When it comes to website creation, design, and functionality are front and center on most people’s minds, making it easy to forget another crucial factor: Performance.
Your website’s performance expresses itself primarily through its loading speed and its ability to handle all the media you’ve uploaded.
If you’re wondering whether website performance really matters, we have a few stats for you:
As many as 37% of visitors give up and leave if your site takes five seconds (or longer) to load – just a one-second delay can result in a 7% drop in conversions. Also, if you’re running an eCommerce store, 70% of customers say website speed impacts buying decisions. Not to mention, faster sites can improve your user retention and SEO because three of the top four SEO signals are dependent on page load speed.
As you can see, a lot hinges on the speed of your website. That said, choosing fast WordPress hosting doesn’t have to be complicated. In this article, we’re debunking common misconceptions about quickening the speed of WordPress.com sites. We’re also revealing how to secure the fastest hosting.
What are Your Hosting Needs?
Before determining the right hosting for your WordPress.com site, it’s worth defining what your website needs by asking yourself the following questions:
- Is your site mostly static?
This usually applies to blogs and small business sites. Anything where content doesn’t change frequently. - Or is it dynamic?
Typically, this describes eCommerce stores, online communities, forums, etc.. Dynamic websites present additional hosting and caching requirements. - How big is your audience, and how much do you want/predict to grow?
This will help determine how many hosting resources must be allocated to your site. - What kind of content are you hosting directly on your site?
Video, animations, images, audio files, etc. - Where is your audience located?
You’ll want to use a host that is located near your audience to achieve faster delivery time, or uses a CDN if your audience is worldwide. - Does it scale?
Right now, you may only want to start with a simple blog or a basic website for your business. However, will your host be able to provide the resources your site needs in the future if you want to add more functionality, like a store or paid course, or if your site receives viral traffic? Ensuring your hosting company has the ability to tailor their services and costs around what your site needs at any point in its growth cycle is important to consider. - Is it secure?
Ensuring that your site stays secure requires mutual effort from both you and your hosting service. You need to make sure that your account password is secure, all software on the site (e.g. plugins, themes, and WordPress itself) is kept up-to-date, and spam is effectively and efficiently handled. Most importantly, you want to make sure you don’t install plugins or themes that have known security vulnerabilities, which could increase the chances of your site getting hacked. Your hosting service should also provide additional measures to keep their servers secure, and understanding what protections they have in place can provide peace of mind. - Is it reliable?
Having your site go offline can be stressful and costly. Most hosting companies have a way to view their current and historical service statuses and uptime. It is always a good idea to review this to see if their services are reliable. You may also want to ask what they would do if there was an outage in one of their data centers. Going a step further, you could inquire about their infrastructure to serve your website globally. For example, a hosting company with data centers located around the world will be able to serve your site faster to more users, and even have added redundancy to help ensure uptime. - Who will maintain the site?
A website is a constant work in progress, so the work doesn’t end once you’ve launched it. Web technology is always evolving, and your site will need to keep up with it. With WordPress, it’s important to ensure that the core software, plugins, and themes are updated on a regular basis. Will your host manage these updates, or will you handle that manually? And with any technology, updates and changes can sometimes uncover or result in new problems — so being prepared to revert the site to an earlier version is good insurance. Will your host perform backups for you and make it easy to restore your site, or will this responsibility fall on your shoulders? - Where will you get support?
While you’re building your site, and then after you launch it, you will most likely have questions. You might need help formatting your content, or perhaps something isn’t working the way you thought it would. Where will you go to get help? Does your host provide support, or are you on your own? - Do you want to pay in time or money?
Handling site maintenance yourself may lower your initial financial costs, but it will also require more time from you. You’ll need to decide if you want to invest the time to manage and maintain the site yourself, or if you would rather pay more for a hosting service that takes care of these things for you. There are enough hosting companies and services out there that you should be able to find the right balance of time and financial investment that works best for you. - How easily can you change hosts?
