5 Ways to Speed Up a Woocommerce Website
WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin that converts your WordPress website into an e-commerce website. It is quickly becoming an e-commerce solution provider because of its ability to integrate many plugins. Your WooCommerce site needs to be fast. Otherwise, it will lose its efficiency, which translates to reduced sales.
Page speed is the duration taken from the time your website is called up to when it is rendered and ready for browser input, and you can measure it using a website speed test. The page speed depends on several factors that include hosting, images, plugins, scripts, and much more. The following are ways you can use to speed up your WooCommerce site.
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Only Run Essential Code
Every piece of code executed on your website affects the page load speed. It is prudent to run less code to enhance the speed of your WooCommerce site. If you write your own code, ensure you specify proper limits of whether to run pieces of code in different contexts. For instance, avoid running code that is only required for the product page on the category pages.
Find a Reliable Host or Upgrade the Existing One
Your type of host and the hosting plan significantly affect the speed of your website. Different hosting services exist, and each comes with particular specifications, functionality and features. You need to select the ideal one depending on your website needs. If you have not found a good host, consider WooCommerce hosting by Nexcess.
According to Nexcess, if you started with a shared hosting plan, but your website traffic has increased immensely, this plan will not sustain your requirements, and it will be a great idea to upgrade and look for a plan that provides suitable bandwidth that suffices to serve your users seamlessly. Also, consider the uptime that your host offers.
Use a Fast WooCommerce Theme
Employing the right WooCommerce theme is crucial. There are many themes out there, and it might be challenging to decide on one that is suitable for your website. A gorgeous theme with excellent built-in features may sound great in theory but may let you down in actual usage. For your website, ensure that the theme is fully compatible with WooCommerce. Themes such as Astra, GeneratePress, and OceanWP are lightweight and ultrafast themes you can use on your WooCommerce website.
Uninstall and Delete Useless Plugins
One prevalent issue in WooCommerce and WordPress is the porting of bad plugins. Plugins are a great way to enhance the functionality for WooCommerce; however, many plugins are laden with bad and irrelevant code. If you have been running your store for many years, you are probably using plugins that are outdated and are no longer maintained.
Optimize Your Images
Your website’s page size mainly comprises images, and they can slow down your page speed. E-commerce sites contain images and banners of products in the store. Failure to optimize them for size and delivery will most likely bring your website to its knees. You can optimize your images using compression and optimization tools to reduce the image sizes.
Your website speed is essential for enhancing the user experience. So use the above tips to speed up the speed of your WooCommerce website to ensure that your customers remain happy while using your website.