5 WordPress Plugins to Help Speed Up Your Portfolio Website
WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world, powering over 25% of the Internet. Launched in 2005, WordPress continues to grow in popularity each year. It was initially designed to be a simple blogging platform, but the WordPress community quickly realized its potential and began adding more complex features.
These days, you can create anything with WordPress – from a simple blog to an eCommerce store, portfolio site, or membership site. The options are endless!
But building a WordPress website isn’t easy – especially if you want it to be fast. After all, performance is key if you want to attract potential customers to your site.
In this article, we’ll discuss five WordPress plugins that can help you speed up your website. Whether you’re a seasoned web developer or just want to build a simple brochure-style website, this list will come in handy.
1. WPSpeed
WPSpeed optimizes your WordPress site’s performance by reducing its size (compression) and removing unused scripts and styles. While these two factors alone can improve SEO (search engine optimization) and reduce page load times, the real magic behind WPSpeed is its custom-built image loader.
The image loader in WPSpeed is different from the stock WordPress image loader. It’s much more efficient, and it loads the images in the order that they’re needed – rather than the order in which they’re added to the website. This reduces image loading time and allows you to improve page loading speeds.
2. WP Super Cache
WP Super Cache speeds up your site by storing previously downloaded content (such as images) in a separate location (usually on a server), so it can be served quickly to visitors. This improves overall user experience (UX) because page load times are reduced.
With WP Super Cache enabled, your site’s content is stored in the cloud (typically using the widely available CDN (content delivery network) service, Amazon S3). This content is then made available to any visitor – regardless of whether or not they have a fast Internet connection. Therefore, using a CDN is essential if you want to speed up your site.
3. Better WP Engine
Better WP Engine is a web hosting service that provides professional-level speeds (up to 20x faster) for WordPress users.
It’s important to note that while Better WP Engine is indeed a faster web hosting service for WordPress users, it’s not for everyone. If you’re looking for a free web host, then you should check out one of the many excellent free WordPress hosting services available online. With Better WP Engine, you have to pay for the extra features (such as advanced security and bandwidths) that you need.
4. Minify WordPress
WordPress itself is a very rich content management system, and to help users keep their site’s code clean and organized, developers created the Minify WordPress plugin.
Instead of storing all of your site’s source code in a single location, with Minify WordPress the entire site is divided into multiple files (in the form of.MIN files). This allows you to maintain a clean and organized codebase while also reducing the strain on your server.
Minify WordPress provides a much-needed layer of protection for your site. By preventing WordPress users from viewing your source code, you can rest assured that your site’s security is guaranteed. This plugin also has the added benefit of preventing any issues with speed due to excessive code loading.
5. Jetpack
Jetpack is a free and open-source WordPress plugin that can be used to create a fully functioning eCommerce store or online magazine. It was originally developed by Shopify and then adopted by the WordPress community. In addition to its eCommerce capabilities, Jetpack can also be used to create complex magazine websites or portfolio sites.
When used with a stock WordPress theme, Jetpack comes with many features out of the box. However, if you want to take advantage of its eCommerce functionality then you need to purchase a premium theme that supports embedding WooCommerce (a popular eCommerce plugin). Alternatively, you can build your entire website using only the built-in blogging functionality found in WordPress – and then purchase a premium design for your blog’s front page.
If you’re looking to build a simple website with a blog, then Jetpack is undoubtedly the WordPress plugin for you. It does everything from setting up your blog to creating a fully functioning eCommerce store. If you have any type of eCommerce experience, then you’ll love what Jetpack can do for your site. Just make sure to keep your eye on the SEO (search engine optimization) side of things.
With these five WordPress plugins, you can speed up your site and get more work done in less time. Whether you’re looking for an easy way to build a blog, an eCommerce store, or something else, these plugins can help.