10 Best Ways to Optimize WordPress

WordPress is a great tool, but its also a massive resource hog. I’ve used it for a while and decided that I’d put together my list of what I’ve done to speed it up and decrease resources, particularly RAM and CPU usage.

Check out the speed of your site first. This will give you a benchmark of what you have changed. If you have your own server then keep an eye on CPU and RAM usage. And to figure out what you need to konw about how good or bad your site is use YSlow from Yahoo for Firefox.

1. Use Amazon S3 to host all of your javascript, CSS, images and other multimedia. Offloading this to Amazon costs pennies and will substantially speed up your site, especially if you are hosting on goDaddy or some other shared server. I’ve been using an awesome Amazon S3 WordPress plugin and the S3 file organizer for Firefox to move files.

2. If you aren’t using Super Cache then install it now. That is the easiest way to save resources. Right now I’m testing W3 Total Cache. I’ve read lots of good things.

3. Permalinks can be a killer. My recommendation is to use this as your permalinks:
/%post_id%/%postname%.html

Why? Well the post id allows WordPress to quickly find the post within the database by id number. As your site grows wordpress has to search your database for matching post by name not a number like post id. Searching by name is not optimal.

4. Minimize the number of HTTP requests by merging all your JavaScript and all CSS files in one big file which really helps in lowering the HTTP request numbers. I had used WP-Minify, however that has caused me major log errors so try it at your own risk but there are other products like PHPspeedy (note I have not used this a lot but there are a lot of people endorsing it–do your research).

5. Optimize your database. And you can do that by using a tool like WP-DBManager. If you know how to get into PHPMyAdmin then go in and delete any tables that are left over from old plug-ins.

6. Remove site revisions. First you have to turn it off and second you have to clear them out of your database. You can turn off revisions by putting this into your wp-config file:
define(‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, false);

Delete revisions in your database at your own risk!

7. Compress the content using apache .htaccess
If you have our own server you can chose to gzip all content sent to browsers. This will lower the loading time significantly as most html pages compress very well.

Add this code to your .htaccess

# MOD_DEFLATE COMPRESSION
SetOutputFilter DEFLATE

8. You will want to define the expiration of headers. This tells the browser how long it should keep the content in cache. Most of the images on your site never change and it is good idea to keep them cached locally.
Put this into your .htaccess:
# 1-WEEK EXPIRES HEADER
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault A0
ExpiresDefault A604800
Header append Cache-Control “public”

9. Another .htaccess trick is to add this:
# KILL THEM ETAGS
FileETag none

This describes how ETags work.

10. One of the biggest problems with buying themes are the dozens of dynamic PHP and http calls. The fastest way to speed up WordPress is to replace the PHP queries with static HTML, every time a page loads, your browser just reads the HTML.
With PHP requests:
Without PHP requests:

You can remove 11 queries to the database by doing the following in your header.php and footer.php files:
- making your stylesheet URL’s static
- making your pingback URL static
- making your feed URLs static
- removing the blog’s WordPress version
- making your blog’s name and tagline / description static
for more examples go here for WordPress optimizing.

This isn’t a perfect list, but its some of the lowest hanging fruit.

New Media books suck

I hate reading all the new media books that get released. Books about AdWords, SEO, Analytics, online marketing, social media and the list goes on. Why? Because 200 of the 250 pages are garbage. I’d rather have 50 pages of how-to and be able to get right to work than reading and reading and getting nothing except those 50 key pages. Often time its hard to even know when you are reading fluff and when you are reading the good stuff. Recently I took a great Analytics book (Analytics 2.0) and got it down to 11 pages. The differences is that this book had a lot of great insight. So my estimate was that 50-60 pages were necessary. So of the 11 pages 4 or 6 of them could help explain those 11 action pages. By 11 pages I mean they were a simple checklist of things to do. So its really a list of a hundred things to do–not just 11 pages filled with a few paragraphs a piece.

One of the best books I’ve read in a long time was not from a publisher. It’s from an online software company, Wordtracker. They released a pay per click book and it was nothing but tutorials and screenshots from beginning to end. A beginner could take that book and do a pretty good job at getting started and learning. This ebook could pay for itself in a week. It’s ironic that a non-publishing company outperformed a publishing company, but not surprising.

Is subcontracting the new economic model?

Everyone knows the web has created a world of endless niches, but that seems to have started to spill over to business. Everywhere I look someone is a consultant. And not just calling themselves consultants, they are busy beyond belief. It used to be you called yourself a consultant when you couldn’t get a full time job and were picking up work here and there. Not anymore. Being a specialist is now a lucrative business.

And it makes a lot of sense. Companies can’t afford to put Online Marketing experts on staff, but they need them. They can’t afford web developers, but they need them. They can’t afford a full time marketing and branding person but they still need the help. Would it be amazing if you could hire a CEO as a consulting CEO who is well-known and respected? Perhaps he signs a year contract and comes into your company 10 hours a month and works out the kinks for a young start-up. The value proposition would be massive and could help them avoid major catastrophes.

Everything can be outsourced to consultants these days. Newspapers use AP, but why not contract out to locals to write stories? Is it impossible to imagine selling a car and creating customers who were so happy that they help sell cars for you? It’s a new world out there, don’t miss your chance to specialize and do what you really love every day.

The Anti-Agency

Are agencies antiquated? I think they are. They want to grow and when they do they can’t do what it took to get where they are now. They must continue to get larger clients and shun the smaller ones because their overhead constantly climbs. Growth equates costs and costs equates higher fees.

