A slow WordPress site hurts user experience, conversions and search visibility. After years of building and tuning WordPress and WooCommerce sites, these are the five fixes I reach for first, in order of impact.

1. Fix the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) element

On most pages the LCP element is a hero image. Serve it in a modern format (WebP or AVIF), size it correctly for the viewport, and never lazy-load it. Add fetchpriority="high" so the browser fetches it early.

<img src="hero.webp" width="1200" height="600" fetchpriority="high" alt="Hero image">

2. Audit plugins before adding caching

Caching masks a heavy site, it does not fix it. Deactivate plugins one by one and measure. Replace multi-purpose plugins that load scripts on every page with lighter alternatives, or load their assets only where needed.

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', function () { if ( ! is_page( 'contact' ) ) { wp_dequeue_script( 'contact-form-7' ); wp_dequeue_style( 'contact-form-7' ); } }, 100 );

3. Reduce layout shift (CLS)

Always set width and height on images and embeds, and reserve space for ads, banners and cookie notices. Preload key web fonts and use font-display: swap to avoid text jumping.

4. Defer non-critical JavaScript

Third-party scripts such as chat widgets, analytics and trackers often block rendering. Load them with defer or after user interaction, and remove any you no longer use.

5. Use proper caching and a CDN

Page caching, object caching (Redis or Memcached) and a CDN cut server response time (TTFB) dramatically, especially for WooCommerce stores where uncached pages are expensive. Exclude cart, checkout and account pages from page caching.

Measure, then fix

Test with PageSpeed Insights and the Chrome DevTools Performance panel, and check field data in Search Console. Fix the biggest bottleneck first, re-measure, and repeat.

What is the biggest performance problem you have run into on a WordPress site? Share it in the comments.

Want the long version? I keep a full WordPress speed checklist on my site — more of my work is at jaymalhotra.in.