Website performance and load time have become a key concern for developers because of how impactful these elements are.
According to an article by WebsiteBuilderExpert, nearly 46% of users will not revisit a poorly performing website, and a 1-second delay in 5-second load time can increase user dissatisfaction by 16%. Now imagine all these statistics are occurring with your website in a loop, causing you to lose your crucial traffic and visibility!
However, don’t worry because you can discover the best WordPress optimization plugins that can improve your website’s optimal functionalities, decrease load time, cache crucial files, and increase overall speed.
In this article, we will explore how WordPress optimization plugins work, crucial terms about website speed optimization, and some of the best-performed WordPress optimization plugins on the web.
Let’s get started.
How do Speed Optimization Plugins Work?
In a simple definition, WordPress optimization plugins are tools built for cleaning the WordPress database junk. You can do optimization without plugins, but using plugins will help you to get more.
But, briefly, a plugin that clears the development side and host side trash data, by doing so, maximizes the overall website performance, drives traffic, and increases conversion rate are described as WordPress optimization plugins. Despite working in a small area of a website, these plugins do the essential work of making the site quickly and perfectly presented to visitors.
An optimization plugin has these tasks to fulfill,
- Caches data in the web browser.
- Remove pingbacks.
- De-fragments MySQL tables.
- Remove any spam elements.
- Image optimization.
- Clean revision contents.
- Asset minification.
- Create conversions.
One thing to note is that different WordPress optimization plugins exist, and most of them have individual tasks to complete.
Like, image optimization plugins only do image optimization and management. These plugins don’t function outside image-related tasks.
You may think, how good are single-purpose optimization plugins? Single-purpose plugins are good because they are always light, take less space, fluently work in one area, have simple functionalities, and almost no errors.
Many developers believe WordPress speed optimization without a plugin is better than with an optimization plugin. Yep, it is possible but considers these things,
- You have to be an expert programmer.
- You have to spend a lot of time figuring out many hacks.
- You will need precise knowledge of speed optimization.
- Mastery of different applications is a must.
- You will need a good paid host (more cost).
- Compressing images will ruin the quality.
- The end result may not meet your exceptions.
The same goes for multi-purpose optimization plugins like LightSpeed cache does every optimization task mentioned above and remains fluent like a single-purpose plugin. The only downside is that these plugins are not so light compared to single-purpose plugins.
9 Crucial Term Regarding WordPress Optimization Plugin for WordPress
These terms will help you understand website optimization and choose your plugins easily.
1. Conversion
When a user consciously chooses to complete a random action like clicking on a button, ordering a product, filling a form, or clicking on a link on your website is conversion.
When a conversion happens, it doesn’t mean that the visitor has become a determined customer because conversions can be the cause of a simple goal, and visitors may not engage later.
A WordPress analytics plugin can help you track every conversion on your website.
2. Minification
Many HTML, CSS, and JavaScript source codes have unnecessary characters and don’t benefit your website. Minification is the process that cleanses these source codes by removing unnecessary characters from them. This process can significantly increase your page’s load time and decrease the chances of failure.
3. Pop-Ups
A popup is a small window of quick information that appears when scrolling through a website. Popups can vary in size and may appear in different page sections of a website. You can see many types of popups while visiting,
- Full screen.
- Sidebar.
- Banner.
- Hello, boards.
- Lightbox.
- Yes/no.
- Gamified.
Moreover, popups are an action that visitors can’t control from their end. But, you can remove a popup from your screen by clicking on the right-hand side cross button.
4. Database Junk
While developing and editing a website, the WordPress platform can store many unwanted data like trash comments/ pages/ contents, images, not updated and changed WordPress versions are known as database junk.
This junk data will eventually reduce the speed of receiving data from the database. The possible outcome can be that your page will take a long time to load any website contents and components.
5. Instant Page
An instant page is a concept of preloading a page before a visitor clicks the page. Generally, humans will take any action instantly if it happens in less than 100 ms.
So, instant pages load in less than 100ms and save visitors time. To create an instant page, you have to overcome the network latency. Some developers use preload on pages that have the highest rate of getting clicks from visitors.
