Today we’re going to share with you a few simple tips to speed up your WordPress website. With just a few clicks from your cPanel control panel, you can have your WordPress site performing optimally in no time.
Before making any of these changes, make sure your WordPress core, plugins and themes are all up to date.
Upgrade to PHP 7.4
Firstly, you will want to make sure you are using the latest PHP version. The latest version of PHP help reduces memory and CPU utilization while implementing performance improvements to help keep your site performing optimally.
- Login to your cPanel control panel.
- Type in “Select PHP version” using the search bar. Click the “Select PHP version” icon.
- Select PHP 7.4 from the drop-down menu beside the PHP version. (Note: Don’t forget what version you were using prior to changing to 7.3 in case if you need to revert changes.)
- Click on “Set as current”.
- Verify your site is 100% functional by testing all the functionalities.
If there are any issues, revert back to the previous PHP version.
Enable “opcache” from PHP settings
While you are on the PHP selector page, you can enable “opcache” by selecting it from the available PHP extensions. Changes are automatically saved.
If you are wondering what “opcache” is all about, you can learn more from the PHP.net manual here.
“OPcache improves PHP performance by storing precompiled script bytecode in shared memory, thereby removing the need for PHP to load and parse scripts on each request. “
What this means is when a PHP script is executed, its compiled into opcode, code that the server understands. OPCache stores this code into the server memory on the first execution to be reused afterwards thus improving your site’s performance.
Once again, you will need to test the functionality of your website to make sure your contact forms, etc are all working. If you notice any errors, deselect “opcache” from the PHP selector page.
Increase PHP memory_limit from PHP options
From the PHP selector page, click on the “Switch to PHP Options” button. By default, your memory_limit may be set to 64M or 128M. Change this value to 256M. Changes are automatically saved.
Install LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress
- Search for “LiteSpeed Web Cache Manager” from the search bar on top of cPanel.
- Click on “WordPress Cache” under LiteSpeed Cache Management.
- Click on the “Scan” button to find your WordPress sites.
- Once the tool finds your WordPress installations, you will find them listed under “Discovered WordPress Installations” click on “Enable” to install and enable the LiteSpeed cache wordpress plugin.
If you have any other WordPress cache plugins installed, this installation will present an error requesting you to remove the other caching plugin before proceeding to avoid conflicts. We highly recommend removing any other caching plugin and installing LiteSpeed cache plugin for the absolute best possible performance.
Once again, test your WordPress site functionality to make sure everything is as it should be and there are no errors or warnings on any of your pages.
If you need help, our WordPress experts are standing by 24/7 to assist you! Simply log in to your client portal to contact us.