Your website’s page speed is of the utmost importance.

If your site doesn’t load fast enough, your potential customers and conversions are at risk. With our instant gratification culture of today, any page on your web site that takes more that 2 seconds to load fully will be abandoned immediately.

There can be a myriad of reasons that your site doesn’t load quickly. From not optimizing your images before uploading them, to improper server settings, your page load time can slow to a crawl. But, you’re in luck.

Below is a short list of my favorite resources for testing and addressing site page speed.

Free PageSpeed Test Tools:

GTMetrix.com

Pingdom.com

WebPageTest.org

Google Page Speed

Each of the page speed testing sites above will give you vital information on speeding up your website for optimal results. I use each of the urls above just a bit differently. GTMetrix is my favorite of the four. On your results page, they give you a breakdown of what’s causing your issues and give you guided hints on how to address and correct your page’s speed issues.

One of the biggest, and most common, page speed issues is Leverage Browser Caching (generally means that you can specify how long web browsers should keep images, CSS and JS stored locally).

Here is how to address Leverage Browser Caching on your site.  Add the following code to your .htaccess or httpd.conf file, dependent on your server type:

## EXPIRES CACHING ##
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/png "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/css "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access 1 year"
ExpiresDefault "access 2 days"
## EXPIRES CACHING ##


Setting your leverage browser caching is one of several ways to improve your site’s page speed. A fast website will undoubtedly improve your visitor’s overall experience and catch those potential sales or conversions.

47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less. (1)

PageSpeed Solution for WordPress Installations

I’ve also found this little gem for your WordPress blog or site. Speed Booster Pack WordPress Plugin address many, if not all, of your page speed issues for your WordPress installation.

Download the plugin for your WordPress site here.

Test, test, test and test some more to get your money making website to reach its fullest potential and as fast as possible. A slow site will kill your conversions and lose you potential sales and leads. Take the time to address every issue you possibly can related to page speed and show your website and visitors some love.

I often come across sites that need SSL but require the path to be force with NON-www.

Below is a handy snipped of code to place in your root folder in the .htaccess file. You can simply copy this code and paste it in to force all incoming urls to drop www and only use non-www urls, e.g.: https://sitename.com.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)(.+) [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www\.)?(.+)
RewriteRule ^ https://%2%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

I’ve been doing quite a few WordPress sites for clients lately and I use a lot of premium templates from templateforest.net. These templates are great but you can run into php errors with them from time to time dependent on your server’s settings for php. Sooner or later you’re going to run into some kinds of php error and that brings your site to a screeching halt. The most recent error that I encountered was this:

1.Maximum Execution Time (max_execution_time) : 30

I ran into several solutions, or so I thought, to correct this error. Again, dependent on your server’s php settings and where you host your site, this can turn into a giant headache in a hurry. I’m going to give you two methods that work and the one method that worked for me. It saved me so much time and got my project back on track with the client.

Method 1: Editing the .htaccess file

Using your favorite FTP clinet (mine’s Filezilla), edit your .htaccess file that’s located in your site’s root folder, where all of your main WordPress files reside as well.

Right click on the file (in Filezilla) and choose View/Edit and edit the .htaccess file in your text editor of choice. I prefer Notepad++.

At the end of the .htaccess file, paste this snippet of code.

1.php_value max_execution_time 300

This code sets the value for maximum execution time to 30 seconds. Some WordPress templates may require 60 seconds or more, if so, simply change the value to 600 or more dependent on your template’s needs.

Method 2: Editing the wp-config.php file (method that worked for me)

Again, using Filezilla (FTP) to connect to your server, in the root folder of your site, edit the wp-config.php file.

Scroll to the bottom of the file and above the commented out code that reads:

1.“/* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */”

Paste this snippet of code:

1.set_time_limit(60);

I hope that one of the above methods works for you, the wp-config.php file edit method is what worked for me. Happy coding.