WordPress speed: 7 fixes that improve your Core Web Vitals

A slow site loses visitors and ranks lower on Google. Google measures speed with three Core Web Vitals:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): how fast the main content loads. Good is 2.5 seconds or less.
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP): how quickly the page reacts when someone taps or clicks. Good is 200 milliseconds or less.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): how much the layout jumps while loading. Good is 0.1 or less.

You can check all three for free with PageSpeed Insights. Here are the seven fixes we apply to almost every WordPress site.

1. Turn on page caching

Without caching, WordPress builds every page from scratch on every visit. A caching plugin, or caching at your host, saves a ready-made copy and serves it straight away. It is often the biggest single improvement you can make.

2. Fix your images

• Upload images at the size they are shown, not straight from the camera.
• Use modern formats like WebP or AVIF.
• Make sure every image has a width and height, so the layout does not jump.
• Do not lazy-load the main image at the top of the page. It should load first.

3. Remove plugins you don't need

Every plugin can add its own scripts and styles to every page. Deactivate and delete anything you are not using, and replace "do everything" plugins with lighter ones where you can.

4. Go easy on sliders and page builders

Large sliders at the top of a page are one of the most common causes of a slow LCP. A single strong image with a clear headline usually loads faster and converts better.

5. Load fonts and scripts smartly

• Host fonts on your own site and use font-display: swap.
• Load only the font weights you actually use.
• Delay chat widgets, trackers and other third-party scripts until after the page loads.

6. Use a CDN

A CDN keeps copies of your images, CSS and JavaScript on servers around the world, so visitors download them from somewhere close. Cloudflare's free plan is a good place to start.

7. Keep PHP and the database healthy

• Run a supported version of PHP 8. Newer versions are faster and more secure.
• Clean out old post revisions, spam comments and expired transients.
• Ask your host about object caching with Redis if your site has logins or a store.

Tip

Measure before and after every change. Fix the biggest problem first, and test on a real phone, not just your laptop.

Want us to look at your site? Send us an inquiry and we'll tell you what's slowing it down.