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Speed up a slow website

Measure a website with the speed test, then switch on the page cache, a faster web server, Redis, WebP images and a newer PHP.

This tutorial makes a slow website fast, biggest wins first. You measure, change one thing, and measure again, so you know what helped. Most sites go from Slow to Fast in under 30 minutes.

You need: a website in your hosting account.

1. Measure

  1. Open Control Panel › Websites › Speed test.
  2. Click the website, then Test now.

Note the score and the Server response time. Make it faster lists the tips with the most points first; each button opens the screen that fixes it. See Speed test.

2. Check the account isn't at its limits

Open Websites › Resource usage. If Limit hits shows hits, the site is being held back by the plan's CPU or memory. The steps below lower the load; if it still hits limits, ask your hosting provider about a larger plan.

3. Switch on the page cache

The biggest win for most sites.

  1. Open Software › PHP settings.
  2. In PHP version & web server per website, set Page cache for the website to On — 10 min (or longer for a site that rarely changes).

Visitors who aren't logged in get a ready-made page. Logged-in users, carts, checkouts, searches and forms always get a fresh one, and WordPress sites clear it by themselves when they change.

4. Use a current PHP version

On the same table, choose PHP 8.3 (recommended) or newer in PHP version, then check the site still works. Newer PHP is noticeably faster than old versions.

5. Try Nginx only

If the site doesn't depend on .htaccess rules, set Web server to Nginx only (fastest). WordPress-style links are built in.

Warning: with Nginx only, .htaccess files are ignored: their rewrite rules, redirects and error pages stop working. Switch back to Nginx + Apache (.htaccess) if anything breaks.

6. Make the images smaller

  1. Open Files › Image optimiser and pick the website.
  2. Choose Smaller and leave Also make WebP copies ticked.
  3. Click Optimise images.

Photos usually get 40–70 % smaller with no visible difference, and browsers that support WebP get the WebP copies. Make a backup first if the site has images you can't replace.

7. Add Redis for WordPress

  1. Open Databases › Redis cache, choose the Memory size and click Turn on Redis.
  2. In the WordPress card, click Use Redis next to the site.

The Redis Object Cache plugin is set up and connected for you. If the screen says your plan does not include Redis, ask your hosting provider.

8. Clean up WordPress

  1. Open Websites › WordPress and click Update everything.
  2. In WordPress admin, delete plugins you don't use. Each active plugin adds work to every page.

9. Measure again

Back on Speed test, click Test again. Score history shows the change after two tests. If Server response is still slow, open Websites › Logs and look for PHP errors or slow scripts.