WordPress Speed Tutorials + Reviews
Yo! I’m Tom. I’ll help you optimize WordPress for core web vitals with tutorials/reviews viewed over 6M times. I don’t give 5/5 stars for affiliate commissions and my bio has plenty of cat and travel photos to go around.
My Setup
Rocket.net
Your host/CDN are the 2 main TTFB factors. Rocket.net with free Cloudflare Enterprise will knock out 2 birds with 1 stone with fast servers and a powerful CDN, averaging 100ms globally.
FlyingPress
Gijo Varghese’s cache plugin has more features to optimize core web vitals and real-world browsing speed compared to WP Rocket/SG Optimizer with new features added regularly.
Perfmatters
FlyingPress already does most optimizations in Perfmatters, but you can still use it for the script manager (for disabling plugins on pages) or use a free plugin for it like Asset CleanUp.
LiteSpeed Setup
LiteSpeed Hosting
List of hosts using LiteSpeed servers. And with LiteSpeed Cache + QUIC.cloud, is often a faster/cheaper setup than SiteGround and similar hosts.
LiteSpeed Cache
Cache plugin you should use if you’re on a LiteSpeed server. Learn to configure the settings and setup QUIC.cloud + object cache for optimal performance.
QUIC.cloud CDN
CDN for LiteSpeed, but use the standard plan (not free plan) which uses all 81 locations and DDoS protection. Also supports HTML caching to improve TTFB.
Hosting
NameHero
LiteSpeed hosting with faster NVMe SSDs on their US data center. Supports Redis, cPanel, and includes more CPU cores + RAM than other shared hosts.
ChemiCloud
Similar to NameHero but has more data centers, uses NVMe SSDs in 9/11 locations, and the Turbo Plus add-on scales cores + RAM by doubling them to 6/6.
Scala
Entry WP Cloud plan is a more powerful shared/cloud hybrid plan on LiteSpeed with NVMe SSDs in their US data center, Redis, and their custom sPanel.
Servebolt
Extremely fast but starts at $99/mo and their Cloudflare Enterprise (called accelerated domains) is an extra $299/mo. Very solid if that’s your budget.
Cloudways
Bought by DigitalOcean, but I prefer Vultr HF with NVMe + Redis Pro (a big upgrade from most shared/cloud hosting). Who I used before Rocket.net.
SiteGround
History of TTFB, DNS, and CPU issues with expensive renewals. Also controls several Facebook groups and censors/threatens people who write bad reviews.
Hostinger
CEO admitted to fake reviews with multiple scam reports you can find on Reddit. It’s cheap because you get less resources on slow and unreliable servers.
Kinsta
Overpriced with low limits on PHP workers, monthly visits, and charges $100/mo for Redis with slower SATA SSDs + price increases. Totally not worth it.
WPX
Not the fastest host like they claim. <400ms target TTFB, shared hosting, downtimes, and no redundancy system caused a worldwide outage.
Bluehost
Mainly promoted by “how to start a blog” affiliates who target noobs that don’t know better. Old infrastructure and pays WP to be “recommended.”
GoDaddy
Everyone knows to avoid SlowDaddy. If you bought a domain through them, you’ll want to switch your DNS to Cloudflare, since theirs is slow.
Elementor Cloud
Extremely slow, way too minimal, and you should get your hosting from an actual hosting company – not your page builder/domain registrar.
Cache Plugins
LiteSpeed Cache
Use this cache plugin if you’re on a LiteSpeed server. Learn how to configure the settings and setup QUIC.cloud + object cache for faster performance.
WP Rocket
Poor job optimizing images for LCP/mobile, slower “remove unused CSS,” and RocketCDN is slow. Hardly any new features have been released since 2020.
SG Optimizer
Use it for dynamic cache & Memcached, but not for core web vitals since it lacks many features, like removing unused CSS and delaying JavaScript.
CDNs
Cloudflare
In case you setup Cloudflare manually (instead of using a third-party Enterprise service), you’ll need tweak Cloudflare’s dashboard for speed & security.
QUIC.cloud
CDN for LiteSpeed, but use the standard plan (not free plan) which has more locations and DDoS protection. Also supports HTML caching to improve TTFB.
BunnyCDN
Top performer on cdnperf.com with a nice image optimization solution (BunnyCDN) and geo-replication, but no full page cache. Also used by FlyingCDN.
Cloudflare Enterprise
Arguably the most powerful CDN offered by third-party services like Rocket.net, Cloudways, and FlyingProxy (but they’re not all the same).
SiteGround CDN
Good improvements in v2 with Anycast, yet still lacks security and image optimizations, and you still have to use their DNS which was blocked by Google.
RocketCDN
Uses StackPath with hardly any features besides “serving files from a CDN.” No full page caching and bandwidth isn’t “unlimited” like they advertise.
Web Vitals
Largest Content Paint
Learn the 4 sub-parts of LCP and how optimizing TTFB (and above the fold content) can improve scores. The core web vital most people struggle with.
Layout Shifts
Stop things from shifting on your website which is often fixed with CSS/font settings, adding dimensions, delaying JS, and preloading local fonts.
Total Blocking Time
Blocking time is usually from JavaScript added by plugins, themes, and third-party code (including jQuery). Remove it from the source or optimize it.
TTFB
Test your global TTFB in KeyCDN’s Performance Test or SpeedVitals. A good host and CDN (with full page caching) can solve most TTFB problems.
Third-Party Code
Learn third-party domains loading on your site and host fonts/analytics locally. Delay JavaScript, or consider pushing it down so it can be delayed.
Image Optimization
Above the fold images and backgrounds are optimized differently, images should be resized for mobile, and image CDNs are better than plugins.
Themes
GeneratePress
Why I used GeneratePress + GenerateBlocks to redesign my site and how it fixed several design/speed issues I’ve been having (cheaper than Kadence).
Speed Up Elementor
Configure Elementor settings, disable Gutenberg, and add exclusions so you can remove unused CSS + delay JavaScript without breaking your website.
Speed Up Divi
Similar to speeding up Elementor only with Divi’s performance settings. Avoid most of Divi’s recommended hosts and use a “fast setup.”
Plugins
Speed Plugins
Overkilled list of 50+ speed plugins. Which ones you need (or don’t need) largely depend on which cache plugin you use and if you’re using Perfmatters.
Slow Plugins To Avoid
A list of 75 slow plugins that either increase memory usage or add CSS/JS to the frontend. Find your bloated plugins in the Chrome Dev Tools coverage tab.
WP-Optimize
Cleans database better than cache plugins since it removes tables, takes database backups, and keeps a few post revisions (instead of deleting all of them).
tom dupuis
Why I Started OMM
Money, obviously.
Even though I make a living through this blog, I try to tell it how it is.
If I can help people optimize their WordPress site and get paid doing it, I’ll take this job any day. Aff links pay the bills but I won’t refer you to crap for commissions; there’s too much BS out there already. And If you want to creep, my story has plenty of cat/travel pics to go around.