No one wants to be trapped with a company if the service doesn’t meet their needs. With any hosting company you are considering, make sure you understand the process to export your content and move it. With WordPress, you own your content, so you can move it and use it however you want.
Suppose you host lots of dynamic content, products, videos, or host an online community. In that case, these are indicators you’ll require hosting with more robust performance.
In contrast, most blogs and sites that primarily display static content can get away with simpler hosting services and still achieve fast WordPress hosting.
Fast WordPress Hosting Providers Should Offer…
Here’s a checklist of what to look for in any speedy WordPress hosting provider. If these don’t appear in their features list, look elsewhere to find a better deal for your needs:
- Pre-installed/ One-click WordPress
- Automatic and daily backups
- Automatic updates
- Servers built for hosting WordPress websites
- 24/7 security and customer support
- Excellent uptime
You don’t have to look far to find a provider that offers all the above; WordPress.com comes with all these benefits.
Can You Get Fast WordPress Hosting for Free?
If you’re just starting out, paying for fast WordPress hosting is a bothersome expense. You might occasionally find free hosting with providers offering server space for WordPress.org installations. That said, going for deals like this is rarely a good idea.
Namely, because:
- You will likely have to provide something in return. This could be a banner or footer ad that downgrades the professionalism of your site.
- Free hosting solutions like this are often unreliable. What if the provider gives up or decides to stop hosting the server?
- You don’t have any control over the performance or security of your website.
If you’re still playing around with website ideas and want to get online without the hassle, try WordPress.com’s free account. This comes with safe and secure hosting. This is the one free hosting that isn’t a bad bet. WordPress.com’s free hosting plan is blazing fast.
The Different Types of WordPress Hosting Packages
Once you’ve decided on your WordPress hosting requirements, you’re better positioned to pick a hosting type to suit your needs. There are many different options where hosting is concerned, and each comes with its own performance and/or cost benefits. Of course, each also has its drawbacks.
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is a prevalent hosting type and one that most beginners use. Typically, it’s the most affordable of all the hosting options, and almost all major hosting companies offer it.
Shared hosting involves sharing a larger server with lots of other sites. Often, these arrangements use a control panel (cPanel).
Shared hosting is usually available between $3 to $25 a month, making it a great way to get online cheaply.
However, you get what you pay for. The more people using the server you’re on, the slower your website can get. Issues with other sites can also lead to problems on your own, as they’re ultimately all connected via the same server. Also, while this is an affordable option, you might be forced to upgrade if your site takes up too much server load.
VPS (Virtual Private Server)
VPS servers are created by partitioning a physical server computer into multiple servers. Each customer takes up one separate slot. Consequently, you gain almost as much control over your server as you would with a dedicated server. This ensures your website’s content is safely stored and can handle high traffic.
That said, VPS goes hand in hand with lots of DIY. So, while VPS is a better option than shared hosting, it’s usually only best if you boast development and server management experience.
A Dedicated Server
A dedicated server does what it says on the tin. You get a full physical server, which you lease from a hosting provider, giving you complete control over your fast WordPress hosting. You can choose the operating system, hardware, etc.
However, if you’re just starting out, a dedicated server is often overkill. This kind of website hosting (usually) only makes sense if you’re generating substantial traffic volumes that the previously mentioned options can’t handle.
To maintain a dedicated server, you’ll need a reliable system admin on your support team to handle maintenance for you. If this isn’t something you have/look towards, get a managed server instead.
Big Box or DIY Hosting
Big Box and Do-it-yourself (DIY) are probably the most well-known group of hosting providers. They include services like BlueHost, SiteGround, or GoDaddy and are usually shared hosts, but they may also offer VPS or Dedicated solutions as well. They often have a hosting plan specifically for a WordPress site, which usually includes installation of the software, and may also offer a migration tool to import your WordPress content. The WordPress Foundation has vetted some of these big-box hosts and has a list of recommended services on its hosting page.
