8 Tips to Fix a Slow Loading WooCommerce Website Speed

Do you want to know how to optimize a slow loading WooCommewrce website? 

If yes, then you have arrived at the right destination where you will come to know about various tips that can help you in optimizing your WooCommerce website performance. 

If you are looking to know how to set up an eCommerce website using WooCommerce then check our blog on  How To Set Up A Fully Functioning WooCommerce Store Using WordPress? 

Today, most of the WooCommerce store owners have one common question on “ How to optimize my WooCommerce website speed? “. If you are among one of them then read this article carefully to improve your WooCommerce site and product page speed. With the increase in the WooCommerce website, many store owners have started to face one common problem related to website speed.

Yes, WooCommerce is a secured e-commerce platform and due to its cost-effective feature, it is preferred more ahead of Magento and Shopify. But the speed of the website is in the hand of the user handling the back end of the website. There are many factors that make an eCommerce website slow. 

Therefore in this article, we will be discussing tips that can help you in optimizing your WooCommerce website speed.  

Tips to fix a slow loading WooCommerce website

1. Website Speed Testing 

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If your WooCommerce website is loading slow and you don’t have any clue on how to optimize your speed, then firstly we recommend testing your website speed. Getting the benchmark of the site performance can help you in finding the optimized solution for your WooCommerce store.  

There are many website speed test tools available like Google PageSpeed, Gtmetrix, Pingdom and many more that can help you in getting your eCommerce website load time. According to the latest report, more than 65% of users abandon the eCommerce website that takes more than 6 seconds to load. 

Things to consider while testing your WooCommerce website speed:-

  • If you are testing your website speed then make sure you are including the primary web address (https://www.xyz.com) of your website. Most of the time people make mistakes by ignoring (www) before their domain name. This type of mistake can add an extra 1-2 second delay to the result page. 
  • If you are testing your website for other countries (outside the hosted country)  then remember that a website will load 0.5-1 second slower. For example, if your website is posted in the US and your customers are trying to access the website from London then the website load time will slightly vary. 
  • Your web page size also plays an important role in defining your load time. You can find your web page size while testing your eCommerce website speed. The web page size may differ for a standard website and an eCommerce website. However, it is important to know that a page size with more than 1.5 MB will load slower compared to a web page size in KBs. 
  • In the test result page, you may find a section called request. Generally, a fast loading website request may vary between 50-100. If you website is exceeding 150 requests then your website may load slower on the mobile devices. So, always remember that less is better” if your website request is between 50-100 then your website will load factor on both desktops and mobile devices.  

2. Website Hosting Provider

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Your WooCommerce hosting provider plays a crucial role in fixing your slow eCommerce website. A website speed test will help you in determining your WooCommerce load time where web hosts will help you in resolving the speed-related issue. 

There are many hosting providers offering various services and features to the eCommerce website. But with the increase in their number, many store owners get confused in selecting the right hosting for their website.

If you are among them then check our blog on  5 Best WooCommerce Hosting Provider For Your Online Store in 2020

In the beginning, many WooCommerce store owners preferred to use shared and cheaper hosting for their website. Even our experts also recommend using shared hosting for an early-stage eCommerce website owner. But when you observe a surge in your website traffic then we recommend shifting your hoisting to the more optimized and dedicated server. 

Because handling website traffic totally depends on your hosts. If you are on shared hosting and your website is getting a lot of traffic then your website may crash. To avoid that, you can upgrade your hosting plan or shift to a dedicated host that can handle your eCommerce website traffic. 

Always remember selecting the right hosting provider will not only improve your site performance, but it will also help you in optimizing overall effectiveness for your website. Selecting the right host can improve your SEO ranking, PPC ads, and conversion rate. 

If you are confused in selecting the right host for your WooCommerce store then  check our article on 10 Features To Expect From An E-commerce Website Hosting Provider

A WooCommerce website is different from the standard website. In the standard website, you have to manage and optimize speed for the frontend. But when it comes to WooCommerce website both frontend and backend speed plays an essential role in optimizing website performance. 

Different Hosting provider for WooCommerce:-

There are various hosting providers available that providers both shared as well as dedicated hosting. If you are selecting hosting for your eCommerce site then try to select a host specifically for WooCommerce. Selecting a WooCommerce specific hosting provider will help you in improving your site performance and outperforming your competitors. Here are the 5 top-performing WooCommerce specific hosting provider: 

3. Optimizing Images 

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When you test your website speed you may find an option called Page size. Images play an important role in determining the size of the page. Yes, there are other graphical videos and contents available on the web page that determines its size. But when we talk about the eCommerce website then the image can play a major role in deciding the speed of your WooCommerce store. 

In an eCommerce website images help the user to understand more details about the product and it also helps store owners in converting site visitors into paying customers. So it is a must for a WooCommerce store owner to include images. 

