When it comes to site optimization, our theme plays a much smaller part than you might imagine. Solarta is optimized so that it’s fast on its own, but ultimately, content will primarily dictate how fast your site will perform. Images play a huge factor in speed results, as well as hosting, server, extra plugins, content, and more.
Speed Score
Optimization plugins play a crucial role in the speed score. Here is an example of what score can be achieved for mobile in Google’s Page Speed Insights. Below you can find a list of plugins that were used and screenshots with the settings.
Caching / Minification Plugins
We recommend using these caching plugins. However, depending on your server configuration they can work differently.
Autoptimize settings
For some reason, Autoptimize CSS minification and image lazy-loading gives a better score than WP Rocket
WP Rocket settings
Most of the settings are applied automatically once you activate the plugin. We only enable Minify JavaScript files, Load JavaScript deferred, and Delay JavaScript execution here.
Images
First and simple rule: Don’t upload larger images than what is needed. We recommend 1920 x 1080 as a maximum resolution for your images. Crop your images and optimize them with tools such as Optimizilla. It can reduce image size up to 90%.
If you need a more comprehensive guide about image optimization, please refer to this article: The Ultimate Guide to Image Optimization for WordPress
Hosting
If your site is hosted on shared hosting, consider upgrading to a better hosting plan or getting a VPN. Some shared hosting services can be overcrowded and have a direct effect on speed. Hosting can play a very big role in your site speed. On our demos we’re using Cloudways, which has good speed performance and starts from $10 a month.
Gzip Compression
It can dramatically reduce file sizes ( up to 80% ) of static files like HTML, CSS and javascript during delivery. If your web host isn’t doing this already, please contact them and setup gzip compression. Plugins like W3 Total cache and WP Super Cache have options for enabling gzip compression.