Your step to the Top of Internet Marketing

One of my readers asked me: “I like my theme BUT it takes forever to load in my browser; what can I do to make it load faster?”

The answer my friend requires some work on your part; nothing fancy…. just simple steps:

 

 

 

 

Take a look at your Theme

• Your Page

I mean take  a really good look and start  taking out all the elements that are not necesary to load your blog or that do nothing to benefit your readers, shrink  those BIG images or optimize them to load faster (usually changing the Type to GIF instead of PNG or JPG is a start). And drop that Background image for the whole page, you can get the same FEEL for your blog with a solid color and some Gradients.

• Trim the Extras

Those are the Bells and Whistles that you can live WITHOUT!

An example is Web Page Visitors  Counter:  it is so Web 1.0  and your Stats should be on to your Dashboard,  not on your page!

• Your Style Sheet (CSS)

Some of the Theme Authors will add Extras elements in the CSS  to Beautify the theme, check your StyleSheet(s) and trim them a little.

• Your Java Scripts

I stopped visiting some of my favorite blogs because they have TOO MANY of them with too many errors on the page (if you use FireFox you know what I mean).  Granted they serve a purpose, but if you have a choice between Java Script and Plain HTML for let’s say: a Button; take that HTML and put it in an External Java Script File….Just read below.

Use WordPress Plugins

You knew this one was coming!

I’ve mentioned some of them at earlier post as Plugins you can live with; but there are more:

• WordPress Super Cache

It is not called SUPER for nothing, it will make Static HTML copies of your Pages, store them on your server; the result is On-Demand service for them, no waiting for larger PHP files.

I would set Caching to 2400 seconds with no compression at first( some web hosts have problems with compression). Enable Cache Rebuild and Mobile Device Support.

Plugin Home Page

• WordPress Widget Cache

Same purpose as Super Cache but for your widgets on your sidebar(s), footer …etc. Set it to 2400 seconds with an option to delete the Cache if you make any changes on your blog, this way you would have Fresh Widgets.

Plugin Home Page

• PHP Minify Plugin

This plugin will compress and combine Java Script and CSS files on your pages. Think of it as Mini-Me machine for your JS and CSS. Take it slow with this one and deactivate it if you have any Fatal Errors.

Plugin Home Page

• jQuery Image lazy load plugin

The biggest part of loading a page in a browser is the images,  if you have a Photo Blog or a lot of images;  this plugin will allow the rest of your page to load first and gives your images the chance to catch up and load later.

Plugin Home Page

Use External Java Script Files

Yes they are Java Scripts, but they are hosted on Your Server and your page does not have to fetch them from far away!

As you do with your regular web page, Put those extra HTML lines in an External Java Script file (.js), Upload it to your Root Directory and call it wherever you need at your page or even in your widgets. just remember NOT to include any Java Script inside your external file ( No Java Inside Java).

The Results?

May vary of course, but you would have a Leaner and Faster theme,  you do not have to give up your favorite one,  and most of all: Your readers will thank you for it!

Related Posts

• Oh the Pains of the Skin!
• WordPress Fans:How to load your theme faster,Update
• How to turn S.E.O into W.F.O
• WordPress Fans: Thank your Plugins Authors
• WordPress Fans: Traffic-Generating Plugins Part II, Related Websites

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