In 2006, Amazon found out that a 100ms addition in loading a page can reduce sales by up to 1%.
6. Plugin Management
Plugin management is the concept of controlling different types of plugins over one single dashboard. Like extensions in a web browser, you can also manage plugins from WordPress. You can disable or enable any plugin from plugin management.
The bright point for plugin management is that it can significantly increase your website’s speed because you have total control over every plugin. You can disable those plugins that reduce loading speed and enable those that increase.
7. Cookies
Cookies are short information that a website will store in a visitor’s browser after a visit. Cookies let the developers know about the user by tracking their browsing history. It may feel threatening, but cookies can improve your browsing.
Firstly, any stored cookies will work as a connector point with your browser and the preferred website. The next visit to the same website will take less time to load individual pages.
Plus, if your computer and the network server exchange cookies, the server will read the ID and have an exact plan on what to serve you on your next visit. Only see what you want to see.
8. Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the overall disengagement from the visitors of a website. After clicking on a site, many visitors spend 1 page equivalent of time and exit without checking any other pages.
After a visitor has started a visit, the exact bounce time is considered 3 seconds.
9. Dynamic Content
Dynamic content is modified regular content that creates more engaging chances for visitors. These types of content can change based on trends and people’s behavior.
Websites can have many dynamic elements alongside content. These contents represent the website in a more attractive and visually stunning way. Dynamic content can create a new experience and be customizable specifically for visitors’ needs in a moment.
Some great examples of the dynamic element are audio, video, suggestion bar, statistical pole, content table, personalized recommendation/ offers, contest-based popups, campaigns, and different types of widgets.
8 Best Speed Optimization Plugin to Boost Your Website in 2022
Below, we have listed some of the best plugins for optimization. We considered many experts’ opinions and talked with real-life users to select a specific plugin.
1. Perfmatters (Multipurpose)
Perfmatters is one of the best plugins for speeding up your side with minimal conditions. It also has a simple and easily understandable UI dashboard to navigate all crucial buttons in one click.
The speed optimization is pretty simple, with a limited amount of disabling buttons to toggle on-off. You will get buttons for emojis, dash icons, XML-RPC, RSS Feeds, Heartbeats (Heartbeat frequency control options), and WP version hide option.
Besides navigation features, Prefmatters has some pretty good internal features too,
- The plugin itself is pretty lightweight.
- Frequent updates.
- Built-in script manager.
- Compatible with core WordPress updates.
- Lazy load dynamic content.
2. Hummingbird (Multipurpose)
Hummingbird’s main functionality is to check your entire site and recommend any necessary fixes for slow loading speed or optimization factors. It’s an optimization plugin that offers a variety of essential features like text/file compression, lazy load, efficient caching, and unused CSS deferring.
Moreover, Hummingbird has performed brilliantly among users and has been used on 1M+ active websites. It also scored 90% of 5-star ratings and great reviews in the WordPress repository.
Some exclusive features that Hummingbird offers,
- CSS and Java code minification.
- JavaScript execution time fixation.
- GZIP Compression.
- Config setup.
- Asset optimization and control.
3. Eazy Plugin Manager (Multipurpose)
Eazy Plugin Manager is a plugin management plugin that can optimize the speed of your website without traditional optimization features. Instead of giving you a bunch of optimization features, this plugin gives you the power to control any plugins installed on your site.
Every additional plugin you install on your site leaves a hidden residue that will eventually slow down the website. Plugin management WordPress can show you these junk files.
However, a plugin management tool like Eazy Plugin Manager can monitor every other plugin’s size, installing date, and effect on your site. By automatically analyzing data, Eazy Plugin Manager recommends changes according to your website’s performance.
Eazy Plugin Manager is packed with some heavy features but still lightweight and doesn’t slow down your website. With perfect management, Eazy Plugin Manager optimize your website and help you save time.
Some core features include,
- Instant plugin search.
- Bookmarking plugins.
- Activity and history control.
- Bulk install (Installing all plugins at once).