But uploading large images can reduce your website speed. To overcome this situation we recommend you compress your image before uploading it on your eCommerce site. Compressing images can reduce your website load time by 1 or 2 seconds depending on the number of images in your eCommerce website. 

We are not recommending you to use low-quality images for your e-commerce website. Compressed image reduces the size but the quality remains the same. There are many online tools like toolur, optimizilla, compress JPEG and many more that can help you to compress your image size. 

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Another way to compress an image in WordPress is by downloading the image compressing plugins like WP Smush, reSmush.it, EWWW Image Optimizer, etc. Adding the plugin will allow your website to automatically compress all the images. If you allow other sellers to upload their products and sell it on your platform then you should have an image compress plugin on your website.  

Things to know before downloading an Image Compress & optimization plugin:  

  • Your eCommerce will contain tons of images so before installing any plugins check their image optimization timing. Compared to other plugins reSmush.it and Shortpixel can optimize bulk images with a short period of time.
  • Another feature you should look into an image optimization plugin is whether it converts the PNG file into the JPG file.  Most of the eCommerce website has images in the PNG format. And if your images are not using transparency then it is not recommended to use PNG format for product image. Plugins like Shortpixel automatically detects the images not using transparency but using the PNG format and converts them into JPG File. 

4. Picking the Right Theme sfwpexperts.com-woocommerce-wordpress-themes

Selecting the right theme can boost your website speed whereas a theme with a lot of codes can reduce your WooCommerce website speed.  That’s why top eCommerce website building companies recommend choosing the theme carefully by verifying every feature provided by them.

Most eCommerce website owners think that selecting e-commerce themes is a simple task. But the reality is selecting the right theme is not as simple as people think. Website Owners using WooCommerce for the first time then you need to ensure that the theme meets your store requirement, it is well coded and meets WordPress standards. If your theme fails to meet WordPress standards then it can make your WooCommerce website slow. 

Go to the WordPress dashboard and click on appearance then you can view various eCommerce there available in the dashboard. Before downloading any theme you can preview it and check whether it is meeting your store requirement or not. 

If you are confused between selecting the right theme for your eCommerce store then we suggest you go with the StoreFront theme recommended by WooCommerce. It is a lightweight theme with all the basic requirements that can help you in running your eCommerce website. 

There are other themes available that can be downloaded from a third-party website and integrated into your WordPress dashboard. So, go through every aspect and features of the theme to ensure that your WooCommerce website performs well on every device. 

5. Selecting the Right Plugin

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After picking the right theme, the next thing you need to look into is selecting the proper plugin for your eCommerce website. Adding too many plugins can slow your WooCommerce website and there are chase that integrating plugins with heavy code can alow slows your website loading speed.

Now the question is how to overcome this problem? 

To identify whether your plugins are effecting your website speed you can deactivate all plugins and start reactivation one by one. Yes, it is a bit lengthy process but it will help you in identifying which plugging in effecting your website speed. we have listed some important plugin that will enhance your WooCommercec website working check our blog on 20 best WooCommerce Plugins Every Store Owner Should Use In 2020

There are times when an important plugin becomes the reason behind the slow website loading speed. That’s why it is recommended to follow the above step to identify the plugin defect. 

Another way is to download a plugin called Health check that will help you to identify the bad plugin troubling your WooCommerce website speed. it is recommended to use plugins between 10-15.

6. Download & Activate Caching Plugin 

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Installing the right cache plugin in WooCommerce can help you in optimizing your eCommerce website speed. Now you may wonder how caching plugins can improve your speed?  and what are the best caching plugins available for WooCommerce?

Generally a cache plugin stores the data and pre-build the web pages to ensure that the website loads faster when a user requests for it. The main reason behind installing cache plugins is it stores the webpage data so when a user returns to your website then it delivers the stored webpage instead of building the webpage from the scratch.

If you test the speed of the top eCommerce website then you may find that the website loading speed exceeds 6 seconds. But when a user accesses the website the home page loads faster it’s because of the cache. 

A cache plugin builds the website in advance to ensure that the website is displayed faster when a user makes a request. A properly configure cache plugin can reduce the CPU requirement of all the devices which can significantly improve your website speed. 

There are many popular cache plugin available in WordPress like Wp Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, Sucuri Firewall, Built-in Cache Plugin and many more. Compared to other plugins  W3 Total Cache is one of the most popular cache plugins with more than 1 million downloads. 

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Setting up W3 Total Cache plugin is a bit complicated as it requires the programmer to set up the plugin.  however, if you succeed in setting up the plugin then it can give you more optimized results by improving your site performance. 

If you want to stay out of those complicated programming set up then you can use WP Rocket. It is another popular plugin that provides a user-friendly interface and it is as effecting as W# Total Cache. There are other cache plugins available so you can check their review and download them depending on your requirements.  

