How to Speed Up Your WordPress Site: Part 3 – JavaScript/CSS Combine & Minify

Wordpress

← Part 2 – Page Caching

Lots of things can slow down a WordPress site: too many large graphics, not enough bandwidth (something that can be optimized by a solid WordPress hosting service), and browser issues.

If you’ve recently noticed a slowdown in your website, you may have received advice such as “combine CSS coding” or “external JavaScript file not working.” Messages like these mean the codes on your website are slowing your site’s download time. Luckily, you don’t have to learn code to fix this – repairing code is easier than you may think.

We also would like to guide you to FixRunner guide on how to improve WordPress speed without any coding knowledge.

 

Website Code Can Take Much Space!

One thing that makes WordPress so popular is that it does the coding for the writer. In fact, it’s not all that unusual for WordPress hosts to learn that their clients have never checked out the HTML (Text) tab.

The Text tab can be enlightening; for one thing, it shows just how much of the heavy lifting WordPress does for you! It displays the page’s HTML code, which is the actual language of the web. Other codes lurk in your WordPress template, namely JavaScript and CSS. These codes are huge because they do a lot of work:

  • CSS is a language that creates templates for web pages, saving time on rewriting HTML over and over again
  • JavaScript (JS) is a programming code that gives instructions to HTML and CSS

WordPress site

Websites can also get crowded — with codes.

Loads of code, though, will slow down your WordPress site, which is a huge turn-off for would-be visitors. The right plugin can fix this quickly and easily.

 

Minify & Combine Code

There are plenty of WordPress plugins that remedy the problem of coding hogs. What they do is cut down the amount of space these codes take by combining redundant codes and minimising space between codes. It’s like forcing the codes to go on a diet.

Why is this necessary? Because the line breaks a coder puts in means more space needed for that page. Coders need these breaks; it helps them keep track of their work and reduces errors. But taken together, these breaks simply require more bandwidth to work, which in turn slows download time. This, as you know, is unacceptable, particularly as more people search on mobile devices where fast download is essential.

WordPress site

Example of minified CSS

Minification takes out the line breaks coders need but the Internet doesn’t. According to CleanCSS.com, a site that demonstrates coding minification, this can reduce download speeds by up to 20%.

Most WordPress plugins that address minification do not aggregate, or combine, codes. Autoptimize is one that does both by:

  • Creating links (“concatenate” in WordPress lingo) for scripts and styles spelt out in various codes
  • Moves CSS style coding to headers, an element Google prefers
  • Moves codes for scripts to footers
  • Compresses HTML space

Autoptimize recommends installing page caching plugins like WP Super Cache.

W3 Total Cache offers similar compressing and minification services. Be careful to avoid using redundant plugins, as they will interfere with one another and compromise your website performance.

Tribulant now offers WordPress site hosting! Check out our different site host plans.

Photo credits: Celso Floris, xmodulo

Part 4 – Using Content Delivery Network (CDN) →

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Comments
  1. Peter on April 20, 2021

    Great article. Thank you

    Reply
  2. Certain Supply on August 17, 2020

    I implemented all these techniques on my site, now website loading speed ir 2.9 which is great.

    Reply
  3. cufcoler on July 6, 2020

    I improved by website nearly 2.3 s

    Reply
  4. Anil Kumar on May 8, 2020

    Thanks for your valuable article

    Reply
  5. Akshaya Beura on December 27, 2018

    Thanks, It Helps me to Speed Up

    Reply
  6. Mesin Mie on May 20, 2017

    briliant information .. super fast my web

    Reply
  7. Shailesh Chaudhary on March 6, 2017

    Nice Information… Thanks

    Reply
  8. Asween on December 10, 2016

    Very useful and effective tips for speedup word press site

    Reply

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