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Is WordPress on the latest version?

YesNo

Are the plugins all on the latest version?

YesNo

Are Backups enabled?

YesNo

Are there multiple administrator accounts?

YesNo

WordPress core needs updating

WordPress should always be running on the latest version. Keeping your WordPress website updated protects you from vulnerabilities and future broken code related issues.

Plugins require updates.

WordPress plugins should always be on the latest version where possible. Most plugin updates that get released are security patches.

For more information see our guide here: https://www.34sp.com/kb/how-to-update-a-plugin-in-wordpress

Backups not enabled.

We recommend enabling backups on your website. This can usually be done in your hosting's control panel but if not you can do it using a WordPress plugin. For this we recommend UpdraftPlus:

https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/

You should take backups according to how often you update your website, for example if you update the site daily, then you should take daily backups.

Contact your hosting provider for assistance setting up automated backups.

Multiple Administrator Accounts.

We recommend only having one user with the 'Administrator' role in WordPress. Did you know that an 'Editor' can do everything an Administrator can do buth without the ability to delete themes and plugins?

Setting appropriate roles for your users protects you against malicious logins and leaked data by ensuring any compromised user logins have restricted access to your website.

Slow Loading Images

There are many ways to improve slow loading images on your website. Here are some of our recommended solutions:

Resize locally

First and foremost, you can resize the image before upload. Depending on your theme however, WordPress may already generate thumbnails based on what your site requires.

Image Formats

Serve images in appropriate formats. For example a .JPG tends to be a much smaller file size than a .BMP or .GIF. .PNG is a good alternative to a .GIF you wish to keep image transparency.

There are also next-gen image formats which your website can serve to speed up loading times. We have a guide on how to enable WebP images here: https://www.34sp.com/kb/how-to-enable-webp-images-on-wordpress-hosting.

Image optimisation plugins

You can also install a plugin to help with reducing your image sizes. These usually work by stripping metadata and compressing your images for you.

The plugin we recommend for this is EWWW Image Optimizer, which can be downloaded here: https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer

Slow Loading Javascript

Scripts can really slow down your website, but there are a few things you can to to improve performance in this area. Here are our suggestions:

Remove unnecessary plugins

Many WordPress users leave plugins active on their website, whether they are using them or not. This means their code is being loaded in and potentially slowing down your website.

We suggest removing any plugins not actively being used by your website. If you are unsure if a plugin is being used or not try disabling it for a while at first, and if you notice no issues you can then remove it.

Please note: Deleting unused plugins is usually better than simply deactivating them. Inactive plugins still take up storage space on your hosting as well as leave data in your database until you delete them.

Minification Plugins

You can minify your site's Javascript to speed up your website. This means using a plugin to read your Javascript files, it will then remove the whitespace from the file and output a version with no spaces to be loaded by your website (resulting in a smaller and quicker to load javascript file.)

The plugin we recommend for this is WP-Super-Minify: https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/wp-super-minify

Requests to External Resources

It's very common for websites to pull in content from other websites, common examples of this are ad networks or Google hosted fonts.

Displaying content from external resources shouldn't cause too much of an issue, but it depends on how fast the website you're pulling data from takes to load. So if your ad network website is slow, your website will be slower trying to load the adverts from them!

Here are our suggestions for slow loading external resources:

Limit use of ads

This is a tricky one, because adverts are a popular and effective way to monetise your website. However if you are pulling in a lot of adverts from a slow ad network, it will cause your website to become slower.

Where possible, try limiting adverts per page and prioritise high click rate areas for display.

Host fonts locally

If you are using Google Fonts on your website, we have a guide on how to host fonts locally on your WordPress website here:

https://www.34sp.com/kb/how-to-host-google-fonts-locally-in-wordpress

Layout Shift

Layout shift is when your website's features move around as the page loads. Have you ever tried to click on a website's navigation and accidentally clicked on another link because the page shifted?

Search engines count this towards your load time and it can affect your results ranking.

The most common causes of this are slow loading images or adverts. We recommend the following solutions:

For slow loading images you can use a plugin such as EWWW Image Optimizer to reduce the file size and improve loading times.

EWWW Image Optimizer: https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/ewww-image-optimizer

Slow loading adverts can be trickier to resolve. If ads are causing a significant layout shift you can think about changing their placement - such as removing them from your header.