a Free WordPress Page Speed Assessment
Is your WordPress site performing to its potential or stuck in neutral? As search engines evolve their algorithms to provide the best possible user experience, your brand needs to be prepared. Don’t leave potential revenue on the table – contact SteadyRain today to learn how our experienced team of WordPress developers and Digital Marketing experts can help take your pagespeed to the moon.