How to speed up WordPress: the only checklist you need

The hierarchy of speed wins

Most WordPress speed guides list 30 tweaks in random order. Ninety percent of your speed comes from three things: a fast host, page caching, and a CDN. Get those right before touching anything else.

Everything else — image optimization, code minification, lazy loading — is real but marginal. Don't skip it, but don't expect it to rescue a slow host.

The three big levers

Hosting: LiteSpeed-based shared hosting or managed WordPress on a modern stack will outperform $3/mo Apache hosting by 3-5x. This is the biggest single decision.

Caching: install WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache (free), or W3 Total Cache. Enable page caching, browser caching, and GZIP. This alone often cuts TTFB by 70%.

CDN: Cloudflare's free tier is enough for most sites. It serves your assets from edge locations close to each visitor and absorbs traffic spikes.

The marginal wins (still do them)

Convert images to WebP or AVIF — most caching plugins handle this automatically. Lazy-load below-the-fold images. Defer non-critical JavaScript.

Audit plugins: deactivate anything you don't use, and check plugin overhead with Query Monitor. Page builders are often the single heaviest thing on a WordPress site.