WordPress Performance Myths: What Actually Speeds Up Your Site?

There’s no shortage of advice on how to make WordPress faster, but not all of it is accurate. Some so-called “best practices” are outdated, while others are just plain wrong. In this post, we’ll debunk common WordPress performance myths and highlight what actually improves your site’s speed.

Myth #1: “You Need to Use as Few Plugins as Possible”

Reality:

The number of plugins doesn’t matter as much as their quality.

The idea that fewer plugins automatically mean a faster site is misleading. What matters more is how well-coded and efficient your plugins are. A site with 50 lightweight, well-optimised plugins can run faster than a site with 10 bloated or poorly-coded ones.

What Actually Works:

• Audit your plugins and remove those that are redundant or poorly maintained.
• Use performance-friendly plugins that avoid excessive database queries or front-end bloat.
• Avoid plugins that duplicate functionality—e.g., don’t install three different caching plugins.

Myth #2: “A CDN is Only Necessary for Large Websites”

Reality:

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) benefits almost any website by speeding up load times globally.

Even if your traffic is relatively low, a CDN can distribute your static files (images, CSS, JavaScript) to multiple locations worldwide, reducing load times for visitors far from your server.

What Actually Works:

• Enable a CDN for basic performance and security benefits.
• If you have high-resolution images or lots of media, consider a premium CDN service.
• Use a CDN that integrates well with your caching solution to avoid conflicts.

Myth #3: “More Caching Plugins = Faster Site”

Reality:

Layering multiple caching plugins can actually slow things down.

Some users think that combining multiple caching plugins will make their site lightning-fast. In reality, caching plugins often overlap in functionality and can conflict with each other, leading to slower performance or even broken pages.

What Actually Works:

• Use one well-optimised caching solution that matches your hosting setup.
• If your host provides built-in caching (e.g., server-side object caching), you may not need an extra plugin.
• Regularly test your caching setup with tools like GTmetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights.

Myth #4: “Optimising Images is Optional”

Reality:

Large, unoptimised images are one of the biggest causes of slow WordPress sites.

Uploading full-resolution images straight from your camera or design software can significantly slow down your pages. Even on high-speed connections, excessive image sizes add unnecessary load time.

What Actually Works:

• Use image compression tools like TinyPNG, Imagify, or Smush.
• Serve images in next-gen formats like WebP for better compression without loss of quality.
• Implement lazy loading to defer image loading until they’re needed.

How We Handle Performance at The DMA

At The DMA, we take WordPress performance seriously. Here’s how we ensure our clients’ websites run at peak efficiency:

• We use a CDN as part of our network stack, ensuring that content is delivered quickly to users worldwide.
• We only use high-quality WordPress plugins, carefully selecting and testing each one to avoid unnecessary bloat and maintain top performance.
• We optimise caching strategies to suit each website’s specific needs, avoiding conflicts and ensuring smooth operation.
• We use full-page edge-of-network caching to maximise performance and reduce load on the origin server.
• We leverage advanced image compression tools to optimise media assets, including automatic WebP conversion and lossless compression.

By focusing on these core elements, we build and maintain WordPress sites that are not just fast, but also scalable and reliable.

Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash