If you want to design a professional website or blog (especially one that is SEO-friendly), WordPress is an excellent choice.
WordPress is 100% free and powers over 24% of websites. There’s amazing selection of themes, hosting, plugins (for adding functionality), and WordPress itself is quite easy to learn. I’ve been designing and optimizing WordPress sites since 2011 and will show why WordPress is awesome, plus tips on getting started with domains, hosting, themes, and other resources.
The one thing I learned about WordPress, is that there are endless possibilities from both a website design and SEO perspective. There are tons of SEO-optimized WordPress themes to choose from which can be completely customized to your unique website design and SEO needs. I also understand there is a lot of information out there, and the learning curve can be pretty steep for someone who is new to working with WordPress, let alone new to SEO.
Here are some resources to help you get started…
10-Step checklist for designing your WordPress site
Migrating your existing website to WordPress
1. WordPress Hosting Getting domain and hosting is the first step to building a website. I recommend SiteGround’s GoGeek plan ($14.99/month) since it makes your website load fast AND you get priority support. If you’re on a tight budget, they have the StartUp ($6.99/month) and GrowBig plan (5.95/month). SiteGround has the best support out there, plus you get a free domain name.
2. WordPress Themes These are the same thing as website templates, only most WordPress themes are super flexible and can be highly customized. There’s tons of WordPress themes out there, and some are better than others. I suggest starting with these top-notch theme stores:
3. WordPress Plugins WordPress plugins are like apps for smartphones. They add functionality to your website that might not come built-in to your WordPress theme (this can be design, SEO, Google Analytics, social media buttons, etc). And like apps, there are thousands of WordPress plugins out there. But to make it easy, here are the plugins I recommend starting out with:
4. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Matt Cutts (head of spam at Google) says WordPress takes care of roughly 90% of the SEO mechanics – a technical part of SEO. There is quite a bit to SEO so anything you don’t have to worry about is a good thing. There are also tons of WordPress plugins, tools, and resources out there. Here are some WordPress SEO tutorials to help you get started…
5. Blogging WordPress was originally built as a blogging platform, however over the years it evolved into a content management system used for building websites, blogs, and websites that have blogs. You can add pages and blog posts with ease, use categories/tags to organize articles, and customize them to look super nice. This article will help with both blogging and design…
6. Design “Can WordPress do this?” It’s the most common question I hear and I’ve honestly never had to say no. Nearly all WordPress themes have built-in features like portfolios, social media, contact forms, sliders and other features. If a theme doesn’t have it, a plugin probably does. 7. Functionality From adding content to embedding YouTube videos, all the way to selling products through e-Commerce and integrating a newsletter, WordPress can handle pretty much anything. 8. Less Coding Once your website is setup in WordPress, you’ll be editing your site in the WordPress dashboard. The dashboard makes it easy to add and edit content without knowing code. However, learning HTML and CSS will be very helpful. You can learn this at W3 Schools:
9. Community And Support Free WordPress help is easy to come by. WordPress forums can tell you exactly how to fix most issues. Many WordPress themes also come with their own support forum, and because WordPress is widely-used there are thousands of video tutorials on Youtube. 10. Paid Help Is Around The Corner Finding a WordPress designer is easy (I used to be one and still take on some design projects). Check out WordPress designers on Upwork – you can filter your freelancers by reviews, pricing, etc. This is how I used to develop websites that were beyond my skill level.
11. WordPress Is Free Every website has domain and hosting fees, but WordPress itself is absolutely free. So are the majority of WordPress plugins. You can even find a lot of free WordPress themes, however I would stick with a premium theme since the theme developer is getting paid – so they’ll make sure the theme is legit. The main cost of creating a website is your time. 12. Getting Start Is Easy Start by going to SiteGround to get your domain and hosting. Then choose a WordPress theme that fits your design needs (check out StudioPress, Zigzagpress, Web Savvy Marketing). You may want to consult with a WordPress expert when choosing your theme, but those theme stores I listed are a good place to start. Then install WordPress and your theme on your SiteGround account, then you’re ready to login to your site and start creating.
I know there is a learning curve to using WordPress. While I don’t do any free consultations, I’m always happy to answer whatever questions you have in the comments section! Just drop me a line and I’ll get back to you usually in a day or two. Good luck with your website!
This post you’re reading has over 70 images, 470 comments (while showing Gravatars), uses external fonts, Google Analytics, social sharing buttons, and an embedded YouTube video. Yet, it can load in under 2s with a 2.56MB page size, 89 requests, and 100%/97% GTmetrix scores.
I’ll show you how to take your GTmetrix + PageSpeed Insights report and make WordPress-specific optimizations that improve grades/load times. I’ve already written popular guides on WP Rocket, slow plugins to avoid, and a list of 24+ speed plugins. This combines everything.
When in doubt, look at the WordPress optimization guide to see the most important factors. The most common fixes for a slow WordPress site are usually related to your infrastructure (theme, hosting, page builder, cache plugin, CDN, and plugins you’re using). While optimizing images and third party scripts can definitely speed up WordPress, most factors are site-wide.
For this, I recommend Cloudways or Kinsta (hosting), Astra or Oxygen Builder (theme + page builder), and WP Rocket (main optimization plugin). You will avoid 90% of speed issues and they’re all rated highly in Facebook polls. Comment with your GTmetrix report if you need help.
GTmetrix (load times) should be your primary metric while PageSpeed Insights doesn’t even measure load times. Getting 100% in every single tool is not realistic unless you have a bare bones, static HTML site. Don’t obsess over scores – obsess over your actual load times instead.
Watch My Video – it’s a 42 minute video, but I cover pretty much everything (timestamps are found in video description). You will learn a ton of good stuff on WordPress speed optimization.
Run your website through Google PageSpeed Insights and check if reduce server response times is in your report. Google recommends a response time of <200ms. You can also check your TTFB (time to first byte) in the GTmetrix Timings tab. If these are slow, so is your hosting.
I would personally skip the shared crap and go with Cloudways.
They’re who most people recommend in the WordPress Hosting Facebook Group and #1 in most recent Facebook polls, especially since SiteGround increased prices and went downhill. I migrated from SiteGround to DigitalOcean on Cloudways and you can view the results below.
I use them and you can check my GTmetrix report, or visit cwdoserver.com to see the speed of a $10/month Cloudways DigitalOcean test server I set up with an Astra Site. It loads instantly (for reference, stgrndserver.com is the identical Astra Site only on SiteGround’s GrowBig plan).
Do your research on EIG, SiteGround’s CPU limits, and look at Facebook polls, conversations, and migration results. Check your server response time in PageSpeed Insights and your TTFB.
I signed up for 15+ hosting accounts to test their speed. All domains in this video are live, which means you can visit them in real-time and click through their pages, use GTmetrix, etc.
Each website is identical except for it’s hosting (same Astra Starter Site, SSL, no caching, no CDN, and the same 6 plugins). I also used WP Hosting Performance Check and KeyCDN to measure the most popular options. The results align with what most people are saying in the WordPress Hosting Facebook Group which I recommend joining to get real, unbiased opinions.
#1. DigitalOcean On Cloudways – cwdoserver.com was the fastest, is who I use, and are very popular in Facebook Groups (especially as an alternative to SiteGround). DigitalOcean is also the only host mentioned in the WordPress Optimization Guide. Cloudways was #1 in most recent Facebook polls and people who migrate usually see significant load time improvements. They use PHP 7.4, Maria DB 10.3, Memcached, Varnish, Nginx, and Redis. Pricing starts at $10/month with no strict CPU limits or renewal prices like on other hosts. The community manager is very helpful and they do free migrations. You can get 25% off your first 2 months with the promo code OMM25.
#2. Kinsta – knstaserver.com had similar speeds as DigitalOcean on Cloudways only they are more expensive starting at $30/month. Known for being capable of handling many concurrent visitors. People consistently recommend Kinsta in Facebook Groups, Twitter, and in migration results. Even though they’re not always #1 in Facebook polls (likely because not everyone can pay $30+/month), they are great for high traffic sites.
#3. WPX Hosting – wpxserver.com is also very quick, but Cloudways and Kinsta are slightly faster. Starts at $20-$25/month and is who Matthew Woodward recommends.
#4. A2 Hosting – atwoserver.com usually outperformed other shared hosting but is not nearly as fast as cloud hosting (just cheaper). I use A2 for my girlfriend’s restaurant website and it’s decently fast with good uptimes. A2 (and all shared hosting) is only sufficient for smaller websites with low traffic/plugins. Otherwise, use cloud hosting.
#5. SiteGround – has gone downhill with many complaints about their renewal prices, price hikes, CPU limits, and support isn’t as good as it used to be. SiteGround shifted to Google Cloud hosting (instead of shared) which is supposed to be faster, but load times and TTFB on stgrndserver.com were usually above 1s. Their SG Optimizer plugin should help, but I still wouldn’t use them. You’re better off on Cloudways DigitalOcean.
Affiliate Disclaimer – I would seriously appreciate you using my affiliate links which means I earn a commission at no expense to you. This would help me make GoFundMe donations ($6,000 so far)! I try to base my recommendations on tests, Facebook polls, and conversations I see on a daily basis in the 30+ WP Facebook Groups I’m active on.
2. Rethink Your Theme + Page Builder
Most people are using Astra Themes.
The only problem with Astra is that most of their themes use page builders. Even Elementor adds a lot of scripts that can mildly slow down your WordPress site (you can check these in Asset CleanUp or Perfmatters). That was my biggest complaint when I had my site redesigned in Astra (I even went themeless). My StudioPress theme was slightly faster with 0 extra scripts.
It really depends on what you want; if you like Astra + Elementor for designing your site and don’t mind a slight decrease in speed, that’s what I would recommend. If you’re a speed freak like me and only want the fastest stuff, I wish I would have stuck with StudioPress and Genesis.
Here were my extra CSS and JavaScript files added by Elementor:
As far as GTmetrix scores go, your cache plugin has the biggest impact.
WP Rocket is the most popular cache plugin (it’s also what I use) mainly because it comes with more speed optimization features than any other cache plugin. This not only results in better GTmetrix scores, but also means you don’t have to install a bunch of extra plugins on your site.
With most other cache plugins, you would need to install about 7 extra plugins to get these features when WP Rocket has them all built-in. Otherwise you will need to research which features your cache plugin comes with, then install these plugins if it doesn’t support them.
Database cleanup (built-in to WP Rocket, or use WP-Optimize)
Integration with Cloudflare + other CDNs (built-in to WP Rocket, or use CDN Enabler)
What About SG Optimizer? If you’re on SiteGround, use their SG Optimizer plugin (instead of WP Rocket) with these SG Optimizer settings. It’s free and comparable to WP Rocket (you will still need heartbeat control and database cleanup). This plugin is only for SiteGround’s hosting.
