Performance optimization Practical
What happens as your database quietly grows
A database grows far faster than your content does — and most of what accumulates is by-product, not the writing you actually did.
Technote
Performance optimization
Caching, Redis, Core Web Vitals, image optimisation and query tuning — everything that makes WordPress fast, grounded in measurements rather than folklore.
35 articles· Performance optimization
Performance optimization Practical
What you miss by only checking on a desktop
You build on a large screen; your visitors arrive on small ones. The problems that gap creates are quiet ones — they cost you visitors without ever looking…
Performance optimization Practical
How to stop sending desktop images to phones
srcset gives the browser candidates; sizes tells it which one to pick. Get one right and the other still ruins the outcome.
Performance optimization Practical
Self-hosting webfonts: what you gain by dropping the CDN
The biggest advantage of a public font CDN — a cache already warmed by another site — disappeared when browsers partitioned their caches. What remains is a question…
Performance optimization Practical
Where the least money buys the most speed
Images are usually the heaviest part of a page, and shrinking them costs almost nothing if you do it in order. The CDN belongs at the end, not…
Performance optimization Practical
The image sizes WordPress creates for you
One upload produces several files. Any of them never used on screen clutters both your disk and your srcset at the same time.
Performance optimization Practical
Minimum preparation for a sudden rush of traffic
Opportunity arrives unannounced. A few things done in advance are what stand between a crowd and a blank error page.
Performance optimization Intro
Deciding your maximum upload size before you upload
Upload a camera original and the page still looks fine, which is why the problem surfaces late. Knowing what WordPress does behind the scenes gives you a rule.
Performance optimization Intro
What caching actually does, layer by layer
Caching is not one switch. It is several layers with different jobs, and stacking them blindly is how you end up with a page that refuses to update.
Performance optimization Intro
The right format makes images lighter without losing quality
Photographs and flat graphics compress on completely different principles. Choose accordingly and the file shrinks while the picture on screen does not change.
Performance optimization Intro
Three things to check the first time your site slows down
A slowdown feels sudden, but the list of causes is short. Before you pay for a bigger server, there are three things to check in order.