How To Speed Up Your WordPress Site With AccelerateWP

Introduction

Website speed is a critical factor that keeps visitors from clicking off the page due to a slow experience. Slow websites can frustrate users and lead to higher bounce rates which can decrease search rankings. In this guide, we’ll show you how to enable AccelerateWP plugin to speed up your site.

What is AccelerateWP?

AccelerateWP is a WordPress plugin designed to enhance website speed. It includes caching, image optimisation, and CDN (Content Delivery Network) integration. This plugin is tailored to reduce load times and improve overall site performance.

Benefits of Using AccelerateWP

Improved User Experience: A faster website ensures that visitors have a smooth and enjoyable experience, leading to increased engagement and lower bounce rates.
Better SEO Rankings: Search engines favour fast-loading websites, which can improve your site’s visibility and ranking on search engine results pages.
Higher Conversion Rates: Faster websites often lead to higher conversion rates, as users are likelier to stay and interact with your content or products.

How to Install AccelerateWP On Your WordPress Site

1. login to your cPanel account. If you’re unsure of how to log in to cPanel please follow this article.
2. Navigate to the software section then select AccelerateWP
   
3. Hover over the domain you wish to enable AccelarateWP on then select the settings cog.
   
4. Select the grey toggle to install the plugin to your WordPress site. Once activated the toggle should turn blue.
5. Select the cancel button to go back to the dashboard then login to your WordPress site to make sure the plugin has been installed successfully.
   

How to Configure AccelerateWP On Your WordPress Site

To configure AccelerateWP on your WordPress site head to the top menu and select AccelerateWP > Settings. On this page, you will find several tabs with various settings. We will cover the most important ones for optimal performance below.

Cache Settings – Basic Cache Options

• Enable Caching for Mobile Devices: Ensure this option is checked to provide a faster experience for mobile users.
• Enable Caching for Logged-In Users: Enable this if you have a membership site or user-specific content.
• Cache Lifespan: Type the amount of hours you wish to clear the cache for all pages. We usually pick 10-24 hours.
  

File Optimisation – Optimise CSS & JS Files

• Minify CSS Files: Check this option to reduce the size of your CSS files by removing unnecessary spaces and comments.
• Combine CSS Files: Enable this to merge multiple CSS files into one, reducing the number of HTTP requests.
• Minify JavaScript Files: Similar to CSS minification, this reduces the size of JavaScript files.
• Combine JavaScript Files: Merges multiple JavaScript files to reduce HTTP requests.
  *If you have any layout issues after enabling these you will need to disable them 1 by 1 to check which one is the culprit and leave it disabled. It is possible that these options can conflict with the plugins you install at a later date as it optimises the plugin code. If you would like to check if this is due to AccelerateWP then you can add the following code to the end of the page URL with the issue “?nowpacceleratewp”. An example would be https://example.com/pagename?noacceleratewp which will load the page without AccelerateWP.
  

Media Settings – LazyLoad,Image Dimentions

LazyLoad

• Enable LazyLoad for Images: This setting delays the loading of images until they are visible on the screen, improving initial load times.
• Enable LazyLoad for CSS Background images: This feature activates LazyLoad for CSS Background images images on the page.
• Enable LazyLoad for Iframes and Videos: Similar to images, this delays the loading of iframes and videos.
• Enable Missing Image Dimensions: This adds correct image dimensions to help page structure.
  

3. Preload Settings – Generate Cache Files & Preload Fonts

 Preload Cache

• Activate Preloading: Ensures that your homepage and all internal links are preloaded, improving load times for users.

Preload Links

• Activate Link Preloading: Link preloading improves the perceived load time by downloading a page when a user hovers over the link.

Prefetch DNS Requests

• Prefetch External URL’s:DNS prefetching can make external files load faster, especially on mobile networks

Preload Fonts

• Preload Fonts: Enter the URLs of any web fonts used on your site to preload them, enhancing performance.
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Advanced Rules – Fine Tune Cache Rules

Never Cache URL(s)

• Exclude Specific Pages: Add URLs of pages you do not want to cache, such as admin pages or frequently updated content.

Never Cache Cookies

• Exclude Cookie ID’s:Specify full or partial IDs of cookies that, when set in the visitor’s browser, should prevent a page from getting cached (one per line)

Never Cache User Agent(s)

• Exclude User Agents:Specify user agent strings that should never see cached pages (one per line)

Always Purge URL(s)

• Always Purge A URL:Specify URLs you always want purged from cache whenever you update any post or page (one per line)

Cache Query Strings

• Include Query Strings: Specify any query strings that should be cached to improve performance for specific URL parameters.
  

Database Optimisation – Optimise Your Database To Reduce Bloat

Clean Up

• Post Cleanup: Schedule regular cleanups to remove post revisions, drafts, and trashed posts.
• Comments Cleanup: Delete spam and trash comments to keep your database lean.
• Transients Cleanup: Remove expired transients to free up database space.
  *Make sure you backup your database before you run a cleanup! Once a database optimisation has been performed, there is no way to undo it without a database backup.
  

CDN Integration – Integrate Your CDN

Content Delivery Network

• Integrate Your CDN: If you use a CDN, enter the CDN URL here to serve static files from multiple locations, reducing load times.
  

Heartbeat Control – Control WordPress Heartbeat

Control Heartbeat

• Reduce Heartbeat Activity: Limit the frequency of WordPress heartbeat API calls to reduce server load. We usually keep this to reduce activity.