WP Engine + GoDaddy – these hosts have their own built-in caching system and blacklist you from using cache plugins. In this case, use Autoptimize to optimize HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Login to your hosting account (or use the Display PHP Version plugin) to see which PHP version you’re currently running. WordPress stats show most users are running outdated PHP versions when PHP 7.4 is available on many hosting accounts. Upgrading is as simple as finding the PHP Version Manager (or similar) in your hosting account, then upgrading the latest version of PHP.
Some hosts are quick to release new versions (SiteGround, Cloudways, Kinsta), while others don’t make an effort to stay current in technology. Another reason to avoid EIG and GoDaddy.
*Check your website for visible errors since non-maintained plugins may not be compatible. If you do see errors, you can always revert back to an earlier PHP version.
5. Enable Varnish + Memcached
Many cloud hosting providers support Varnish + Memcached. Login to your hosting account and activate them. If you’re using Varnish, be sure to enable the Varnish addon in WP Rocket.
6. Use A CDN
Most people use Cloudflare or RocketCDN (from WP Rocket).
RocketCDN uses StackPath’s data centers and offers it at a lower price than if you buy directly from StackPath. Both are great CDNs, but there are a few major differences between the two.
Cloudflare vs. RocketCDN
Cloudflare is free, RocketCDN is $6.99/month
Cloudflare cannot serve images from their CDN, StackPath can
Cloudlare’s data centers are likely not as high-performance as StackPath
Cloudflare has a dashboard you can login to and tweak, RocketCDN does not
Cloudflare’s dashboard has extra features like page rules, Rocket Loader, Railgun
Cloudflare requires changing nameservers (some hosts also have an option to activate Cloudflare directly from your account), StackPath’s set up is automatic with WP Rocket
Ensure Cloudflare Compatibility With WP Rocket – WP Rocket and most other cache plugins ask for your Cloudflare Zone ID, Global API Key, and your Cloudflare account email. Add them.
Configuring The Cloudflare Dashboard – if you’re using Cloudflare, login to your dashboard. There are a few things in here that aren’t available if you set up Cloudflare through your host.
Page Rule 1: Cache Everything And Force HTTPS – cache your website aggressively.
http://*yourwebsite.com/*
Page Rule 2: Secure The WordPress Admin And Bypass Cache – sets security level of the admin to high and bypasses Cloudflare’s cache in the admin, since you don’t want CDNs (or apps + performance features like Rocket Loader) running inside the admin.
yourwebsite.com/wp-admin*
Page Rule 3: Decrease Bandwidth Of WP Uploads – since the content in your WP Uploads folder does not change frequently, increasing Edge Cache TTL to a month can save on bandwidth, since the WP Uploads folder cache won’t be refreshed as often.
yourwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads*
Setting Up RocketCDN Or StackPath – the easiest way to set up RocketCDN is with WP Rocket. If not using WP Rocket, you will need to sign up for a StackPath account through their website then follow instructions for creating a CDN site. They will assign you a CDN URL which most cache plugins (including Autoptimize) have a field for. Or use the CDN Enabler plugin.
Make Sure Your CDN Is Working – every CDN should show 100% in GTmetrix YSlow except Cloudflare’s CDN. To make GTmetrix detects Cloudflare, you’ll need to sign up for a GTmetrix account → User settings → “add your hostname to YSlow CDN Hostnames.” You can also use Cloudflare’s Claire Chrome Extension to see if it’s working. GTmetrix always detects StackPath.
7. Avoid 65+ Slow Plugins
You can find your slowest plugins in the GTmetrix Waterfall tab or Query Monitor.
Most slow WordPress plugins include social sharing, statistic (analytics), sliders, portfolios, page builders, calendars, chat, contact forms, related post, sitemap, Wordfence, WPML, WooCommerce, and any plugin that runs ongoing scans or processes. These can be identified using Query Monitor or GTmetrix Waterfall.
Comments – native comments or wpDiscuz (see comments + Gravatars section).
8. Optimize Third Party Scripts
Third party scripts are anything that create requests from external websites.
These include Google Fonts, Analytics, Maps, AdSense, Tag Manager, embedded videos, social media widgets, Facebook Pixel, Gravatars, or even like buttons from your social sharing plugin. Some can be optimized to have no impact on GTmetrix while AdSense/Tag Manager are harder.
The next sections (7-16) show you how to optimize specific third party scripts that may be giving you errors in your GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights reports.
Step 1: Learn Which Third Party Scripts Are Slowing Down Your Site Look at reduce DNS lookups in GTmetrix YSlow or third party usage in PageSpeed Insights.
Step 2: Add Domains To Prefetching Take the external scripts from your GTmetrix report and add them to WP Rocket (Preload → Prefetch DNS Requests). Prefetching and other browser resource hints makes them load faster. If you don’t have WP Rocket, you can do this with Perfmatters or Pre* Party Resources Hints.
Step 3: Use Flying Scripts To Delay Loading Them The Flying Scripts plugin delays loading JavaScript until the timeout period you set in the plugin. It’s the only plugin that let me show Gravatars without them impacting my GTmetrix report, but this can also be done with other third party scripts. Just enter the keyword of the script into the plugin (eg. discuz) and set a timeout period. I also recommend checking out Gijo’s speed plugins.
Don’t forget to see the next few sections which will help you better optimize external scripts.
9. Google Fonts
Here are 4 steps for optimizing Google Fonts and Font Awesome.
Optimize Fonts With WP Rocket Or SG Optimizer – both WP Rocket and SG Optimizer have an option to optimize Google Fonts. This combines your fonts to create fewer HTTP requests.
Host Google Fonts Locally – use the OMGF plugin to host fonts locally. The plugin will automatically download your fonts, create a stylesheet for them, then include it in the header.
Preload Fonts – grab the URLs of your font files in the GTmetrix Waterfall report and add them to WP Rocket’s “preload fonts” option, or in OMGF. This helps browsers download fonts faster.
Be Minimal With Fonts + Weights – be minimal with the number of fonts and weights.
10. Google Analytics
Hosting Google Analytics locally will fix the leverage browser caching issue for Google Analytics in GTmetrix. For this, I use the Flying Analytics plugin since WP Rocket’s Google Tracking add-on still showed errors. Insert your Google Analytics Tracking ID (the UA code) into the plugin, then use the “Minimal Analytics Inlined” method which only adds a measly 1.4KB.
Google Adsense is one of the most difficult scripts to optimize and you shouldn’t expect a good GTmetrix report with it. You can try enabling Cloudflare’s Rocket Loader which defers loading of JavaScript until after rendering, but affiliate links are way faster and usually more profitable.
12. Google Tag Manager
GTM should usually only be used for large, unoptimized sites.
If you absolutely need it, use a good Google Tag Manager plugin and be minimal with tags, but that’s about all you can do. I don’t use GTM on my website (my load times are more important).
13. Comments + Gravatars
I use 3 plugins for comments which you’ll see zero errors for in GTmetrix.
The Grow by Mediavine plugin (Social Pug) was rated the #1 fastest social sharing plugin. It’s also what I use and saw no difference in my GTmetrix report. You can see a preview near my comments section; the buttons look nice, can be loaded before and after the content, and has options for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, email, print. You can also do a floating bar.
16. Optimize Images + Videos
There are several ways to optimize images. The first 3 items are in GTmetrix, the last 2 are from PageSpeed Insights. Speed testing tools only show you unoptimized images for the single page you test (keep that in mind when fixing serve scaled image or specify image dimension errors).
Serve scaled images – resize large images to be smaller.
Specify image dimensions – add a width/height to the image’s HTML.
Lossless compress – use an image optimization plugin to compress images.
Lazy load images + videos – delays load of images/videos until they’re visibly seen.
Serve images using next-gen formats – use WebP/SVG format instead of JPEG/PNG.
Serve Scaled Images – resize large images to be smaller. GTmetrix tells you the correct dimensions. Just click the image in GTmetrix, resize it to the new dimensions, and replace it. Never use the ‘drag to resize’ feature in the visual editor since this only resizes the displayed image (not the actual image). It’s best to resize to the correct dimensions before uploading it.
Create a cheat sheet so you can use the correct dimensions before uploading images:
Slider images: 1903(w) x 400(h)
Carousel images: 115(h)
Widget images: 414(w)
Full width blog post images: 680(w)
Featured images: 250(w) x 250(h)
Specify Image Dimensions – means you need to add a width + height in the image’s HTML or CSS. This usually only happens for hand-coded HTML and plugins that don’t take care of this for you. Get the image dimensions from GTmetrix, locate the image, then add the width and height.
Optimize Images – losslessly compress images (also known as “optimize images” in GTmetrix). The best way to compress images is when you’re editing them (eg. in Photoshop or GIMP) since you will likely see a loss in quality with image optimization plugins, even if you select “lossless compression” in the settings. Otherwise, ShortPixel or Imagify are decent options. These plugins can also be resource-intensive and slow down your WordPress website temporarily.
Lazy Load Images + Videos – in your WP Rocket Media settings, enable lazy loading of images, videos, and replace the YouTube iframe with a preview image. These will make images and embedded videos load significantly faster, as they’re often the heaviest element on a page. If you’re not using WP Rocket, try A3 Lazy Load (for images) and WP YouTube Lyte (for videos).
Serve Images In Next-Gen Formats – most image optimization plugins have an option to convert images to WebP format, or the WebP Converter For Media plugin has great ratings.
17. Reduce Server Response Times
I want to clarify a few things about server response times.
Most hosting providers let you monitor CPU and RAM (memory usage). If you notice these are very close to exceeding your limits, this will put stress on your server. The whole goal is to make your server “relaxed” by giving it enough server resources to accommodate your site’s resource consumption (from high CPU plugins, traffic, WooCommerce, etc). If you notice you’re almost hitting your limits or exceeding them and getting 503 errors, it means your server is stressed.
That’s why it’s so important to look at how many server resources come with your hosting plan. Any host that says “unlimited bandwidth” is lying (just check their terms and conditions page and they will mention their CPU limits). Especially if you anticipate high resource consumption, make sure your hosting plan includes enough resources to properly accommodate your site.
18. Clean Your Database
Use WP Rocket or WP Optimize to clean your database.
Ongoing cleanups keep your database optimized and removes transients, spam + trash comments, and potentially hundreds of post revisions which WordPress stores automatically every time you update content. Unless you need post revisions to restore backups of old content, you should be able to delete everything. I recommend scheduling weekly cleanups.
Delete Old Plugin Tables – one thing I like about WP-Optimize is the option to delete database tables left behind by old plugins that aren’t installed anymore (these are often pre-configured settings). If you don’t plan on using these plugins again, delete the tables that say “not installed.”
19. Remove Bloat
Perfmatters (by Kinsta) is the ultimate bloat removal plugin.
The features page includes descriptions of what each item does, but it removes unnecessary WordPress features which you probably don’t need. It even has options for optimizing your Google Analytics tracking code, WooCommerce, prefetch + preconnect, and heartbeat control. Remember to selectively disable plugins in the Perfmatters script manager or Asset CleanUp!
