Slow WordPress site killing your vibe? Fix that shit right here
Alright, lemme start by saying that a lot of WordPress sites out there are straight up sluggish as hell.
Some of them though, calling them just “slow” would be an understatement – they’re molasses in January. But listen up, I’ve got a hosting setup that I rock myself, and it’s pretty dope. The price tag ain’t too crazy either, so it’s doable even for businesses trying to get their international hustle on. Plus, if you’re running multiple sites, you can score a sweet deal on the per-site pricing.
This is just a heads up though. If you need the full walkthrough, drop a line in the comments below.
Domain Names
When it comes to scoring a domain, you got options like GoDaddy, Namesilo, Namecheap and others out there. Personally, I tend to go with the latter two more often – I just snag whichever one’s rocking the better deal at the time.
DNS
CloudFlare is an absolute must here. Beyond just domain resolution, their free version lets you block those pesky cyber attacks, restrict access from certain regions (easy way to elegantly block certainIPs from your international biz site), handle redirects and a bunch more cool stuff.
Website Server
Now we’re getting to the good stuff. I’d recommend giving CloudWays hosting a shot – their 1GB memory plan runs about 14 bucks monthly. For a small-to-medium side hustle site, hosting 1-3 websites ain’t no thang.
If traffic picks up though, you can always level up to a beefier config. Just keep in mind CloudWays charges extra for backups, around 0.5 USD per month.
CDN
When you’re rockin’ CloudFlare for your domain name server, if the A record is all set up with that cloud action enabled, you already got that sweet CDN goodness activated.
We’re talkin’ CloudFlare Enterprise here – that premium baller version that’s fully integrated with CloudWays. This bad boy packs a mean punch with features like:
The functions in that red box below? That’s the real meat I wanna sink my teeth into. That basic CDN is all good for caching our static files like images, JS and CSS on the node. But this premium shiz? It caches the entire HTML of our whole dang website. We’re talking those docs getting spread out and cached on over 200 CloudFlare CDN nodes worldwide. That’s how we get this site loading wicked freakin’ fast.
Picture this scenario: The first Aussie visitor hits our site and there’s no cache on that CDN node yet. That first visit has to pull all the data from our server. But then the next Aussie bro comes along? They only gotta grab that data from the cached CDN node nearby. That speed boost is gonna smack you right in the face, no doubt.
In this way, the monthly cost comes out to just $19.49.
Now, if you’ve got two sites, and both are using the enterprise CDN version, you only need to tack on another $4.99 to the above, and the total is $24.48. Split that between the two sites, and you’re looking at $12.24 per site per month. That’s a pretty sweet deal.
But what if all three of your sites are running on the enterprise CDN? Do the math: $19.49 + ($4.99 x 2) = $29.47. Divide that by three, and each site is just $9.8 a month. That’s an absolute steal.
The key here is going with Cloudflare’s enterprise plan. It’s where the real value is at.
Cloudways
I’d recommend giving CloudWays hosting a shot – their 1GB memory plan runs about 14 bucks monthly. For a small-to-medium side hustle site, hosting 1-3 websites ain’t no thang. Now, if you’ve got two sites, and both are using the enterprise CDN version, you only need to tack on another $4.99 to the above, and…
WordPress Page Editor
These days, I’m all about Bricks Builder for my WordPress sites. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll never want to touch Elementor again – that’s a fact.
WordPress Caching Plugin
FlyingPress is hands down the best caching plugin I’ve used. It’s the top solution for optimizing WordPress website speeds.
Of course, if you’re on OLS, I’d recommend using their litespeed cache for wp plugin instead – they integrate seamlessly.