Techniques for achieving an excellent Lighthouse score with WordPress sites
Today, the performance of your website is not optional. It is key to SEO, user experience and conversions. Google Lighthouse is a tool that helps you measure your site's performance, then make improvements where needed. Today we're going to look at some techniques you can use to improve your Lighthouse score for your WordPress site.
Using high-performance hosting
High performance hosting is essential for your WordPress site to load quickly. Choosing the right hosting plan with enough resources can have a significant effect on your site's speed and therefore your Lighthouse score.
Caching the pages
Page caching can increase your site's loading speed by storing a ready version of pages. When a user revisits your site, the cached version of the page loads very quickly, which improves the user experience and increases your Lighthouse score.
Minify JavaScript and CSS
Minifying JavaScript and CSS files is another technique that can improve your site's speed. This includes removing unnecessary characters, spaces, and newlines, which reduces file sizes and speeds up load times.
Image optimization
Large images can significantly slow down page loading. Therefore, it is important to optimize the images on your site by using the correct format and compressing them. This can reduce page load time and improve your Lighthouse score.
Lazy loading of images and videos
The lazy loading technique allows your images and videos to load only when the user arrives at them while scrolling the page. This reduces page load time and can improve your Lighthouse score.
Using a CDN (Content Delivered Network)
A CDN helps improve your site's speed by storing static content in different geographic locations. This means that when a user visits your site, the content is delivered from the closest location, reducing load times.
Slow JavaScript
By allowing JavaScript to load after the main page content has loaded, you can improve page load times and improve the user experience. This is usually achieved using JavaScript delay plugins.
In conclusion, optimizing your WordPress site for speed and performance is essential to achieving a high Lighthouse score. With high-performance hosting, image optimization, JavaScript and CSS minification, use of page caching, lazy loading, and CDN, you can improve your site's speed and improve user experience.