Limit Post Revisions – use Perfmatters or add the code to your wp-config file.
define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', 5);
Increase Autosave Interval – use Perfmatters or add the code to your wp-config.php file.
define('AUTOSAVE INTERVAL', 5);
Disable Trackbacks + Pingbacks – use Perfmatters or disable in Settings → Discussion.
Disable Unused Addons + Modules – if you’re using a plugin containing a bunch of addons or modules (Elementor, Ultimate/Premium Addons, JetPack), delete the ones you’re not using.
Delete Unused Plugins + Themes – any plugins/themes you’re not using should be deleted.
20. Disable Plugin Usage Tracking
Any time you have an option to disable usage tracking, do it. Sorry plugin developers.
The Perfmatters script manager (premium) and Asset CleanUp (free) both let you disable plugins/scripts from running on specific pages/posts. Some plugins load across your entire site (even on content they’re not being used on), so it’s best to disable them when that’s the case.
Examples:
Disable slider plugin on pages that don’t use sliders
Disable rich snippets plugin on pages that don’t use rich snippets
Disable contact form plugin on pages that don’t have a contact form
Disable affiliate link management plugin on pages that don’t use aff links
Disable social sharing plugin on all pages (since it’s usually for blog posts)
Perfmatters and Asset CleanUp (the premium version) have a Regex option that allows you disable plugins/scripts based on specific URL patterns and categories. For example, you may want to only enable your schema plugin on posts containing the word “review” in the URL.
22. Minimize Redirects
If you have URL redirect errors in GTmetrix, it usually means you changed the WWW or HTTP(S) version of your website but didn’t change all your links and images to reflect the new version. In this case, try using the Better Search & Replace plugin to fix these errors in bulk.
Third party scripts and poorly coded plugins can also cause redirect errors in GTmetrix. The solution completely depends on which plugins and third party scripts you’re using on the site.
23. Don’t Enable Yoast Indexables
Yoast 14.0 came out with indexables which they claim “can provide a speed boost of 5-10%.”
However, if you look at the comments, it’s clear they have not thoroughly tested this (many complaints about CPU spikes, crashed websites, errors, etc). None of the feedback looks positive, so I would at least hold off of clicking that button until they do more thorough testing.
These plugins help you host Google Analytics locally, optimize images and serve them from a CDN, preload pages, delay loading scripts by creating a timeout, and ensure text remains visible while loading fonts. All have great ratings. Check out his WP Speed Matters Facebook Group.
25. Increase Memory Limit To 256MB
WooCommerce and WPML require a 256MB memory limit, but you should really be using 256MB no matter which type of WordPress site you’re running. Some hosts have an option to increase it in their dashboard, otherwise edit your wp-config.php file and add the code below.
define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M');
26. Make WooCommerce Load Faster
WooCommerce sites run extra scripts, styles, cart fragments, and they usually require more plugins. That’s why when choosing a hosting plan, you should usually buy one tier up of what you actually need to accomodate for the extra resources often required for WooCommerce.
Optimize WooCommerce Scripts, Styles, Cart Fragments To optimize these, use Perfmatters or there are quite a few solutions on Github and WooCommerce. Disabling scripts will disable WooCommerce scripts and styles everywhere except on product, cart, and checkout pages. There’s also an option to disable cart fragments.
Clear WooCommerce Transients If you feel like your WooCommerce website is getting sluggish, go to WooCommerce Status settings → delete all transients. Transients temporarily store cached data in your database.
27. Block Bad Bots From Using Resources
You would never know if spam bots are hitting your site unless you checked your Wordfence live traffic report. By blocking them, you will save resources and put less stress on your server.
Step 1: Install Wordfence (you’ll want to uninstall it when you’re done).
Step 2: View your live traffic report (under Wordfence’s Tools settings) which shows you all bots hitting your website in real-time. Googlebot is obviously OK, but when I did this, I saw compute.amazonaws.com making a ridiculous amount of requests every couple seconds. I Googled it and sure enough, this was a bot known for sucking up bandwidth. View your report for a minute or two and see if bots with sketchy names are constantly hitting your site. If you have doubts, Google their hostnames and see if other people are having issues with that bot.
Step 3: Block the bots. You have a few options: Wordfence blocking (however the plugin itself consumes resources), Cloudflare firewall rules (comes with 5 free rules which means you can block 5 bots), or the Blackhole For Bad Bots. I have a tutorial for blocking bad bots using all 3 methods. It depends on how many you want to block; if it’s only a few, I’d use Firewall Rules.
Login to your Cloudflare Dashboard and go to Firewall → Firewall Rules → Create A Firewall Rule. Copy the bad bot’s hostnames (from Wordfence) and add it here in the “Value” field. Since you can create 5 rules, you would repeat this step for your 5 worst bad bots from Wordfence.
Field = Hostname
Operator = Contains
Value = hostname of the bad bot you found in Wordfence
Step 4: Go to your Blocking log in Cloudflare and watch your spam bots get blocked.
28. Identify Bottlenecks In Speed Testing Tools
GTmetrix – my tool of choice since you can find exactly which images, plugins, fonts, and external scripts take longest to load (plus it shows your time to first byte and redirect errors).
Pingdom – the most accurate tool for measuring your load times according to WP Rocket which is the primary metric you should be measuring (not grades), but there is a correlation.
Google PageSpeed Insights – good for measuring server response times but also has other recommendations like using next-gen format for images (eg. WebP), lazy loading, avoid third party scripts, preconnect, minification, caching recommendations, and serving scaled images.
Query Monitor – great for finding slow plugins, scripts, styles, and other elements slowing down your site. Make sure to delete it when you’re done since the plugin itself can be slow.
Your infrastructure (hosting, theme, plugins, page builder, CDNs) have the biggest impact on load times.
🚀 Which cache plugin should you use?
WP Rocket is usually rated the top cache plugin in Facebook polls since it has built-in features most cache plugins don't. These extra optimizations should yield better scores and load times in GTmetrix. The top free cache plugins are usually WP Fastest Cache, W3 Total Cache, and Swift Performance.
🚀 Which WordPress hosting should you use?
The best hosting is highly debatable, but Cloudways, SiteGround, and Kinsta generally the top 3 hosts based on 30+ Facebook polls.
🚀 Which speed testing tool should you use?
GTmetrix has the most robust recommendations especially for finding slow plugins, images, external scripts, and measuring TFFB. Pingdom doesn't have as many recommendations, and Google PageSpeed Insights doesn't measure load times.
🚀 How do you optimize images?
You can optimize images using a plugin like ShortPixel or Smush to compress images and strip EXIF data. Make sure you're resizing images to the correct dimensions, and ideally serve them from a CDN. Lazy loading images and videos will also make the page faster.
🚀 Should you use AMP?
Generally, you should avoid AMP (accelerated mobile pages) since the design changes can lower conversions. Kinsta's conversions dropped 59% after adding AMP and they decided to remove them.
🚀 How do you optimize plugins?
Find high CPU plugins using Query Monitor which usually include portfolios, statistics, sliders, and plugins that run ongoing processes. Next, replace them with lightweight plugins that consume minimal resources. Delete all plugins you're not using, and disable unnecessary plugin settings that consume resources. Finally, selectively disable plugins from loading on certain content using a plugin like Asset Manager or Perfmatters.
🚀 How do you optimize external scripts?
It's best to avoid external scripts all together, such as Google AdSense, Facebook widgets, and plugins that create external requests. Some plugins such as Disques let you load it conditionally. If the page contains JavaScript, try the Async JavaScript plugin. Finally, prefetch all external URLs that are loading on the page.
Really hope this helped! Drop your new GTmetrix scores + load times in the comments :-)
Need a solid list of WordPress speed optimization plugins?
These are the same speed plugins I used to get 100% GTmetrix scores on my homepage and most of my posts. They’re a collection of plugins I use myself and popular plugins in Facebook Groups. I do WordPress speed optimization for a living – so I geek pretty hard on the plugins!
This is not a typical list of cache plugins: I dive into advanced plugins like selectively plugin disabling, browser resource hints for external scripts, hosting things locally, and bloat removal.
The only speed optimization plugins I use on my site are WP Rocket, Perfmatters, WP-Optimize, TinyPNG, and wpDiscuz (my lightweight comment plugin). If you’re using SG Optimizer or another caching plugin, you will need to install a few extra speed plugins since these lack some functionality (see the notes listed in each section below).
WP Rocket was rated the #1 cache plugin in most Facebook polls.
That’s because it comes with more features than any other cache plugin. This means better GTmetrix results and less plugins needed on your site. Otherwise, with other cache plugins, you would need to research which features it doesn’t include, then install these extra plugins if it doesn’t support them. If you’re like me, you want to use 1 plugin (WP Rocket) for everything.
Database cleanup (built-in to WP Rocket, or use WP-Optimize)
Heartbeat control (built-in to WP Rocket, or use Heartbeat Control)
Lazy load images/videos (built-in to WP Rocket, or use WP YouTube Lyte)
Host Google Analytics locally (built-in to WP Rocket, or use CAOS For Analytics)
Prefetch DNS Requests (built-in to WP Rocket, or use Pre* Party Resource Hints)
Host Google Fonts locally (built-in to WP Rocket, or use CAOS For Fonts, or SHGF)
Integration with Cloudflare + other CDNs (built-in to WP Rocket, or use CDN Enabler)
Get 10% off WP Rocket by signing up for their email list on their coupons page. Then check my recommended WP Rocket settings for optimal GTmetrix scores/load times.
On a demo website, I tested SG Optimizer with a fresh installation of Astra’s Outdoor Adventure theme on SiteGround’s GrowBig plan and got a 1s load time with 99%/94% GTmetrix scores. If I used a CDN, my GTmetrix scores would have been exactly 99%/100%.
Since SiteGround’s big update to SG Optimizer, it’s now comparable to WP Rocket. It also uses server-side caching and binaries which is faster and more efficient than the file-based caching by other cache plugins (including WP Rocket). If you’re on SiteGround, I would definitely use it.
Kinsta’s Perfmatters is the ultimate bloat removal plugin.
A few notable features include decreasing the autosave interval, limiting post revisions, disabling heartbeat and pingbacks, prefetching + preconnecting fonts and third party scripts, and optimizing WooCommerce scripts, styles, and cart fragments. It basically takes care of the last 10% of WordPress speed optimization with features WP Rocket/SG Optimizer don’t have.
Perfmatters includes a script manager for selectively disabling scripts/plugins on specific content (same thing as Asset CleanUp). Some plugins load across your entire site even when they’re not being used. By selectively disabling plugins, you will reduce page sizes and make them load faster. There’s also a Regex option to better control where plugins are being loaded.
