WordPress: I’ve got the need, the need to go really fast

Wanna speed up your website?

You’re in luck. I’ve been talking to (bribing) as many Web gurus as I can to get the top tips for speeding up your website. Like most developers out there, they all had some strong opinions on the subject, but I managed to distill it down to five common themes. I cover them in a little more detail over at flippa.com, but I thought I’d give you a little taste.

Here are the tips that six cups of coffee, a Das Keyboard, and three copies of The Princess Bride bought me. You’re welcome.

1. Compress your images.

Pictures on the Web aren’t going anywhere; we’re visual creatures. But there are things you can do to compress your images without making them look like a Greek mosaic.

2. Minimize add-ons.

Take a hard look at which plugins you have installed on your website and keep the ones you absolutely must have. Ditch the rest.

3. Reduce redirects.

Redirects are useful. Just be careful about how far you take it. Each step down the rabbit hole will slow down your website.

4. Tighten up your CSS.

Once your website is ready for primetime, combine your CSS files and tighten up all of that pretty whitespace. You don’t need it anymore. When it comes time to edit it, you can always add it back.

5. Get a fast host provider.

At GoDaddy, speed is a huge deal. We were recently ranked No. 1 in performance when it came to WordPress hosting. Even if you don’t go with us, do a little digging before you buy.

And, if this is stuff that really interests you, make sure you check out tools like Pingdom and PageSpeed Tools from Google®. You can use them to quickly test your site and see what might be slowing it down.