I propose the anti-agency. Just like any network of friends or colleagues this agency would have people connected based upon their skill set.
For example:
- Sales – They bring in business and farm it out to a business lead.
- Business lead – They manage processes and clients. This person decides who does what for their clients.
- Designers – They design stuff. Whatever it may be: websites, direct mail, advertising, logos, etc.
- Developers – They make the design stuff cool. They make websites and other online applications.
- Marketing/Advertising – They get the word out there. In any way, shape or form.
- Interactive distribution and analysis – These individuals work on SEO, analytics, social media and other things all in the name of ROI.

None of these working parts rely solely upon the others. Each could find another group to plug them in. So one designer doesn’t always need the same business lead. They may have a network of 10. Same goes for the others. Or they may even occasionally be their own business lead or marketing person.

The days of agencies are numbered. And that will be good news for small business everywhere. It’s time that the small guy gets to compete with the big guy.

SEO isn’t the only means to being found

People tend to do the easiest thing in order to try and get found by Google. And just because Google finds you doesn’t mean it matters. That’s like saying you walk down the road and a beautiful woman sees you doesn’t mean she is giving you her number and giving you a chance to date her. Just because Google knows you exist doesn’t mean they are dating you and putting you at the top of their list.

So how do you not luck your way into a beautiful girl? You work hard for it. You network. You make something happen, you don’t wait for luck. And that is sort of the way getting links to your site works. You have to write great content. Or you have to build relationships with other sites. You have to put in the time and effort–rather than hoping Google will come along and marry you.

Don’t know where to start? SEOMoz has a great guide.

Service? Who gives a crap about service?

Today at the gym I saw a trainer texting while his client was killing themselves on the leg press. If I looked up and my personal trainer was texting during my time I’d fire them. He couldn’t wait until after to return a text? It was embarrassing.

The bad part is that the person was probably too nice to say anything. And that is a problem too. One person accepting that kind of behavior makes him think its okay and then if the next person does the same and the the trainer believe its a proper thing to do. And that is part of the problem at most companies. They start out meaning well and hoping to provide good service, but over time it slips and slips and those who use the service just build a tolerance for decreasing service quality. It happens all the time and it has grown more and more acceptable. But for those who never let their service slide will find themselves on top. Service still counts and if you provide great service then you will win in the end.

Cable television and the big missed opportunity

What year is it again? If you time warped from the year 2000 to your couch could you tell anything changed with cable? Not much has changed chwith the cable industry. They charge more, but they still don’t offer much in the way of progress.

How in the digital age can our remote controls still do so little. All the cable companies have feared the DVR so much that they have castrated it. And in doing so they have hurt the advertising industry even more. How? Well wouldn’t it be cool if we could actually interact with a commercial? Click something for more information? What if before we zipped past all the commercials the DVR stopped for one second and showed an a image of each commercial that you were going to miss. And if you had any interest you could watch one of them. If not you’d just go right to the next part of your television show? And what if at the end of the show the commercial companies made special offers just for you because you gave them a second chance?

The cable companies have hurt their own programming, too. How hard would it be for the cable company to allow me to set up recording for a new show that I saw during a commercial? Your telling me they can’t figure that problem out? I’d probably have a half a dozen more shows set to record if I knew how to find them. The cable company could have made it easy and just let me click an info button during the show and go over and set up recording for the future.

When cable companies go the way of the newspaper they will only have themselves to blame. Sorry Comcast. Sorry Time Warner. Sorry Cox. Sorry you laid all that line and wasted so much time.

You Can’t Find What You Don’t Know You Need

This really sounds like an obvious–and dumb statement. But a lot of companies I come across who are looking to make stake their claim online think that if you build it, they will come. Well they won’t. Not because they think your product sucks, its because they don’t even know your product exists. The web is an ocean and your a grain of sand. It takes promotion and lots of hard work to exist. Not only do you need to be found by people; you need to be found by Google. It can happen with some work, but do your research.

Need a place to start? Here is an amazing resource by SEOMoz.com. Give yourself a weekend and come out an internet marketing brainiac.

Cloning the good and moving beyond the bad

Fast Company had a really good article about finding bright spots and cloning them. Nearly every company has some aspect that is good–perhaps far better than others.

It made me think immediately about agencies that I know and work with. There are agencies that do great things. But some might be lagging in certain areas. Do you hang on to those lagging areas because they bring in incremental dollars or do you go after what you do best? It seems obvious, but its a hard questions for many agencies. And there are many non-agencies that do the same.

How much effort or cost does it take to keep hoping a small part of your business will take off? How much of a distraction is it? There are endless questions, but they are all necessary. It’s hard to take a look at your own company and make a tough decision, however the payoff could be much larger in the end.

The New Time of Caring

I’ve come across a new–new to me anyway–phenomenon–the new time of caring. Weird title I know. And surely the phenomenon isn’t new–but it just started to happen to me over and over again and finally it started to become an interesting reality.

So what is the new time of caring?

It’s when you tell someone they need something–like a new web design–and it becomes the most important thing in the world to them. On a few occasions a company ask for my opinion on their web site or other interactive needs–and I’ve told them they weren’t very good. Suddenly they can’t present their old website at an upcoming event and they are in a rush to get a website up to save face.

It’s interesting to ponder the many reasons. Did they suspect they had issues already and want feedback? Did they think they were okay and were surprised by the feedback? Certainly there are many variations–but it makes me wonder why anyone would ever let any product suffer that represents their company. Every piece of a company represents itand they should all be held to the same standards.