Examples:
Disable slider plugin on pages not using sliders
Disable rich snippets plugin on pages not using rich snippets
Disable contact form plugin on pages not using contact forms
Disable affiliate link management plugin on pages not using aff links
Disable social sharing plugin on all pages (since it’s usually for blog posts)
Same thing as the Perfmatters script manager (lets you selectively disable scripts/plugins) only Asset CleanUp doesn’t have bloat removal options, but it is free. Plugin Organizer and Plugin Load Filter are similar, but AssetCleanUp has great reviews and is what most people are using.
Compresses images to get 100% for the “optimize images” items in GTmetrix.
I have tried Imagify, ShortPixel, and other image optimization plugins but they all resulted in a loss in quality even when the “lossless” option was selected. Slowly but surely, I am redoing these images in TinyPNG. I see barely any quality loss which I can’t say for the other plugins.
A big difference between WP-Optimize and WP Rocket’s database cleanup feature, is that WP-Optimize lets you delete old plugin tables.
Both plugins let you delete trash (trashed posts, spam posts, post revisions, transients) and optimize your database tables. But WP-Optimize lets you view your individual database tables and delete tables left behind by old (not installed) plugins. If you don’t plan on using these plugins again, you can delete their tables since they often leave behind pre-configured settings.
WP Rocket does the same thing, only it doesn’t let you delete old plugin tables:
Lazy loads videos by inserting responsive “Lite YouTube Embeds” which only calls the “fat” YouTube player when the play button is clicked. Videos take the longest time to load by far. Just to give you an idea, my W3 Total Cache tutorial only has 2 videos, but when I lazy load them that post’s load time went from 5s to 1.5s. It has the same function as light video embeds.
If using WP Rocket, you can simply lazy load videos and replace iframes with a preview image.
The WordPress heartbeat API consumes resources by sending you real-time plugin notifications, when other users are editing a post, and so on. 99% of people should disable it.
WP Rocket and Perfmatters also let you disable it, or add this code to your functions.php file.
add_action( 'init', 'stop_heartbeat', 1 ); function stop_heartbeat() { wp_deregister_script('heartbeat'); }
Supports browser resources hints which can make fonts and scripts load faster.
WP Rocket already supports prefetch + preconnect, otherwise you can use Pre* Party Resource Hints. Third party scripts can be found in the “reduce DNS lookups” section of your GTmetrix report or shown as “reduce the impact of third party code” in PageSpeed Insights.
These can be Gravatars, Google Analytics, Maps, Tag Manager, AdSense, embedded videos, or any third party request generated on your website. You’ll want to prefetch these (Luke created a nice list of common domains to prefetch). And if you’re using Google Fonts or Font Awesome, grab your font URLs from the GTmetrix Waterfall tab and add them to the preconnect section.
OMGF can fix Google Font-related errors by downloading all your Google Fonts (using the Google Fonts Helper API) and generating a stylesheet for them. You will need to configure the settings to serve fonts from your CDN and select the folders to save font files to. While some plugins like WP Rocket and SG Optimizer already optimize fonts, OMGF can often yield better results especially when served from a CDN. The Self-Hosted Google Fonts plugin is similar.
What it looks like:
Tip: if using external fonts, be minimal with the number of fonts (and font weights) you choose. If for some reason this plugin doesn’t fix errors, I have a guide for hosting Google Fonts locally.
CAOS fixes the leverage browser caching item in GTmetrix by hosting Google Analytics locally. Install the plugin, enter your Tracking-ID, and CAOS will add the Tracking Code to the header or footer. But if you’re using WP Rocket or Perfmatters, these already have this functionality.
Why is wpDiscuz in my list of WordPress speed plugins?
Because with wpDiscuz, I get an awesome comment plugin on my blog with virtually no expense to my GTmetrix report. This is usually not the case with other commenting plugins. Go to your wpDiscuz settings and use the tweaks below which should make the plugin load faster.
Recommended settings to speed up wpDiscuz:
Comment Thread Displaying → initiate AJAX loading after page and lazy load comment.
General → disable “use WordPress native AJAX functions” and enable combine/minify JS/CSS.
Styles And Colors → disable “load font awesome CSS lib.”
This plugin helps you optimize third party scripts found in GTmetrix (reduce DNS lookups) and PageSpeed Insights (minimize third party scripts).
It delays loading of JavaScript until the timeout period you set in the plugin. For example, you can delay loading your comments plugin and Gravatars for 3 seconds which can significantly speed up initial load times. In fact, Flying Scripts is the only plugin that let me show Gravatars without them affecting GTmetrix. It is definitely one of my favorite WordPress speed plugins.
The blank default Gravatar can still create errors in GTmetrix.
If you don’t want it to, install the WP User Avatar plugin which hosts the default Gravatar locally. Upload your own optimized Gravatar image (ideally a 50×50 pixel compressed image).
CDN Enabler helps you set up a CDN (content delivery network). This does not work with Cloudflare which requires changing nameservers, while CDN enabler is specifically for StackPath, KeyCDN, and other CDNs that provide a CDN URL. First, sign up for a CDN (I use StackPath) then enter your CDN URL into the CDN Enabler plugin. See instructions below:
It has a long way to go if they want to catch up to SG Optimizer or WP Rocket, and I would personally use WP Rocket instead as it lacks many features (probably why it doesn’t have the best ratings). While I highly recommend Cloudways hosting, I can’t recommend Breeze yet.
While the Cloudways Breeze plugin isn’t great, their hosting is.
Optimizes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You don’t need Autoptimize unless you’re hosted on GoDaddy, WP Engine, or any host who blacklists cache plugins, since WP Rocket and most cache plugins optimize the code for you. But while GoDaddy and WP Engine’s built-in caching might be fine, it doesn’t optimize HTML/CSS/JS. That’s where Autoptimize comes into play.
WP Fastest Cache is usually rated one of the top free cache plugins and is easy to configure. However, it lacks quite a few features and if you want them, you’ll need to upgrade to the premium version, in which case you’ll be better off with WP Rocket. I have a configuration tutorial on the WP Fastest Cache settings as well as W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache.
ToolKit does a little bit of everything (minification, combination, font optimization, lazy load, bloat removal, gzip, browser caching, expires headers), but it doesn’t do everything. You’ll be better off using WP Rocket combined with Perfmatters. One thing I like about ToolKit is the option to disable unused widgets in Elementor, WordPress, and in the WordPress dashboard.
I was using AMP, but I ultimately disabled it and now I don’t. But if you want to add AMP (accelerated mobile pages) to WordPress, this is one of the most highly rated AMP plugins since it has lots of customization options. One of the frustrating parts about AMP is that it strips some of your design elements, so you want to make sure the mobile pages still look nice.
Warning: AMP can sometimes decrease mobile conversions. Read Kinsta’s study on how their conversions dropped 59% when using AMP. I ultimately decided against it.
This plugin has tons of settings for customizing mobile pages:
Find your slow loading plugins, queries, scripts, and other elements that take longest to load. Make sure you delete it when you’re done, since Query Monitor can cause high CPU in itself.
You can also use GTmetrix Waterfall to find your slowest plugins:
Display PHP Version simply shows which PHP version you’re running. Faster PHP versions = faster load times, so be sure to login to your hosting account and use the latest PHP version.
The GTmetrix WordPress plugin monitors your load times and PageSpeed + YSlow scores, then sends you a report directly in your WordPress dashboard, or through scheduled email reports.
Shows overall performance of hosting and whether your technology (PHP, MySQL, WordPress versions) is running slow, in which case it should be updated. It also shows your slowest pages.
Bytecheck.com and GTmetrix also show your TTFB (time to first byte) in the Waterfall tab:
Cool Trick: one of the only things PageSpeed Insights is good for is checking for server response times. Google says it should be under 200ms. If not, your server (hosting) is slow.
If you see minimize redirects in your GTmetrix report, this usually means you changed the WWW or HTTPS version of your site, but didn’t change your links to reflect the new version.
Instead of fixing all your links manually, use the Better Search And Replace plugin to update them in bulk. It can also be helpful for fixing broken links, or even bulk updating links/images which appear on multiple pages/posts. Better Search Replace can be an enormous time saver.
Other Notable Tools / Resources
Cloudways and SiteGround – they are usually rated the top hosts in Facebook polls by far, with many people who migrated and posted their new load times. Both use cloud hosting and are extremely fast; SiteGround is more user-friendly but renewal prices are high and they have strict CPU limits. Cloudways is usually faster but more technical and they don’t support direct email hosting (you would need a Rackspace account). Both are very fast and do free migrations.
Affiliate Disclaimer – if you sign up for Cloudways or SiteGround using my affiliate link, I will earn a commission at no expense to you. I am not an affiliate for Bluehost, HostGator, or GoDaddy because they’re not fast and the results show it. I also donate a good chunk of my blog’s income to GoFundMe campaigns and would seriously appreciate your support. I try to make recommendations based on pure evidence.
Cloudflare – free CDN and speed/security service which mirrors your site (and offloads resources) on over 200+ data centers. Integrates with most cache plugins with options to use aggressive minification, Railgun, and hotlinking. All my cache plugin tutorials include Cloudflare setup instructions and don’t forget to set up page rules for your WordPress site.
StackPath – paid CDN which adds 30+ additional data centers around the world (more data centers = faster content delivery), reducing the distance between your website/visitors – a recommendation in the WordPress optimization guide. $10/month with a free 30-day trial.
Pingdom – most accurate tool for measuring load times according to WP Rocket, though GTmetrix has better recommendations for actually optimizing your site, in my humble opinion.
GTmetrix – good for identifying images that need to be optimized using the 3 methods: serving scaled images (resizing them), specifying images dimensions in the HTML/CSS, and optimizing images (lossless compression). GTmetrix recently switched to a fully loaded time metric which shows a longer load time than previously. Their waterfall tab measures individual slow loading elements, and if your time to first byte is long that indicates your hosting is slow.
Pronaya (My WordPress Speed Optimizer) – you can hire my WordPress speed optimizer on freelancer.com who I’ve been working with for 5 years and we’ve optimized multiple sites to load 500% faster. His name is Pronaya, he’s $40/hour and has a perfect 5/5 star review with 19 reviews (just sign up for a Freelancer account and search for user BDKAMOL). If you think I’m good at speed optimization, Pronaya is way better. I’ve also been working with Usama (his username is I333) who is quite cheaper but is also amazing with 4.9/5 stars and 375+ reviews.
Frequently Asked Questions
🚀 What are the 5 most important speed plugins?
WP Rocket, SG Optimizer, OMGF, Perfmatters, and Autoptimize are 5 top speed optimization plugins.
🚀 What is the best cache plugin?
WP Rocket was rated the #1 cache plugin in numerous Facebook polls because it has more speed features than other cache plugins including database cleanup, heartbeat control, lazy load, and optimizing Google Analytics. WP Fastest Cache is usually rated the top free cache plugin, and SG Optimizer is good if you're on SiteGround.
🚀 What's the best image optimization plugin?
