WordPress is Slow Here Are Some Advanced Tips

WordPress is slow here are some advanced tips to help you speed it up a bit. Before we get on with the advanced steps that you can take make sure you do the elementary things first.

Steps You Should of Already Done to Speed WordPress Up

• Install WP-Super Cache
• Flush Your DNS on Your Computer
• Clear Your Browser Cache
• Speed Up Website With .htaccess file
• Optimize Your Images!
• Optimize Your Database!

WordPress is Slow Here Are Some Advanced Tips

If you have done the steps above then read on.  Plugins can slow down your WordPress website significantly. Especially if they contain a lot of code and are bringing in foreign resources. Try to use lightweight plugins if you have to use them. Get rid of the plugins that you are not using! Most of the time a function that a plugin uses can just be installed in your functions.php file in your theme or child theme. Get ahold of a developer if you want this done though.

Disable Heartbeat in WordPress Dashboard

WordPress is trying to keep track of what you are doing in your dashboard. They use heartbeat to gather data about what you are doing in there. If you ever installed a plugin they have a walk through  with pop up boxes you will know what I am talking about. Sometimes the plugin will ask you if you want to send reports back to the author of the plugin. Well this is going to slow down your dashboard sometimes to a crawl and you are going to be very frustrated. However you can disable this. Just add the following code to your functions.php file in your theme or child theme and it will stop that nonsense. 😉

[code]add_action( ‘init’, ‘stop_heartbeat’, 1 );

function stop_heartbeat() {
wp_deregister_script(‘heartbeat’);
}[/code]

Speed up your Dashboard by Removing Meta Information

Who really uses that stuff anyway right? lol Do you really want incoming links or use the Quick Press widget? You probably are like me and when you’re ready to do things go to the add new post and do it. However if you use these features that you see in the code below then you might not want this code. However it does speed up your dashboard in your WordPress. This code will go in your functions.php file in your theme or child theme.

[code]function remove_dashboard_meta() {
remove_meta_box( ‘dashboard_incoming_links’, ‘dashboard’, ‘normal’ );
remove_meta_box( ‘dashboard_plugins’, ‘dashboard’, ‘normal’ );
remove_meta_box( ‘dashboard_primary’, ‘dashboard’, ‘normal’ );
remove_meta_box( ‘dashboard_secondary’, ‘dashboard’, ‘normal’ );
remove_meta_box( ‘dashboard_quick_press’, ‘dashboard’, ‘side’ );
remove_meta_box( ‘dashboard_recent_drafts’, ‘dashboard’, ‘side’ );
remove_meta_box( ‘dashboard_recent_comments’, ‘dashboard’, ‘normal’ );
remove_meta_box( ‘dashboard_right_now’, ‘dashboard’, ‘normal’ );
remove_meta_box( ‘dashboard_activity’, ‘dashboard’, ‘normal’);//since 3.8
}
add_action( ‘admin_init’, ‘remove_dashboard_meta’ );[/code]

Memory Size in WordPress Could Be Slowing You Down

I have written about this before but I’ll bring it up again. Increase that memory size in your wp-config.php file. Here is a code to help you do it. You can change the 96M to 256M and it will not hurt anything. It will use the maximum memory allowed on your server. I have mine set at 256M. 😉

[code]/** Memory Limit */
define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’96M’);[/code]

Your Ads Could Be Slowing You Down

See them ads in my posts? They are the only things slowing down this website from being milliseconds in load time. However Ads make money and as long as they are not taking forever to load I can live with it. I got an A grade on GTmetrix however my YSlow speed was graded worse because of the ad networks that I have on my website. Pingdom says that I one of the fastest sites on the internet. I am not going to let that bother me much since it’s the ads that are generating revenue. 😉

Your WordPress Theme Could Be Slowing You Down

More often than not if you have done all the above steps and I mean all of them then you have to look at your theme. Themes especially free ones are that cause of why WordPress is Slow Here Are Some Advanced Tips. Get another theme or use a child theme! I use a child theme based off of 2014 WordPress. Subscribe and I will show you how to make a child theme. That post series is coming real soon! 😉