As the name suggests, though, you are responsible for the site maintenance. This includes ensuring your site is up-to-date and secure, as well as keeping backups of your site in case something goes awry. Something to be wary of: These types of hosts often have attractive introductory rates, only to raise hosting costs later. Make sure you understand the actual costs so you can budget accordingly.
Managed WordPress Hosting
If you don’t have any experience maintaining a server but have sophisticated hosting needs, managed hosting is the way to go. Managed WordPress hosting is often more expensive, but the extra money is worth getting access to high-quality support staff with WordPress experience. With managed hosting, your site is also optimized for high performance, kept secure with regular backups, and you’ll benefit from updates as they come along.
The only drawback is that you can only host WordPress sites and nothing else. But, this isn’t really a problem if that was your choice, to begin with!
WordPress.com
WordPress.com offers users nearly 100% managed WordPress hosting. WordPress.com comes with web hosting, security, backups, and spam protection. A free SSL certificate comes with all WordPress.com’s hosting plans, and everything is managed and specialized for WordPress sites. There are pricing plans to suit any budget, so you can pick a lower-tier package and upgrade later no matter your needs. Not to mention, you also get high-quality support from WordPress experts.
Did you know that an independent, third-party host review service reported that WordPress.com is the fastest host in any pricing tier among all of the hosts they tested?
Finally, you can be assured of fast WordPress hosting with its:
- Mobile ready functionality. You can use WordPress themes optimized for mobile, with accelerated mobile pages.
- Jetpack. This is a content delivery network that accelerates the loading of images and static files to the browser. It also comes with lazy loading. This ensures only relevant parts of the site are loaded immediately. The remainder is delayed to save on performance.
Other Considerations for Fast WordPress Hosting
Hopefully, the above options have given you an idea of the best WordPress hosting for your needs. If you’re new to website creation, we think a managed WordPress.com plan is the easiest and most effective way to enjoy fast and secure hosting.
However, if you’re contemplating other options, let’s look at some of the other factors you’ll need to consider:
Your Host’s Network Matters
Whether your host uses a private or public ISP such as Google or Microsoft can have an enormous impact on your website’s speed.
Data Center Locations Matters
Find out where your provider’s data centers are based.
Analytics tools (like Google Analytics) tell you where most of your website visitors are geographically based. With this info to hand, pick a server location close to them. This ensures their requests are processed faster as your website’s speed is optimized for them.
That said, a content delivery network (CDN) can mitigate this. This refers to a distributed group of servers that work together to provide internet content. They can cache content, which also improves website performance. CDNs are a popular choice for relieving some of traditional web hosting’s major pain points.
Pro Tip: If you’re using WordPress.com, you’ll benefit from Jetpack CDN!
What Contributes to WordPress Speed?
While we’re discussing how to make WordPress faster, it makes sense to touch on other factors that can influence your website’s performance and speed.
Fast Web Hosting
We’ve already covered this area in detail. But, if you use shared hosting, your speed might be affected by other sites using the same server or how much content you are displaying. You get what you pay for, so expect cheap hosting to slow you down.
Opting for secure, managed hosting with WordPress.com alleviates this issue as your hosting is optimized for your needs. Plus, you have the option of upgrading as you grow.
Bad Plugins
A poorly optimized add-on will slow your site down considerably. If you think this affects your website’s speed, try disabling plugins, and rechecking the site speed.
There’s a whole list of WordPress plugins that will slow down your website. Note that sometimes this is a trade-off. Suppose you’re installing extra functionality, such as Elementor for more design control or WooCommerce? In that case, your site will naturally require higher performance.
Keep in mind that the more plugins you install, the more likely you’ll have to upgrade web hosting providers to match your growing requirements.
But before downloading and using a potential plugin, ask yourself:
- Is it essential for your site? Or just something nice to have?
- Can the functionality you’re addressing be resolved on the server-side or in another way outside of WordPress, so your website speed won’t be affected?