ShortPixel, TinyPNG, Imagify, and Smush are 4 popular image optimization plugins.
🚀 Which plugin is best for optimizing fonts?
OMGF, Perfmatters, WP Rocket, and Autoptimize all have font optimization options. WP Rocket and Perfmatters let you preconnect them which makes them load even faster.
🚀 Should I add AMP?
We chose not to use AMP after reading Kinsta's article about how their conversions dropped by roughly 50% due to AMP.
My WordPress Speed Optimization Tutorial – has 400+ comments with people saying things like “My page speed score on gtmetrix went from 69 to 93” and “this might be one of the most helpful posts I’ve ever read.” Tons of people have used it to improve Pingdom/GTmetrix scores.
I hope you find these WordPress speed optimization plugins useful! If you have questions leave me a comment. Or if you simply need to fix your slow WordPress site, see my tutorial above. It has over 400 comments and has helped many people reduce their load time to <1s.
Rich Snippets add “extra information” to snippets and make you stand out in search results.
You can do this with reviews, recipes, videos, events, user reviews, and other supported data. The easiest way to add rich snippets to WordPress is by installing a rich snippets plugin, using it to markup pages/posts (basically just filling out fields), then testing those URLs in Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. This will increase your clickthrough rates (CTR) and SEO traffic.
If you’re looking to add FAQ rich snippets to WordPress, I have a tutorial on that.
What is the best WordPress rich snippets plugin? I use WP Review Pro (they also have a free version) which is the plugin I will feature in this tutorial. I used to use All In One Schema, but’s way too minimal. I also used WP Rich Snippets but the developer abandoned that plugin. WP Review is maintained by MyThemeShop, looks fantastic, loads fast, and is highly customizable.
Option 1: WP Review (I Use The Pro Version) – the plugin I use myself and recommend. Other rich snippet plugins are either too minimal (All In One Schema lacks customization options) or they’re unreliable (WP Rich Snippets hasn’t been updated for 2 years and isn’t compatible for PHP 7). I love WP Review and the pro version comes with 16 pre-styled designs, plus support.
Option 2: All In One Schema Rich Snippets – free plugin that “does the job” but has minimal settings and customization options (by little I mean there are only 6 settings to customize how your rich snippets look). This doesn’t cut if for me. Here’s a full review of All In One Schema.org or see these screenshots on the WordPress plugin page.
Why I Don’t Use All In One Schema
Looks boring
Doesn’t support user reviews
Limited customization options (literally only has 6 settings for customization)
Only 1 type of rating (stars) with 1 point intervals (you can’t something a 4.5)
Supported data types:
Reviews
Events
People
Products
Recipes
Software Application
Videos
Articles
How it looks…
Option 3: WP Rich Snippets – I wanted to love this rich snippets plugin. I even used it for 2 years when it wasn’t updated once. But there came a point where I needed to upgrade from PHP 5.6 to PHP 7, and WP Rich Snippets wasn’t compatible (it broke my site). The developer lists “plugin updates” and “plugin support” on his website, but there is none. I would love to dive into cool features of WP Rich Snippets, but it would be a waste of time. Stay away from it.
Why I Don’t Use WP Rich Snippets
No support
No plugin updates (for 2 years!)
Not compatible with PHP 7 or higher
Doesn’t support event rich snippets type
Most add-ons need to be purchased separately
Each add-ons is an additional plugin that runs on your site
Supported data types:
Articles
Recipes
Reviews
Products
Organizations
Restaurants
Software Application
How it looks…
2. Configure Your Plugin Settings
This will obviously be different depending on which rich snippets plugin you choose.
These are the settings for WP Review:
Styling Below are the main settings where you can choose between their 16 pre-styled designs (for WP Review Pro) as well as colors, review box width, and whether you want Google Fonts.
Defaults Choose the review type (star, point, percent, circle, thumbs up), whether you want the markup before or after the content, and what type of review you’re writing. You can use shortcodes to display markup somewhere in the middle of your content, if you don’t want it before or after.
Embed Choose if you want to allow users to embed your reviews on their website.
3. Markup Your Content
Edit any page/post you want to add rich snippets to (it must be a review or other data type). Scroll down until you see the “review” sections. Here’s what they look like for WP Review.
Review – review type, item, and author fields are mandatory for Google to show schema.
Review Item – tell people what specific features you like and don’t like about the item, giving each one a score. You can customize the colors of the stars here (and their background color).
Review Links – add your affiliate link and the text you want to use as the link. The plugin will automatically set the link as nofollow so search engines don’t crawl it (which is what you want).
Review Description – your review description can include both text, links, images, and videos.
User Review – choose whether you want visitors to be able to leave a review about the item.
Here’s the end result:
4. Test In Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool
Run the post’s URL through Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to make sure your rich snippets are working. Just look for the green “all good” text and if you see errors, expand the box to see items that need to be fixed. Your rich snippets won’t appear immediately in Google’s search results (it can take a few days to update) but this tool will tell you if something’s wrong.
Common Solutions
Add the data Google tells you to in their Structured Data Testing Tool
Make sure the data is representative of the content on the page
Try adding markup to a few more pages which is suggested by Google
Upgrade to the latest version of WordPress, MySQL, and PHP (contact your host)
Visit this Google forum which lists common problems and other FAQs
If you still have problems, it might be because you have a low domain authority
Once Google recrawls your site, your rich snippet should appear…
If You Decide All In One Schema (Free And Easy, But Minimal)
Install and activate the plugin…
In the settings, the configuration tab can be left as-is unless you want to change the text…
The customization tab has basic styling options…
Edit a page or post you want to add rich snippets to. Scroll down and select a rich snippet…
Based on the rich snippet you choose, you will be asked to fill out certain fields…
Publish the page and test the URL in Google’s Structured Data Tool (step 4). You will need to wait for Google to crawl your website (usually 1-4 days) for these to appear in search results.
Frequently Asked Questions
✅ What is the best rich snippets plugin?
WP Review, Schema, and the WP Schema plugins all go a great job. It really depends on what data types you want to markup content for; then make a decision based on that. Avoid the WP Rich Snippets plugin which was abandoned by the developer of this plugin.
✅ How did I get these emojis in FAQs?
I use the Structured Content plugin and added emojis to the questions. You can do this with nearly any post and any emoji.
✅ What types of posts can be marked up?
Reviews, recipes, FAQs, and events are some of more popular data types. Check Google's Structured Data Types for a full list.
✅ How do you test rich snippets?
Use Google's Structured Data Testing Tool to check for errors. Google Search Console will also tell you about your rich snippets (they have a specific section for FAQs and reviews).
✅ How do I get in Google's featured snippets?
There are 3 types of featured snippets: paragraphs, lists, tables (paragraphs are the most common). First, find a question keyword where the top results don't do a good job of answering the question. Next, make sure you answer the question in a clear, concise way in your content. Adding an HTML table of contents and breaking subheadings into logical sections also helps. Finally, make each item in your HTML table of contents actionable.
Questions, Errors, Success?
If you’re still having trouble with errors, you can drop me a line below but I recommend you contact the plugin developer since they are suppose to provide support for their customers – WP Rich Snippets DOES provide support for the 1st year no matter which plan you chose.
I really hope you found this helpful! Adding rich snippets to WordPress is incredibly beneficial and can give you a huge advantage with your SEO. So if you’re stuck, please don’t quit and either reach out to me or contact the WP Rich Snippets support team for help.
Not sure if your W3 Total Cache settings are configured optimally?
I generally don’t recommend W3 Total Cache since it doesn’t support database cleanup, heartbeat control, optimizing Google Fonts, embedded videos, or NGINX + memcached (only available with the premium version). While W3 Total Cache is free, WP Rocket is better since it has these built-in. That’s why it yields faster load times and is rated the #1 cache plugin in most Facebook polls. But if you insist on free, use this tutorial to set up your W3 Total Cache settings.
This tutorial shows you how to set up the performance tabs then add Cloudflare (free CDN) or StackPath (premium CDN). Many W3 Total Cache settings are preset (shown in the “Install” tab), but not all of them. For hosting, I recommend DigitalOcean on Cloudways especially over SiteGround, EIG, and GoDaddy (TLDR: Cloudways + WP Rocket is a much faster configuration). They’re what I use; see my GTmetrix report or click through my posts to see how fast they load.
Download my recommended W3 Total Cache settings here (you’ll need a Dropbox account). Upload the file under Performance → General Settings → Import / Export Settings. Check your site to make sure everything is OK. You will still need to configure a CDN, activate extensions, and add your sitemap URL (under Page Cache). This file was last updated on March, 18, 2019.
1. General Settings
Important notes about the W3 Total Cache general settings:
Cache method: use disk enhanced for shared hosting, memcached for cloud hosting.
Database cache: leave disabled, it overloads the server especially on shared hosting.
Object cache: leave disabled, it will usually slow down the website and the dashboard.
CDN: enable if you plan on using StackPath’s CDN (though you can just use Cloudflare).
Lazy loading: delays loading of images and fixes the lazy load item in PageSpeed Insights.
Fragment cache: only available with W3 Total Cache Pro and usually for dynamic sites.
Google PageSpeed Widget: I recommend the GTmetrix plugin for monitoring instead.
2. Page Cache
Important notes about the W3 Total Cache page cache settings:
Don’t cache pages: you don’t want to cache pages for logged in users or user roles.
Rest API: the rest API can be disabled if you’re not using (check your website for errors).
Compatibility mode: enable, this is recommended in the Install tab by the developer.
3. Minify Settings
The plugin developer says the recommended settings for minify, database, and object cache are preset. You can find these recommendations in the Install tab. The main things to tweak are the browser cache settings and set up a content delivery network like Cloudflare or StackPath.
4. Database Cache
Leave as is (recommended by the developer).
5. Object Cache
Leave as is (recommended by the developer).
6. Browser Cache
Important notes about the W3 Total Cache browser cache settings:
Enable first 6 settings: enable these individually and test the results in GTmetrix.
Brotli compression: if using Cloudflare’s CDN, enable this in the Cloudflare dashboard.
Leave everything else including ‘expires header lifetime’ which the developer says is preset.
7. User Agent Groups
User Agent Groups are used to specify whether a mobile theme is used (if you have a mobile responsive website and are not using a plugin to create a mobile site, there is no need for this).
8. Referrer Groups
Referrer Groups are used to serve a unique cached version for users who come to your site through specific traffic sources (eg. Google or Bing). Most websites should leave this disabled.
9. Cookie Groups
Same concept as referrer groups, only it uses cookies instead to create a unique cached version for users who come to your site through specific cookies. Most sites should leave this disabled.
Cloudflare is set up differently and it has it’s own section. While most people only recommend using 1 CDN (usually Cloudflare since it’s free), I personally use both Cloudflare and StackPath. Both offload a ton of resources to their data centers and save bandwidth (screenshots below).
Step 1: Go to the W3 Total Cache General Settings and enable StackPath.
