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How to Speed Up Your WordPress Website and Improve Core Web Vitals

Posted
Updated
ByKartik Periasamy

📄 38 🕑 8 min read Cybergate IT Team
WordPress website speed optimisation Core Web Vitals Google
A slow WordPress website loses rankings, visitors and customers – speed optimisation is a critical SEO task.

Google uses page speed as a ranking factor, and slow websites lose both rankings and customers. Core Web Vitals are the specific speed metrics Google measures. A WordPress website that scores poorly on mobile PageSpeed loses ranking positions to faster competitors, even if the content is better. This guide covers the most effective actions to speed up a WordPress website for Malaysian hosting environments.

Test First

Before making any changes, run your website at pagespeed.web.dev and screenshot the current scores. This gives you a baseline and shows which specific issues need fixing. Make changes one at a time and re-test after each to measure impact.

Step 1: Check Your Current Performance

1

Run PageSpeed Insights

Go to pagespeed.web.dev. Enter your website URL and press Analyse. Test both:

  • Mobile tab – this is the primary score Google uses for ranking
  • Desktop tab – generally scores higher

Core Web Vitals scores show as:

  • Green (Good): LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1
  • Amber (Needs improvement): Borderline scores
  • Red (Poor): Failing – significant impact on rankings and user experience

Scroll down to the Opportunities and Diagnostics sections. These list specific issues with estimated time savings for each fix.

Step 2: Install and Configure Caching

2

Set Up LiteSpeed Cache (LiteSpeed Servers)

If your website is on a LiteSpeed server (check with your host – Shinjiru, Exabytes and many Malaysian shared hosts use LiteSpeed):

In WordPress, go to Plugins > Add New. Search LiteSpeed Cache. Install and activate.

Go to LiteSpeed Cache > Cache. Enable:

  • Enable Cache: On
  • Cache Logged-In Users: Off
  • Browser Cache: On

Go to LiteSpeed Cache > Page Optimization. Enable:

  • CSS Minify: On
  • CSS Combine: On (test carefully – may break some themes)
  • JS Minify: On
  • JS Defer/Delay: On
  • Lazy Load Images: On
3

Configure Cloudflare CDN (Free)

Cloudflare is a free CDN that serves your static files (images, CSS, JS) from servers near your visitors globally, reducing load times for all users.

Sign up at cloudflare.com. Add your domain. Update your domain’s nameservers to Cloudflare’s nameservers at your registrar. This takes 24 to 48 hours to propagate.

In Cloudflare dashboard:

  • Speed > Optimization > Content Optimization: Enable Auto Minify for HTML, CSS and JavaScript
  • Speed > Optimization > Image Optimization: Enable Polish (converts images to WebP automatically)
  • Caching > Configuration: Set Browser Cache TTL to 4 hours minimum

Step 3: Optimise Images

Images Are Usually the Biggest Issue

On most WordPress websites, uncompressed images are the primary cause of slow load times. A single unoptimised hero image can be 3 to 10 MB – this alone fails Core Web Vitals on mobile.

4

Compress Images with Smush or ShortPixel

Install Smush (free, by WPMU Dev) from the plugin directory. After activation, go to Smush > Bulk Smush and run bulk compression on all existing images.

Enable:

  • Automatic compression for new uploads
  • Lazy Load (images below the fold load only when scrolled into view)
  • WebP conversion (Smush Pro required for WebP conversion – alternatively use ShortPixel which includes WebP in free tier)

For new images, size them appropriately before uploading. A full-width website image rarely needs to be more than 1,200px wide and 200KB.

Step 4: Reduce Render-Blocking Resources

5

Defer Non-Critical JavaScript

Render-blocking scripts force the browser to pause page rendering while scripts load and execute. In LiteSpeed Cache or your caching plugin:

  • Enable JS Defer (delays non-critical scripts until the page has loaded)
  • Enable JS Delay for scripts not needed on page load

Be cautious with Combine CSS/JS – this can break pages built with Elementor, Divi or other page builders. Test thoroughly after enabling. If the page breaks, disable combining and use minify only.

Step 5: Optimise Hosting

6

Review Hosting Plan

No amount of plugin optimisation compensates for slow hosting. Malaysian websites should use:

  • Shared hosting (budget): Shinjiru, Exabytes, WebServer Malaysia with LiteSpeed plans. Test your Time to First Byte (TTFB) – should be under 600ms.
  • Cloud VPS: DigitalOcean, Vultr or Linode with LiteSpeed or Nginx. Significantly better performance than shared hosting.
  • Managed WordPress hosting: WP Engine, Kinsta or Cloudways. Best performance but higher cost.

Check your TTFB at web.dev/ttfb. If it is consistently over 1 second, your hosting is the bottleneck and plugins will not fix it.

Target Scores

After optimisation, target: LCP under 2.5 seconds on mobile, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1. For Malaysian hosting environments, an LCP of 2.0 to 2.5 seconds on mobile is realistic. LCP under 1.5 seconds requires premium hosting or aggressive caching and CDN configuration.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Core Web Vitals are three user experience metrics Google uses as ranking signals: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) measures loading speed – how long before the main content appears. Should be under 2.5 seconds. INP (Interaction to Next Paint) measures responsiveness – how quickly the page responds to user interactions. Should be under 200ms. CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) measures visual stability – whether page elements move as the page loads. Should be under 0.1. Google uses these as a ranking tiebreaker – when two pages are equally relevant, the one with better Core Web Vitals ranks higher.

Mobile scores are almost always lower than desktop because mobile devices have slower processors and often slower connections. The most impactful mobile improvements are: resize and compress images specifically for mobile (use responsive images with srcset), defer non-critical JavaScript, reduce CSS blocking render time, eliminate render-blocking resources, use a lightweight theme (avoid heavy page builders where possible), and ensure your server response time is under 600ms. Check the specific opportunities listed in the mobile PageSpeed report and address the highest-impact items first.

It depends on your hosting: If your host uses LiteSpeed web server (common with Malaysian hosts like Shinjiru, Exabytes, WebServer Malaysia on LiteSpeed plans): use LiteSpeed Cache – it is free and the most effective caching solution for LiteSpeed. If your host uses Apache or Nginx: WP Rocket (paid, best overall results) or WP Super Cache (free). If you are on Cloudways: the built-in Breeze cache plugin. Avoid having multiple caching plugins active simultaneously – conflicts cause issues.

Speed has a direct impact on conversions beyond rankings. Google research shows that as page load time increases from 1 to 5 seconds, the probability of bounce increases by 90%. For eCommerce sites, a 1-second delay in mobile page load reduces conversion rates by up to 20%. For Malaysian businesses, where many visitors are on mobile connections, a fast website directly translates to more enquiries, calls and sales. Speed is both an SEO and a business performance issue.

CG
Cybergate IT Team
Managed IT support for Malaysian businesses since 2014. Microsoft Partner · Fortinet Technology Partner. About Us

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