Here is a quick list of tips to optimize your WordPress site. Those are easy to implement by yourself, but you can also get in touch with a web development team as such as tsh.io to help you implement them.
Stay updated
It might sound very obvious, but keeping your WordPress site fully updated is a must when it comes to make sure your site is secure.
Always pay attention when an update is available, not only for WordPress core, but also for all of your plugins and themes. As most security problems occur on outdated WordPress sites, staying up to date is simply the best security tip I could give you.
Make sure your hosting provider is making backups
In case something goes wrong, having frequent backups of your site files and database is vital. Most serious hosting providers (as such as WPEngine, Tsohost, Dreamhost etc) offer daily site backups and can help if something happens to your site.
If your current hosting provider doesn’t offer backups, you can rely on a few WordPress plugins which aim at creating backups of your site that you can restore later. Popular WP backup plugins include BackUpBuddy, BackWPup and BackUpWordPress.
Think mobile first
In 2019, there’s no doubt that most website visits will be done using a smartphone or tablet, rather than a desktop computer. For this reason, you have to make sure your site displays well on smaller devices.
The vast majority of modern WordPress themes are fully compatible with smaller devices. If the theme you are using isn’t, it’s time to change or update.
Make it fast!
Nowadays, the faster the better. Why? First, because as I previously stated, most website visits are done on phones or tablets, often using not-so-fast WiFi connections. As internet users don’t like waiting, a fast-loading website will ensure your visitors aren’t simply going to leave before your site has fully loaded.
And secondly, Google is favoring faster websites when ranking them. Therefore, a faster website equals a better SEO.
To see how fast your website loads on both desktop and mobile devices, check out Google Pagespeed Insights. If your loading speed isn’t good according to Google Pagespeed Insights, you can refer to my site speed optimization guide to fix what needs to be fixed.
Add an extra security layer
WordPress is a very secure platform in itself, and so are most of the available plugins. But that being said, as a website owner you’re simply never too careful.
I definitely recommend using the free WordFence plugin to protect your site against various malicious attacks. Wordfence includes an endpoint firewall and malware scanner that was built to protect WordPress.
Take good care of your SEO
As you already know, SEO plays a big role in how successful your website is. If you haven’t already, I recommend installing a WordPress SEO plugin as such as Yoast SEO or All-in-One SEO Pack.
For a successful SEO in 2019, make sure that your website is fast and optimized for mobile devices, understand how your visitors are searching for it, and most importantly, while your site should be optimized for SEO, it should be built primarily with humans in mind.
Enjoy the new possibilities of WordPress 5.0
WordPress 5.0 “Bebo” was released in December. The most interesting addition to WP brought by this update is definitely the new editor, nicknamed Gutenberg.
The new block-based editor won’t change the way any of your content looks to your visitors. What it will do is let you insert any type of multimedia in a snap of fingers and rearrange it to your liking. Each piece of content will be in its own block.
If you need more information about WordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg, just read this article.