Step 2: Sign up for StackPath, select API management from the dropdown menu (top right), then select Generate Credentials. Create a name (eg. W3TC) then StackPath will give you a Client ID and Client Secret. Copy/paste these into StackPath under CDN Settings → Authorize.
Step 3: In the W3 Total Cache CDN settings, use these:
Step 4: In StackPath go to CDN → Cache Settings, then click Purge Everything:
Step 5: Run your site in GTmetrix and “content delivery network” should be green in YSlow.
CDN pointers from the plugin developer (found in Install tab) – if you do not use the Media Library, import your images etc into the default locations. Use the Media Library Import Tool on the “CDN” tab to do this. If you do not have a CDN provider, you can still improve your site’s performance using the “Self-hosted” method. On your own server, create a subdomain and matching DNS Zone record; e.g. static.domain.com and configure FTP options on the “Content Delivery Network” tab. Be sure to FTP upload the appropriate files, using the upload buttons.
11. Fragment Cache
Fragment cache is mainly used in dynamic sites. Instead of caching an entire page, individual sections (usually the heavy areas) are cached. You will need to upgrade to W3 Total Cache Pro to use fragment cache. They have recommendations on that page I linked to which makes the plugin aware if you’re grouping transients. However, you may need some coding experience.
12. User Experience
W3 Total Cache comes with basic lazy load settings which fixes the lazy load item in PageSpeed Insights. This delays loading of images until you scroll down and see them. It doesn’t optimize videos, so if you embed YouTube videos on your site, you will need an additional plugin for that.
13. Extensions
Active any extensions you’re using. In my case it would be Cloudflare and Yoast.
If you’re using Cloudflare, there is usually no need to use StackPath. Unlike StackPath, setting up Cloudflare is different and requires changing nameservers. When you’re done, be sure to login to your Cloudflare dashboard and add Page Rules which can improve speed and security.
Step 1: Sign up for a free Cloudflare account, add your site, and run the scan prompted by Cloudflare. You will eventually come to a page where Cloudflare assigns you 2 nameservers.
Step 2: Login to your domain registrar, find the area to change nameservers, and paste them here. Once this is done, you can go back to Cloudflare and click “Done, check nameservers.”
Step 3: In the W3 Total Cache Extensions tab, activate Cloudeflare and click Settings.
Configure the Cloudflare settings (note: the only thing I changed is enabling hotlink protection).
Step 4: Login to your Cloudflare dashboard and go to Page Rules. Add these 3 page rules:
Page Rule 1: Cache Everything And Force HTTPS – cache your website aggressively.
http://*yourwebsite.com/*
Page Rule 2: Secure The WordPress Admin And Bypass Cache – sets security level of the admin to high and bypasses Cloudflare’s cache in the admin, since you don’t want CDNs (or apps + performance features like Rocket Loader) running inside the admin.
yourwebsite.com/wp-admin*
Page Rule 3: Decrease Bandwidth Of WP Uploads – since the content in your WP Uploads folder does not change frequently, increasing Edge Cache TTL to a month can save on bandwidth, since the WP Uploads folder cache won’t be refreshed as often.
yourwebsite.com/wp-content/uploads*
Once you’re done configuring your CDN(s), purge all caches in W3 Total Cache. If you don’t see this, there may be an ’empty all caches’ option in the dashboard tab. It can take up to 24 hours for Cloudflare nameservers to propagate, but you will get a confirmation email once complete.
15. Cloudways (My Recommended Host)
I signed up for 15+ hosting accounts to test their speed. All domains in this video are live, which means you can visit them in real-time and click through their pages, use GTmetrix, etc.
Each website is identical except for it’s hosting (same Astra Starter Site, SSL, no caching, no CDN, and the same 6 plugins). I also used WP Hosting Performance Check and KeyCDN to measure the most popular options. The results align with what most people are saying in the WordPress Hosting Facebook Group which I recommend joining to get real, unbiased opinions.
I moved from SiteGround to DigitalOcean on Cloudways and the results speak for themselves. I’m also paying 1/2 of what I was. Cloudways also does free migrations which made it very easy.
#1. DigitalOcean On Cloudways – cwdoserver.com was the fastest, is who I use, and are very popular in Facebook Groups (especially as an alternative to SiteGround). DigitalOcean is also the only host mentioned in the WordPress Optimization Guide. Cloudways was #1 in most recent Facebook polls and people who migrate usually see significant load time improvements. They use PHP 7.4, Maria DB 10.3, Memcached, Varnish, Nginx, and Redis. Pricing starts at $10/month with no strict CPU limits or renewal prices like on other hosts. The community manager is very helpful and they do free migrations. You can get 25% off your first 2 months with the promo code OMM25.
#2. Kinsta – knstaserver.com had similar speeds as DigitalOcean on Cloudways only they are more expensive starting at $30/month. Known for being capable of handling many concurrent visitors. People consistently recommend Kinsta in Facebook Groups, Twitter, and in migration results. Even though they’re not always #1 in Facebook polls (likely because not everyone can pay $30+/month), they are great for high traffic sites.
#3. WPX Hosting – wpxserver.com is also very quick, but Cloudways and Kinsta are slightly faster. Starts at $20-$25/month and is who Matthew Woodward recommends.
#4. A2 Hosting – atwoserver.com usually outperformed other shared hosting but is not nearly as fast as cloud hosting (just cheaper). I use A2 for my girlfriend’s restaurant website and it’s decently fast with good uptimes. A2 (and all shared hosting) is only sufficient for smaller websites with low traffic/plugins. Otherwise, use cloud hosting.
#5. SiteGround – has gone downhill with many complaints about their renewal prices, price hikes, CPU limits, and support isn’t as good as it used to be. SiteGround shifted to Google Cloud hosting (instead of shared) which is supposed to be faster, but load times and TTFB on stgrndserver.com were usually above 1s. Their SG Optimizer plugin should help, but I still wouldn’t use them. You’re better off on Cloudways DigitalOcean.
Affiliate Disclaimer – I would seriously appreciate you using my affiliate links which means I earn a commission at no expense to you. This would help me make GoFundMe donations ($6,000 so far)! I try to base my recommendations on tests, Facebook polls, and conversations I see on a daily basis in the 30+ WP Facebook Groups I’m active on.
I would personally skip shared hosting since cloud hosting is exponentially faster. This is especially true if you’re on GoDaddy or EIG brands (eg. Bluehost and HostGator) and for resource-intensive websites running WooCommerce, WPML, page builders, or slow plugins.
There are plenty of migration results if you check Twitter and Facebook Groups. Avoid the bloggers promoting Bluehost and WP Engine because they have the highest commissions and do your research. Hosting is the #1 factor in WordPress’ optimization guide – very important!
35+ WP Speed Tips (My Full Guide)
Watch My Video – it’s a 42 minute video, but I cover pretty much everything (timestamps in video description) and you should learn a ton of great information on WordPress site speed:
Hire My WordPress Speed Optimizer
Still need help with your GTmetrix report? I’ve been working with Pronaya since 2011 (he’s the one who helped me get a such nice scores + load times. You can hire him by creating a profile on freelancer.com and searching for username bdkamol (see his portfolio). He’s $40/hour from Bangladesh (so there is a time change) and his email him is bdkamol@gmail.com. He has a perfect 5 star review on his profile. Serious inquiries only, and please don’t expect 100% scores if you’re using slow hosting, plugins, and theme. Please follow my WordPress speed guide first.
Frequently Asked Questions
🚀 Is W3 Total Cache the best cache plugin?
Most people prefer WP Rocket over W3 Total Cache since it comes with features not included with W3 Total Cache, and therefore yields better results in GTmetix. These features include database cleanup, hosting analytics locally, advanced lazy loading of images + videos, heartbeat control, and DNS prefetching. It's also easier to configure.
🚀 Should I use a CDN with W3 Total Cache?
Yes, Cloudflare's free CDN can make your site faster and more secure which you can set up by changing nameservers in your domain registrar, then configuring the Cloudflare settings in W3 Total Cache. Adding page rules in the Cloudflare dashboard is also recommended.
🚀 What happens if W3 Total Cache breaks my site?
The minification and combination settings in W3 Total Cache are usually the most common culprits of broken elements when using W3 Total Cache. Test each one of these carefully.
🚀 How do I clear cache once I'm done?
Go to the Performance settings, then click Purge Everything.
🚀 Do I need other speed plugins besides W3 Total Cache?
Yes, you should also install plugins for heartbeat control, database cleanup, image optimization, and either Asset CleanUp or Perfmatters to selectively disable plugins.
That’s it! I know it can get a bit technical so if you have any questions just drop me a line in the comments. And if you enjoyed my tutorial, please give it a share. I would really appreciate that!
Here’s a list of plugins for SEO, speed optimization, design, security, backups, and other plugins for optimizing your site. I use all these on my own WordPress site and they all have a 4+ star rating. I wrote tutorials on many of them including how to configure the Yoast settings, optimizing content with Yoast, and configuring W3 Total Cache to improve load times. Most tutorials have tons of comments as many people have found them helpful – I hope you do too.
All these plugins are lightweight as I’m also obsessed with WordPress speed optimization. I use nearly every plugin in this list and my site still loads in under 1 second in Pingdom. Still, if you don’t use plugins at certain times and only need them once in a while, it’s a good idea to delete it, then only reactivate it when needed. Here’s my list of important WordPress plugins:
I know most of you already have Yoast, but you probably have not configured the proper settings, researched the best focus keywords, or optimized content to it’s full potential. Use my guides below to sharpen your skills and start ranking pages/posts higher in search engines.
Configure the Yoast Settings – fill out your business information, configure Google Search Console and other Webmaster Tools, set the ideally structure of your SEO titles, prevent duplicate content in your sitemap, fix broken pages (crawl errors), and tweak all your Yoast settings to be optimal for SEO. My Yoast settings tutorial has been used by 50,000+ people.
Researching focus keywords – use Google Autocomplete and Moz Keyword Explorer (the two best keyword research tools in my opinion) to build a list of long-tail keywords and make sure you don’t miss out on ANY phrases. Google each keyword using the MozBar Google Chrome Extension to learn the competition of each keywords. Use that data to filter out competitive phrases, leaving you with high-opportunity keywords you should be able to get on page 1 for.
Content / Green Light Optimization – people obsessed with getting green lights in Yoast don’t fully understand the big picture of content optimization. Yoast only detects exact keyword matches so green lights are not always possible, plus there are TONS of ways to optimize content outside of Yoast (videos, rich snippets, adding a table of contents, and more). Use that tutorial to get ideas for optimizing YOUR content instead of obsessing over Yoast green lights.
The most popular tutorial on my site is my recommended W3 Total Cache settings which has helped multiple people reduce their page load time to under 1 second (read the comments). It includes a pre-configured zip file you can upload directly to your own W3 Total Cache plugin.
This is one of the best cache plugins out there and will improve your speed scores in tools like GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights. However just like Yoast, many people don’t configure the settings properly. Use my tutorial to configure the difference “performance” tabs on the left of your dashboard W3 Total Cache is installed. This plugin integrates with Cloudflare (free) and MaxCDN ($6.75/month with my 25% off MaxCDN coupon) which you can use the Cloudflare and MaxCDN section in my tutorial to further improve your load times. When you’re done configuring W3 Total Cache (and hopefully read my entire WordPress speed optimization guide), hopefully your GTmetrix scores will look something like this…
Adds rich snippets to your WordPress site which helps you stand out in search engines by adding “extra information” to snippets in the form of review stars, recipe information, events, and other supported data. You can do this using the All In One Schema.org Rich Snippets Plugin (free but very minimal and has many limitations) or the WP Rich Snippets Plugin (premium and has way more features). This improves click-through rates and traffic so if you haven’t done this yet, read my guides on those plugins which shows you how to add them.
Losslessly compress images to load faster (in bulk). Imagify is free until you hit a monthly quota of 25MB per month or it’s $4.99/month for 1GB (which you can usually use one-time for all existing images during the first month, cancel, then just use the free account). This plugin is MUCH better than other completely free plugins since these can often break images, not actually compress them, or they can have bugs. With Imagify you just sign up, install the plugin, enter your API in the settings, go to your “media” section to bulk optimize all your images.
You probably heard iThemes, WordFence, and Sucuri are 3 of the top security plugins for WordPress. I like iThemes Security because you can run the 1 click security check and go down a simple checklist of vulnerabilities. Click the “fix it” button and each should be pretty easy.
UpdraftPlus lets you take backups manually or automatically. It has a 5 star review and is very easy to use and configure the settings. Don’t be the person who loses their website because you didn’t take a backup. UpdraftPlus could save you from losing hundreds of hours of work.
Diagnose slow loading WordPress plugins hurting your site speed so you can delete them or find alternative, lightweight plugins. Too many plugins (or just 1 large plugin) can kill your site speed. I also like to run the P3 Plugin whenever I install a new plugin to see how it affects my load time. If you haven’t run P3 before and have a lot of slow plugins, you will need to research alternative plugins that are lightweight but provide the same functionality as the old plugin.
If you publish a page/post and change it’s URL (permalink), you need to setup a 301 redirect to direct the old URL to the new URL. Otherwise it will become a 404 page and you will lose any links that used to point to that page. You can either do this using Quick Page/Post Redirect (the free method which I will show you) or the premium version of Yoast which is $69/year.
To find these crawl errors on your website, you will first need to setup Google Search Console in the “Webmaster Tools” section in Yoast using the HTML verification option. Then go to Yoast’s “Search Console” and authenticate Yoast with Search Console. You should see all your crawl errors. If you just setup Search Console it will take a few days for the data to populate.
To setup a 301 redirect using Quick Page/Post Redirect, install the plugin then go to Quick Redirects –> Quick Redirects in your WordPress dashboard. Enter the old broken URL shown in Yoast, then the new URL of the (most relevant page on your site) you want it redirected to…
I’ve tested numerous anti-spam plugins and this one is the easiest to setup since you just install it. More importantly, it works. Install it and watch your spam comments go away.
Lets you control which widgets show up on different pages, posts, categories, and archived pages. This helps you show the most relevant content in your widgets depending on what type of content your reader is viewing. Once installed, you will see a “widget logic” section at the bottom of each widget where you will enter a conditional tag to control where it appears.
Want more editing options in your visual editor? This nifty WordPress plugin adds additional features to your editor so you can further customize your content and make it look nice.
While it’s always best to insert your Google Analytics tracking code manually into your footer, you can use this plugin to verify Google Analytics on your WordPress site. Just copy your UA code from Google Analytics and paste it into the plugin under Settings –> Google Analytics. Wait a couple days for activation, then head over to your Google Analytics account to get data.
You can download these free custom Google Analytics dashboards to segment traffic from SEO, social media, mobile, referral traffic, and other helpful data on your visitors. While there is tons of data in Google Analytics the first thing you should do is look at your low performing pages (pages with low avg. time on page + high bounce rates) and improve content on those.
Use this 5 star review plugin to create tables on your WordPress site. The CSS and styling can be completely customized to match the colors/branding of your WordPress site. This specific table show you why you shouldn’t remove stop words in Yoast because it can make your permalinks look weird. The plugin adds a “TablePress” option to your main dashboard tab on the left, you would create the table, then you will use a shortcode to add the table anywhere.
This plugin should ONLY be used every couple months to run a scan of your broken links. Otherwise it will use a ton of server resources and can cause your website to run slow (which is why this plugin is banned from hosts like Godaddy). However if you can run this plugin once every so often, fix your broken links immediately, then delete it, there shouldn’t be an issue. It is the best plugin for this and makes it very easy to fix broken links directly in it’s interface.
Once you installed the plugin it will immediately scan for broken links. Let it run and populate for a few minutes, then head over to Tools –> Broken Links to find a list of broken links on your site. Go through each one and you can choose to fix the link, unlink it, or dismiss it. Like I said you can fix all broken links in this dashboard without having to go through each page/post.
Leaving the WordPress dashboard up for long periods of time can slow down your website and suck up server resources from your host (potentially causing CPU overages). Heartbeat control lets you to manage the frequency of the WordPress heartbeat API which prevents this. You can change the frequency to 15-60 seconds, or disable it completely. Once installed go to Settings –> Heartbeat Control and change override heartbeat frequency to 60 seconds.
These are all important WordPress plugins and I’ve modified this list several times so it continues to serve as a solid resource. If you found it useful, please share it. I appreciate it :)
It has good reviews and will do the job for a lot of people. But other people (like me) are picky about how the markup affects the design of the page. Since every rich snippet plugin adds content to your page which is needed for Google to show your rich snippets, the main difference between rich snippet plugins is how the information is presented on the page.
This post you’re reading is marked up with WP Rich Snippets and in my opinion, looks awesome. It can include a video, photo, links, and plenty of other options. Whereas All In One Schema Rich Snippets is limited when it comes to options and design customization.
Here’s how your page will look after marking it up with All In One Schema Rich Snippets:
Should You Consider Other Rich Snippet Plugins? If you’re happy with the basic design of All In One Schema Rich Snippets, it is the best free rich snippets plugin and I will show you how to set it up. But if you’re looking for something more robust and have $69+ for a premium plugin, check out WP Rich Snippets and view this tutorial. WP Rich Snippets has more options and supports local business markup which helps Google show your business information correctly in Google Maps.
Now let’s get started…
1. Install All In One Schema Rich Snippets
2. Configure The Settings
Once installed you will see the “Rich Snippets” options in the left menu of your WordPress dashboard. Go through the settings especially the configuration and customization tabs. The other tabs are helpful but I listed a more robust set of resources at the bottom of this article.
Basic styling options…
3. Add Markup To Pages
Edit a page/post you want to add rich snippets to then scroll down until you see “configure rich snippet.” Select the type of rich snippet then plugin will request specific data. Fill out as many fields as possible since this will help Google understand your data and show it in their search results. Certain fields are often required for rich snippets to work, but you can use Google’s Structured Data Testing (step 4) to see if you’re missing fields or getting errors.
4. Test Your Rich Snippets
Once you fill out all the fields you can, use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool to see if your rich snippets are working correctly (they won’t immediately appear in search results so use this tool instead). If you see red errors, click the box to expand and look at the items. Fixing them may be as easy as filling out a field you forgot about while marking up the page.
End Result
This is what a review rich snippet will look like once Google updates their search results which takes around 2-4 days. For other rich snippet types you will see different information; events will have hours and location information, products will have pricing information, etc. Once you get the hang of it, go ahead and start marking up other pages/posts that include reviews, events, products, videos, and other supported data types used in rich snippets.
Solutions To Common Problems
Add data Google tells you to in their Structured Data Testing Tool
Rich snippet data should be accurate and align with the content on the page
Add markup to more pages instead of only having 1 page with markup
Update WordPress core, theme, plugins, etc
Review All In One Schema Rich Snippets’ support forum
Visit this Google forum to see common problems and FAQs
If you’re still running into problems, leave me a comment or see All In One Schema Rich Snippets’ support forum. Otherwise I hope you found this review helpful and good luck driving more traffic to your WordPress site using this free, awesome rich snippets plugin!
They’re a natural way to build links to your website while providing helpful resources.
Which is exactly why you shouldn’t be using an automatic WordPress internal linking plugin… you don’t want your link strategy to be automated. While these plugins do create internal links, your links are suppose to be helpful, personalized resources and should ideally be inserted manually. Most of these plugins also cause your internal links to have repetitive anchor text for set keywords. Plus many of these plugins consume high CPU (makes your website slower) which is why companies like Godaddy blacklist most related post plugins.
What Are Internal Linking Plugins? Whenever you use a specified keyword in your content, the internal linking plugin will automatically link to a set page or post. Other internal linking plugins will create a “related posts” section at the bottom of your articles which is meant to keep your readers reading.
Here’s why you shouldn’t use them…
They Can Hurt Your SEO
Repetitive Anchor Text – let’s say the plugin creates 10 internal links to the same page. That means all 10 links will have the same anchor text (the displayed text). Since Google’s Penguin update you do NOT want to do this. Your link’s anchor text should be unique, descriptive, and diverse. If the anchor text is all the same it could make your links look spammy and risks a Google penalty. Some plugins do allow variation, but most don’t.
Not Personalized – where you link to should be dependent on the context of a topic you’re writing about. You can link to an article every time you mention a certain keyword, but that fails to consider the context. I’ve written multiple articles on Yoast’s WordPress SEO Plugin… instead of linking the word “Yoast” to the same article every time, I have Yoast settings, Yoast focus keywords, and Yoast content optimization. They’re 3 separate articles and my “Yoast internal links” should reflect that if I want them to be relevant.
Slower Load Times – all WordPress plugins slow down your load times even if it’s only for a split second. The value of an internal linking plugin vs. your load time… it’s just not worth it.
Take The Extra 2 Minutes To Insert Links Manually
Internal linking plugins are a shortcut, and just like any shortcut you risk some consequences. Sure they save you a couple minutes on each page/post, but I know you’re not that lazy! Take the extra 2 minutes and insert them manually. It’s better for readers and you won’t risk a Google penalty.
Internal Linking Best Practices
Link when there are topics that need clarification
Write a custom link title (hover text)
Linking out is good too
Add a list of resources if you think it’s necessary
Open external links in new tabs to keep users on your site
That’s all I got! Leave me a comment below if you have any questions.
Looking for the best WordPress Plugins to use with the Genesis Framework?
Here are 10 Genesis plugins taken from StudioPress, WordPress directory and other sources. I use many of these on my own Genesis-powered WordPress site, others I have downloaded, tested, and inspected thoroughly. All plugins are free (except #8) and have at least a 4.2/5 star rating. Some things you don’t need plugins for though, like columns and some shortcodes – just keep that in mind since too many plugins can effect your site speed.
