The four measures with the greatest effect: a current PHP version, a caching plugin, compressed images in WebP format and fewer plugins. With these almost every WordPress site loads in under two seconds. If that is not enough, the hosting is the issue: then a vServer or root server with dedicated resources is the next step.
Measure first, then optimise
Check your site with PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse and note the values for Largest Contentful Paint and Total Blocking Time. Without measurement you optimise blindly. Repeat the test after every measure, then you see what really helps.
Update the PHP version
Every new PHP version is faster than the previous one, the jump from 7.4 to 8.2 or 8.3 often brings 20 to 30 percent. In FameSystems web space you choose the PHP version in the customer area, on your own server you install it yourself. Check beforehand whether theme and plugins support the version, a staging test takes ten minutes.
Caching: the biggest single measure
Without a cache WordPress rebuilds every page from database and PHP on every request. A page cache serves ready HTML files, which is many times faster. A plugin like WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache or LiteSpeed Cache is enough to start with. On your own server an object cache with Redis is added, which caches database queries.
Images: the weight of most pages
- Scale images to the required size before uploading, do not upload 4,000 pixels wide.
- WebP instead of JPEG or PNG, which saves 25 to 50 percent at the same quality. Plugins like Imagify or ShortPixel convert automatically.
- Lazy loading for images below the visible area, WordPress does this by itself since version 5.5.
- Keep the hero image deliberately small, it decides the Largest Contentful Paint.
Plugins and theme
Every plugin loads code, often on every page. Deactivate what you do not need and replace heavy page-builder themes with lean alternatives if the design allows it. A test with the "Query Monitor" plugin shows which extensions cost the most time.
When hosting is the limit
If PHP, cache and images are done and the site stays slow, the cause is shared resources or slow drives. Then a move to a vServer or root server with dedicated cores and NVMe storage helps, at FameSystems in the Frankfurt data centre with short latencies across Germany.
Web hosting with a current PHP version
Web space with selectable PHP version, or vServers and root servers with NVMe and dedicated resources. All options at a glance.