- What do the reviews and support forums say about the plugin?
- What’s the plugin’s rating on the WordPress plugin directory?
- When was it last updated? Has the plugin been tested with your version of WordPress?
Features can often be added by editing in a small code snippet into your WordPress theme rather than installing an entire plugin. That to say, it’s worth considering other options before installing too many plugins.
WordPress Installation and Configuration
How you configure your WordPress site can also affect its speed. Failing to cache pages, for example, risks overloading the server.
What’s caching? Caching is where requests for files like images or HTML are saved on a server or CDN for each individual user. The next time the same request is issued, the site already has a static version of the content prepared, making it faster to load.
You can cache your WordPress site by installing plugins that will cache posts and pages as static files. These kinds of plugins include W3 total cache, WP super cache, and Cache Enabler.
Note: If you have lots of dynamic content, caching is more complicated. This is because caching relies on saving and presenting unchanged information again and again.
External Scripts
Similar to plugins, enabling external scripts on your WordPress site can lead to a loss of performance. Again, this is a trade-off as you might find these elements essential. Externals crips can include things like Ads, front loads, etc.
Simply be aware that there’s a potential performance risk when installing these elements. So, be prepared to remove some (if your site’s speed becomes a big issue).
Database Optimization and Maintenance
Every action performed on WordPress, including comments, plugins, themes, and posts, connect directly or indirectly with your WordPress database. As time passes, this can cause performance issues as the database gets cluttered, and too much memory is occupied. If you’re maintaining your own database, it’s crucial to optimize this and tidy up occasionally.
Sound too technical? If you choose managed hosting with WordPress.com, you won’t have to maintain your own database.
Page Size
A straightforward factor impacting page speed is the number of elements displayed on your site at any given time. This is often an issue if you have lots of dynamic content.
Products that regularly get updated, for example, can slow down your site. Video and image content, used in significant quantities, can also impede performance.
The bottom line: Only keep essential website elements, and occasionally go in and have a declutter.
CDN
As we’ve already said, a content delivery network can help cache your website content and receive requests from multiple locations worldwide. So, no matter where your audience is, they’ll benefit from fast page speeds.
We’ve already discussed CDNs above, so we won’t go into detail here again. WordPress.com’s Jetpack is just one example of a CDN you can access for free when you sign up for a WordPress.com plan.
Testing Speed
It’s good practice to regularly test your website’s speed to ensure everything’s running as it should be.
You can test your website speed using:
- Pingdom: This is a paid-for service that provides in-depth insights into your website’s performance and problem areas.
- Google PageSpeed Insights: This free Google tool lets you enter a website domain and checks its loading speed. It also provides info on opportunities for improvement.
Understanding Performance Metrics
You won’t improve the speed of your WordPress site overnight. It’s a continuous process that requires you to regularly check-in and audit your website’s performance.
Utilizing WordPress.com’s fast web hosting is an excellent first step. Still, you need to come back reassess your website’s performance every now and then. To improve and learn as you go, keep these crucial performance metrics in mind to better understand how best to optimize your site:
Time to First Byte (TTFB): TTFB is a measurement used to indicate a web server’s responsiveness. It measures response time from the user making the initial HTTP request to the first byte of the page received by the user’s browser.
Load Time: This is similar to TTFB, but instead of measuring the first byte received, it calculates how long it takes for the entire site to load.
Are You Ready to Enjoy Fast WordPress Hosting?
Fast WordPress hosting is the first step to securing good website loading times, retaining visitors, and enhancing SEO. While web hosting is by no means the only factor in this equation, it’s essential to carefully consider your needs and choose the best option for you. From there, you should regularly test your website’s speed and optimize where you can.
If you’re just a startup, WordPress.com offers affordable, effective, and secure managed hosting for WordPress websites. If you’re unsure whether WordPress.com is the right choice for you, you can try it for free – so, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by getting started today with a free WordPress.com account!
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