Things to remember while setting up your cache plugin:-

  • Make sure that you exclude the checkout page, my account page, add to the cart page, wishlist page and other pages that fall under same category. Because if you are showing the cached version of these pages then your user may face difficulties in checkout and shopping cart page.  If your customers are viewing cached version of the checkout page then it becomes difficult for them to add products and pay for the purchase. 
  • If your website starts loading faster after downloading the cache plugin but you are finding it hard to access the backend (slows loading) then you can contact your host. Because this type of issue occurs when there is an issue with the host performance and plugin conflict. 
  • If you make any changes to your website then there are chances that your website may show the cached version of the page. So make sure that you run the test on another browser to ensure that the change is properly made. 

7. Choosing the proper Content Delivery Network (CDN) 

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Integrating Content delivery network is one of the easiest and the best way to improve your eCommerce website performance. A proper CDN can improve your website loading speed not only in the hosted region but across the world. That means your website will load faster for customer’s access from other countries. 

If you are operating your eCommerce website in multiple countries then you should know that your website loads slower in other countries. For example, if you are operating your store in the US and someone from India is trying to access your website then without CDN your website may load slower. 

That’s why it is important to integrate CDN.  A content delivery network bridges the geographical gap between your eCommerce website and visitors. CDN not only improves your site performance but it helps you to prevent website crash when your website faces a surge in traffic. Integrating the right CDN can help you in distributing the bandwidth across multiple servers that makes it easy for the server to handle the traffic. 

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Generally, a content delivery network is a server located all across the world that stores static files like images, JavaScript code, CSS, etc of your WooCommerce website. Remember the closer your customers are to the server your website ill load faster ion the browser.  

There are many popular CDN providers like StrackPath, Sucuri, Cloudflare, KeyCDN, Rackspace and much more available in the market that can be integrated into your eCommerce website. You can select your CDN provider depending on their server location worldwide. 

For example, Cloudflare has more than 100 servers located worldwide and they offer reliable security features to protect an e-commerce website form threats. And it automatically eliminates risky traffic and spammer accessing your site. 

8. Resolving Database related  issue 

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For an eCommerce website, the size of the database plays a crucial role in deciding the website’s performance. In the initial stage, your website may have fewer visitors and orders that means fewer database requirements. 

However, if your website starts getting an abundance of traffic and orders.  Then your database will start storing more information related to your WooCommerce store like orders, visitor information, product details and many more. If your database is not optimized to handle that information then your database may face various issues that can affect your WooCommerce website performance and speed. 

All the information on an eCommerce website i.e from order details to product info everything is stored in the database. If you don’t increase the size of the database with the increase in orders and traffic then your website loading time could be slow.  

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If you want to boost your website speed then clean your database by removing unwanted details and information. There are plugins available lime Wp sweep, WP-Optimize that can help you in optimizing your database. 

If you want to go with the manual process then you can visit your website cPannel and clean your database. And always remember to create the backup file before cleaning your database. 

Frequently Asked Question

1. How to optimize my WooCommerce website speed? 

With the increase in the WooCommerce website, many store owners have started to face one common problem related to website speed. If you want to optimize your WooCommerce website speed then  we recommend you to go through the following step mention below

  • Website Speed Testing
  • Website Hosting Provider
  • Optimizing Images 
  • Picking the right theme
  • Selecting the right plugin
  • Download & Activate Caching Plugin 
  • Choosing the proper Content Delivery Network (CDN) 
  • Resolving Database related  issue 

2. What is the best hosting provider for the WooCommerce website? 

There are many hosting providers offering various features and services to users. But if you are seeking for a hosting provider for WooCommerce store. then we recommend you to select the host that is specialed in providing hosting service specifically for WooCommerce website. Here are the 5 top-performing WooCommerce specific hosting provider: 

3. How do I clean a MySQL database? 

  1. Go to the Cpanel 
  2. Navigate to the database section
  3. Click mon PHPMyAdmin section
  4. In the left sidebar, you can find various database 
  5. Click on the database you want to empty 
  6. Select all the tables and in the dropdown menu select Drop 

4. What is Content delivery network? 

Generally, a content delivery network is a server located all across the world that stores static files like images, JavaScript code, CSS, etc of your WooCommerce website. Remember the closer your customers are to the server your website ill load faster ion the browser.

5. Why is CDN Important? 

A content delivery network bridges the geographical gap between your eCommerce website and visitors. CDN not only improves your site performance, but it also helps you to prevent website crashes when your website faces a surge in traffic. Integrating the right CDN can help in distributing the bandwidth across multiple servers to make it easy for the server to handle the traffic. 

6. How do I compress a high-resolution image in WooCommerce? 

There are many online tools like toolur, optimizilla, compress JPEG and many more that can help you to compress your image size. Another way to compress an image in WordPress is by downloading the image compressing plugins like reSmush.it, reSmush.it, EWWW Image Optimizer, etc. Adding the plugin will allow your website to automatically compress all the images.