Your website might look great, but if it’s slow, you’re losing more than just seconds—you’re losing users, visibility, and trust. At Holler Digital, we believe performance is a critical part of your digital strategy, not just a technical afterthought.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to make your WordPress website faster, smarter, and more effective by combining practical optimization tactics with strategic thinking. Whether you’re improving an existing site or planning a redesign, these principles will help ensure your site is built for growth.
How to Scan Your Website for Performance Issues
(Using GTmetrix & Google PageSpeed Insights)
Before you assume your site is fast—or worse, spend money on ads to drive traffic—run a quick performance scan. Here’s how to do it:
✅ Step 1: Test with GTmetrix
- Go to https://gtmetrix.com
- Enter your website URL
- Click “Test your site”
- After the scan, pay attention to:
- Performance Score (aim for 85%+)
- Structure Score (how well the code is organized)
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) (goal: under 2.5s)
- Total Blocking Time (TBT) (lower = better)
- Page size and number of requests
Pro Tip: Run tests from different regions (Canada, US, Europe) to simulate real-world performance for your audience.
✅ Step 2: Test with Google PageSpeed Insights
- Visit https://pagespeed.web.dev
- Enter your URL and click “Analyze”
- Review both Mobile and Desktop scores separately
Key metrics to focus on:
- First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Speed Index
- LCP (again, aim under 2.5s)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – should be < 0.1
- Opportunities section – Google’s tips to improve speed
Google uses this data in SEO rankings—so slow = less visibility.
What Do These Tools Actually Tell You?
These scans show how your site performs for real people, not just in ideal conditions. If:
- Your LCP is over 4s on mobile
- Your performance score is under 60%
- You have massive images or dozens of requests
…it’s time to take action. Even a gorgeous design won’t convert users who bounce before the page loads.
1. Choose Hosting That Matches Your Business Goals
Your hosting provider is the foundation of your website’s performance. And like any foundation, it needs to match the weight of your business goals. Shared hosting might work for a hobby blog, but if you rely on your website for revenue or leads, you need hosting that can scale.
At Holler Digital, we use high-performance cloud infrastructure tailored for WordPress, complete with server-side caching, PHP-FPM, and Redis—because the fastest websites start at the server.
2. Make Image Optimization Part of Your Content Strategy
Images are essential for storytelling and engagement, but large or unoptimized images are often the biggest performance bottlenecks.
What to do:
- Use next-gen formats like WebP
- Resize and compress images before uploading
- Enable lazy loading to defer off-screen images
But more importantly, only use visuals that serve a purpose. Our content-first design approach ensures that every image on the page supports the message, not just the aesthetic.
3. Streamline Code and Reduce Bloat
Removing unused plugins and bloated page builders doesn’t just make your site faster—it makes it more maintainable and secure.
What to do:
- Deactivate and delete unused plugins and themes
- Use performance-optimized themes or custom builds
- Minify CSS, JS, and HTML
- Avoid stacking too many visual editors
At Holler Digital, we build lean WordPress sites that prioritize clean code, logical structure, and long-term scalability.
4. Implement a CDN to Reach a Wider Audience
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) distributes your site’s static files across global servers so users can load your content from the nearest location. It’s one of the easiest ways to improve performance across countries and continents.
What to look for:
- Global caching and image optimization
- Integration with your hosting provider
- HTTPS and security headers support
This isn’t just about speed—it’s about readiness. If your business is growing or targeting international markets, a CDN helps you show up strong no matter where your visitors are.
5. Audit Performance with Real Data
You can’t fix what you don’t measure. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, and WebPageTest allow you to identify where your site is falling short.
What to monitor:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
- Total Blocking Time (TBT)
- Time to First Byte (TTFB)
- Core Web Vitals (Google ranking factors)
If you’re redesigning, go one step further: use 3 months of heatmaps, analytics, and screen recordings to see what users are doing now, so you can build with their behavior in mind.
6. Don’t Forget Technical SEO & Accessibility
Your site needs to be readable by search engines and assistive tech.
Best practices:
- Use semantic HTML and proper heading hierarchy
- Add alt text to all images
- Include basic schema markup for local SEO and business info
- Ensure WCAG 2.1 accessibility compliance
These fixes improve discoverability, usability, and trust—all of which impact performance.
7. Plan for Post-Launch Success
A fast site today can become slow tomorrow without monitoring and maintenance. That’s why post-launch support is part of your performance strategy.
Ask your agency:
- Do you provide performance reports and technical SEO audits?
- Can you help us optimize after launch?
- Will we have access to ongoing training and support?
At Holler Digital, we provide performance-first hosting, monthly audits, and support plans so your site stays fast, secure, and reliable long after launch day.
Final Thoughts
Speed isn’t just a technical metric, it’s a brand experience. It affects everything from SEO rankings and conversions to how credible your business feels to a first-time visitor.
At Holler Digital, we don’t just build pretty websites—we build high-performing ones designed to help your business grow.
Because in the end, you’re not looking to build a Ferrari that just turns heads. You want a BMW: elegant, dependable, and built to perform.
Request a Free Website Audit or Book a Discovery Session with Holler Digital.
We’ll help make sure your website isn’t just fast—it’s working hard for your business.