This combines a newsletter and an HTML section (where I chose to add an author pic/bio + top articles). You can see it on my right sidebar and I also use it at the end of each post.
I wish I knew about this years ago since it took the headache out of collecting emails and while it’s not much, I got a few 100 subscribers just from the newsletter section (listing top articles helped reduce my bounce rate too). It’s easy to integrate with MailChimp (what I use), Constant Contact, Aweber, and most email services. Here’s a tutorial by Carrie Dils.
Makes it easier to edit your footer, copyright area, and entry meta. FYI “entry meta” is the space above and below your blog post content. I install this on every Genesis site.
Not all Genesis themes comes with a built-in slider. If it doesn’t, you can always install the Genesis Responsive Slider plugin which lets you add sliders throughout your website. Here’s what it looks like – you can see a live version on the Executive Pro Theme by StudioPress.
Adds social sharing buttons to posts, pages, and other content. Has Pinterest and Stumble Upon buttons, plus basic options like changing the icon size, appearance, where to display them, etc. It’s a lightweight plugin so it shouldn’t effect your page load time much, if at all.
This is good for controlling (personalizing) what widgets visitors see depending on the page, post, category, or tag they’re viewing. So if people are reading a post from my “WordPress Speed” category I may want to show them related articles about site speed. There are other plugins that do the same thing like Widget Logic which I prefer, but this one is specifically for Genesis. Either way you will use conditional tags to control where each widget appears.
If you want to add WooCommerce functionality to a non-WooCommerce Genesis theme, this plugin will do that. It replaces WooCommerce’s built-in shop templates with its own Genesis-ready versions, specifically the single-product.php, archive-product.php and taxonomy.php templates needed to display the single product page, main shop, and product category and product tag archive pages. This is one of the more popular Genesis plugins.
If you purchased a non-responsive Genesis theme, you may want to customize it to be mobile-friendly. I’ve done lots of research and there is no plugin that does this correctly.
While you can use the Genesis Mobile & Sticky Menu plugin to add a hamburger style mobile menu (plus other features), it’s best to pony up and purchase a Genesis theme that is mobile responsive. That is what I did, and that is what you should do if your theme is not responsive.
Want to customize your Genesis site without code? This plugins helps you customize your header, navigation, background, content/sidebar/footer, and typography without any code. Has options for colors, sizes, weights, margins, padding and alignment. Pricing is $49-199.
9. Photo Gallery / Portfolio
Unfortunately there is no plugin for the Genesis Framework that adds a portfolio to your site, but there are plenty of free and premium portfolio plugins for this. Numbers 5-15 in that list are premium plugins and are worth spending an extra $15 to make it look nice.
Genesis Layout Extras gives you 9 layouts instead of the standard number your theme comes with. Use these on your homepage, pages, blog posts, archived pages and other content.
I hope you found my article helpful! If you did please give it a share. And if you have any questions about the Genesis plugins in my list, drop me a line in the comments section.
We’re always being told to create “good” content but besides being a skilled writer, what else can we do? Well I’ll tell you. We need to spruce it up! We need to focus on aesthetics, user-friendliness, optimization, and leveraging all those tools/plugins we have available.
You probably know that from an SEO perspective, good content naturally ranks high and is the best strategy for getting links, social shares, and all those nice SEO signals. I use every strategy in this list and it has helped me tremendously (with SEO, since that’s what I do).
I hope it can help you too.
1. Use A Table Of Contents
Use a table of contents to organize key topics (often your subheadings). This can also help you outline your articles. It only takes a few minutes and will make your readers happy.
How to do it… Table Of Contents HTML should look like this… <ul class=”listSquare”> <li><a href=”/your-permalink-here/#item-one”>Item One</a></li> <li><a href=”/your-permalink-here/#item-two”>Item Two</a></li> <li><a href=”/your-permalink-here/#item-three”>Item Three</a></li> </ul>
Each subheading’s HTML should look like this… <h3 id=”item-one”>Item One</h3> <h3 id=”item-two”>Item Two</h3> <h3 id=”item-three”>Item Three</h3>
You can also use a jump to table of contents link… <li><a href=”/your-permalink-here/#table-of-contents</li>
If your WordPress theme comes with shortcodes, use those
3. Tables
I created this table using the TablePress Plugin which has over 1,500 downloads and a solid 5 star review. You can also customize the CSS to your branding.
Shortcodes allow you to easily add video, audio, image galleries, and other content with a simple line of code. Here’s a shortcode example for an embedded YouTube video…
Some WordPress themes come with built-in shortcodes that are pre-styled to match your theme. There’s also plugins like Shortcodes Ultimate if your theme doesn’t come with them.
6. Embedded Social Status
Share what other people have to say by embedding their social media statuses in your content. Notify them once it’s published and maybe they’ll share it with their audience.
Twitter Statuses
@jm_cook@Skitzzo I bought Genesis. AM folks had sent over example themes years ago. I reimbursed (gift card) AM person who gave me advice.
@bgardner because it’ll make people think I favor Genesis over other theme frameworks. Oh wait, that’s actually true ;) — Joost de Valk (@yoast) January 31, 2012
How to do it… Use Advanced Twitter Search to find a tweet, then click More –> Embed Tweet. Copy the code and paste it in your content’s HTML. The example above uses 2 tweets into 2 columns.
Facebook Statuses
Google+ Statuses
7. Embedded Videos
Option 1: Copy the Youtube link and paste it to your content (WordPress will do the rest).
Option 2: Go to the YouTube video you want to embed, then copy and paste the embed code into your HTML. This method allows you to specify the video’s width and height:
Knowing your content dimensions (in pixels) helps you create graphics or find images that fit within those dimensions. I’m specifically referring to your content body and sidebar width. Since my content body is 680 width (pixels), I know that if I’m using 2 columns, each graphic should be around 340 width. I also know my sidebar widgets are 295 width.
9. Better Graphics
Start by redesigning graphics that appear in the most places (sitewide graphics): logo, footer images, sidebar images. Then move to individual pieces of content (content design graphics).
These are the widgets people see after the end of your articles (located between the content body and comments section). They usually have a call to action. For me I’ve included a newsletter box and my author profile. “Related articles” is also a popular one.
In most WordPress themes you can find these under (Appearance –> Widgets –> After Entry). Decide what widgets you want to show here. But there should be something.
11. Image Styling
Style your images by adding borders, margins, padding, captions or other customizations. There’s 4 different places to edit images, all of which have different styling options…
Media section
Clicking on an image and finding the “edit” option
Finding the insert/edit image icon in your visual editor
The CSS editor
12. Font Styling
Are yougettinganyideasyet?
13. Killer Headlines
It all starts with writing a great headline. The “perfect” headline includes:
A number
An adjective
Your keyword
Here is a tutorial by Neil Patel that explains the formula for a perfect headline. He says 8/10 people will read your headline, but only 2/10 will read the rest of your post. Choose wisely.
14. Snippets
SEO Titles + Meta Descriptions
Your SEO title and meta descriptions are the forefront of your SEO – they’re the first thing people see in search results and on social networks. Writing descriptive, compelling snippets will increase your clickthrough rate and drive more visitors to your content.
Rich Snippets
Rich snippets enhance your search engine snippets with additional information about your content. It’s one of the best ways to stand out in search results and get more clicks.
Each social network formats your content differently, so you’ll want it optimized to format properly across the main social networks (your thumbnail image is the correct size and your titles and descriptions are tailored for each social network if you choose). The Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin does a fantastic job with this and I will assume you’re using it.
Step 1: Go to the “Users” section in WordPress and make sure each person fills out their Facebook, Twitter and Google+ fields.
Once you’ve configured Yoast’s social settings, edit the page or post you want to optimize for social. Scroll down to the Yoast section and hit the “Social” tab…
Yoast gives you the option to display custom titles, descriptions, and properly formatted images for these main social networks. If you leave these blank then your SEO title, meta description, and your main content image (or featured image) will be used. It’s a good idea to at least upload an image for Facebook / Twitter / Google+ so the image formats properly when shared across these main social networks. Here are the correct dimensions…
Facebook Image: 1200 x 630px
Twitter Image: 1024 x 512px
Google+ Image: 800 x 1200px
16. Show Yourself
That’s me!
You’ll see a cropped version in my right sidebar where I introduce myself. That’s where I would add your bio since people can immediately see you.
Add sidebar widget for single author…
First create your bio in HTML. You can create it in the Visual Editor which is easier. When you’re done, go to the Text Editor and copy your bio’s HTML. Now go to (Appearance –> Widgets) then add a “Text” widget to your blog sidebar. Paste the HTML and save.
Add sidebar widgets for multiple authors…
Make sure each person has their own user profile
Install the widget logic plugin so each person’s bio only shows on their posts
If there’s 5 people, add 5 text widgets to your blog sidebar
Paste each person’s bio HTML in their widget
Locate the Widget Logic field at the bottom of each person’s widget
Add this code, only replace my name with theirs: is_author( ‘tom-dupuis’ )
Or use other conditional tags to control where each widget appears
You’ll see my signature at the bottom of each article I write. Adds a personal touch.
How to do it…
Get a blank piece of computer paper
Write your signature
Take a close picture of it
Crop your signature
Add it to the end of your articles
18. Load Times
The easiest way to improve load times is through sitewide optimizations that affect your entire website (getting faster hosting, lightweight themes, cache plugins…). I cover all this in my WordPress speed guide. You can also improve load times for individual pages by using less videos, large photos, and code. Run the URL through GTmetrix for recommendations.
19. TinyMCE Advanced
Ever feel like you don’t have enough options in your visual editor? Install the TinyMCE Advanced Plugin to style your content with more advanced options.
20. TinyMCE Spellcheck
Before publishing an article, try running the TinyMCE Spellcheck Plugin. Select what type of errors it scans for in the “Users” section or add words to ignore…
21. Testing
Before you promote your content, it’s a good idea to do some testing…
Mobile Responsiveness – even if your WordPress theme is responsive, some content doesn’t always format correctly. Pull up it up on your phone/tablet to double check.
Table Of Contents (Step 1) – if you’ve setup a table of contents, always test each link.
Social Responsiveness (step 15) – to test whether the main social networks will format your content properly, share the link to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
Load Times (step 18) – once it’s published, run the URL through GTmetrix to get recommendations on improving the content’s load time.
Well I hope this was helpful! I know it’s a lot so if you have any questions at all, drop me a line in the comments section. And if you found my article helpful, please share. I appreciate it!
Cheers,
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Internal linking plugins are a shortcut, and just like any shortcut you risk some consequences. Sure they save you a couple minutes on each page/post, but I know you’re not that lazy! Take the extra 2 minutes and insert them manually. It’s better for readers and you won’t risk a Google penalty.