- Security check plugins.
4. WP-Optimize (Multipurpose)
WP-Optimize is specially made for caching purposes. Its revolutionary caching engine made it one of the best optimization plugins on WordPress. WP-optimize also can compress your images of different formats and sizes.
So, by installing WP-Optimize, you don’t have to worry about installing an additional image compression plugin. WP-Optimize shares a similar UI system with Perfmatters that exactly shows what configurations and changes you need to make.
WP-Optimize has some useful optimization features for all types of websites,
- Automatic clean-ups.
- Updraftplus (pre-optimization backups).
- Preload assets.
- WP-CLI support.
5. LiteSpeed (Multipurpose)
Another great all-in-one caching plugin is LiteSpeed has combined traditional optimization with modern techniques for better results. LiteSpeed is also compatible with other recognized plugins like Yoast, WooCommerce, and Elementor.
Regular optimization plugins usually offer caching over specific areas with many complex options you can hardly understand. But, LiteSpeed can give you total control over your website caching effortlessly.
Every feature of LiteSpeed is easily understandable and superior to any other optimization plugins. Things you will get,
- Server-level caching.
- Automatic generation of CSS.
- Lazyload.
- Page speed score (exclusive).
- Purge scheduling of specified URLs.
6. Speed Booster (Multipurpose)
Speed Booster Pack, by Optimocha, is a WordPress optimization plugin for speed-obsessed developers. Speed Booster can help you make instant pages (loads less than 100ms) that can speed up your website and increase conversion rates on your websites.
Firstly, Speed Booster will improve your core web vitals like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Total Blocking Time (TBT), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Improving these web vitals will increase your page speed scores.
Moreover, Speed Booster focuses on the least crucial things like Google fonts. Google fonts have a lower impact on your website. However, visitors can waste a lot of time because of your website’s request from the server. So, considering a small thing like Google Fonts is worth the effort.
Some LiteSpeed Core features include,
- Dequeuing scripts and styles.
- CDN enable button.
- Cloudflare integration.
- Instant page button.
- Time query buttons.
7. WP Rocket (Multipurpose)
WP Rocket plugin WordPress offers some pretty unique features and functionalities. Take cache preloading as an example. This feature can automatically preload every cache done by the plugin after you make any modification on your website. For other plugins, you may have to do it manually.
Moreover, WP Rocket can effectively clean your database junk and schedule cleaning weekly or monthly. It automatically does the work, and you can toggle it on or off.
Another great thing about WP Rocket is the compatibility with other themes and plugins like Elementor, Optinmaster, WebSub, and Smush.
In addition to regular optimization features, WP Rocket has some unique features,
- Java files execution delay.
- Separate cache file for images.
- Sucuri integration.
- Compatible with eCommerce.
8. EWWW (Single Purpose)
If you are afraid to add big-sized images and dynamic content to your website because it will slow down your website, install EWWW. EWWW is one of WordPress’s best image optimization plugins that can help you optimize images in any size and format.
The best part is that EWWW optimizes and compresses your images without damaging or reducing the resolution. Every image processed by EWWW will have the exact resolution after the process. Moreover, you can optimize as many pictures as you want with EWWW. There are no limitations in file sizes.
EWWW is not like the regular image optimization plugin and offers some great features,
- SSL encryption (best security).
- Free core plugin.
- 24/7 active support team.
- 30 image backups.
- Bulk image optimization.
What Best WordPress Optimization Plugins will Suit Your Website Better?
There you go, our list of the 8 best WordPress optimization plugins in mid-2022. Every plugin in this list performs pretty well with different websites and servers.
Any above plugins will suit your website needs and help you reach that desired speed goal. That doesn’t mean you have to install all mentioned plugins; one optimization plugin is enough.
Select 1 plugin you prefer the most, and consider trying the free versions for the rest.
One pro tip is, remembering optimization = administration. If you have better control over the plugins you install, you can have excellent control over your website’s optimization. You are cost-effective and get the highest value on a smaller budget.
We hope that now you will get your desired plugin quickly.
Have a nice day.