An Amateur SEO Taking Site Speed From 37 to 88 (What I Learned)

[TheDoctor55]

On the journey of trying to figure out why Google hates my website (local service business ranking #1 in map pack but 47 in SERPs), I found out that site speed is an important factor. Obvious to most, I know, but not to me at the time.

So I went into Lighthouse and was horrified when I found out my site (Wordpress running Avada theme) scored a 37.

Maybe that's why, I thought?
Maybe it'll be simple to fix, I thought...

So I dove into how to fix site speed through places like this forum, youtube, and other blogs, and I ended up doing the following right away:

1. Removing some plugins
2. Removing an api google map call (I think that's how you say it?) for a map displayed on the bottom of my pages
3. Installing WP-Optimize for minification and caching
4. Removing local changes to above the fold content rather than using the global CSS
5. Shrinking some of the big photos on the site
6. Eventually realizing that Avada was loading features I wasn't using on the site, and then turning as much of those as I could off

So I loaded up Lighthouse, fingers crossed, only to end up with a meager score of 50.

I was underwhelmed, especially since my top local competitors with awful sites were sitting at 70+.

Fast forward months, I was looking at the source code of the organic number 1 competitor of mine and noticed a little Avada hidden in a line of code -- I don't code.

How did my number 1 competitor use the same Wordpress theme as me, and yet manage to score an 80 in lighthouse? Their code was so much cleaner than mine. Maybe they hired a dev that I wouldn't be able to afford. I dont know, I thought.

Then I saw wpRocket somewhere in their code.

I remembered hearing something on Authority Hacker about wp-rocket. Why not check it out.

I go to their site, but there's no indication on how much it would make my site faster. And I'm tired, it's the end of the day, I don't want to go buy something just to cancel it and be back at the same place I started. So I google about wp-Rocket, and end up clicking a link about wp-Rocket compared to NitroPack.

End up on NitroPack's website to find a link to input my site and see how much it would help. Took a minute to load, and then it spat out an 85.

I immediately gave them my credit card info and ran it through Lighthouse again -- giving me an 88.

Note: I searched this forum for mentions of NitroPack and didn't really find anything that shared how helpful it was. So here's my experience with it incase any of you are struggling with Site Speed and aren't experts out there.

Turns out Google still doesn't like my site, so onto the next question mark of a thing to fix! Thanks.

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[arrowphoto1338912]

Is this a cleverly crafted post for promoting Nitropack?

 

[BakerStreet]

I'm just going to plug this guy here since he's awesome https://www.s-sols.com/products/wordpress/accelerator

It's some dude in Latvia who made a WP plugin that will turn JS and CSS into 1 file, lazy load photos, etc for $200/year. If you need help setting it up, just email him and he'll set it up for you.

Buying his plugin is cheaper than going w/ a dev on UpWork... and you get to pass CWV. He knows his shit. No need to tinker around with stuff too since he automated all of it.

That and host on Rocket.net and you will pass CWV. $30/month for a WP site on WP.net.

do those things and you'll be done. Then go to next task.

 

[TheDoctor55]

No, it's not a sponsored post for nitropack or anything. It's the only thing I have come across that felt could contribute value to this forum which has helped me quite a bit.

After doing a bit more research though, I've seen that potentially some plugins just know how to optimize for getting good lighthouse scores but don't really do as much as it seems. I'm not skilled enough to know, but my site has seen some minor boost over the past couple of weeks.

 

[MrX]

A bit late to this thread but I'd recommend litespeed cache. It's free and can connect with a CDN that has a free tier that is sufficient for most website owners. Many web hosting providers have their own litespeed cache servers already as a service to you without additional costs, so check your cpanel. I strongly advise watching some tutorials on YouTube for how to configure it for maximum optimizations.