Newbie Worried about Page Speed

[StormGirl]

Hi, I am just starting with my blog, and I would like to do things right from the beginning. So my question is: How can I improve my page speed?

I only have a few articles published, but in PageSpeed Insight I'm getting numbers between 65 and 84 for mobile (green results for PC).

I'm using Astra theme, ShortPixel for images (but I'm not sure if it's configured right because PSI says I should "preload Largest Contentful Paint image"), and these plugins installed:

Antispam Bee
Grow Social
LiteSpeed Cache
Loginizer
Rank Math SEO
ShortPixel Adaptive Images
ShortPixel Image Optimizer
SimpleTOC - Table of Contents Block
UpdraftPlus - Backup/Restore
Wordfence Security
WP Recipe Maker
WP Responsive Recent Post Slider/Carousel
WPForms Lite

What else can I do?

And can you recommend hosting with a good relationship between price and quality? I'm planning on posting around 20 posts/month, so I don't need super hosting, but something better than what I have now (Namecheap).

TIA

 

[Ryuzaki]

@StormGirl, we provide a giant, entirely free Digital Strategy Crash Course on the forum. Day 27 is all about Page Speed Optimization, written by yours truly. The post starts out with basic and intermediate level stuff, and then if you keep reading past the opening post, I continue to share advanced methods. You'll want to explore the whole thread. Your question is broad and could take an entire novel to answer, but thankfully we already wrote it.

 

[Entre Eyes]

Delete cache plugin and image resizer like Smush. And never leave plugin like Elementor sitting around it is notorious for slowing you down.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Delete cache plugin and image resizer like Smush.

This is horrible advice and will do the exact opposite of what you're hoping to achieve, @StormGirl.

Caching plugins pre-generate the HTML files that are served from the server to the browser, meaning that the server doesn't need to ping the database and run all the MySQL & PHP queries in real-time every time a user requests a page. It's already done and the HTML files are sitting and waiting to be served. Deleting your caching plugin is ridiculous advice.

Image optimizing plugins are also extremely valuable and won't negatively affect your page loading speeds themselves with extra files or anything. But they'll positively affect it big time by reducing the payload of your images by probably 40% each. It's a drastic change, especially on mobile. Another piece of absurd advice that you would be best served to ignore.

 

[Rufai]

I also use Astra + Namecheap and my speed is really good (90+). These are the tools/plugins i used:
Cloudflare
Autoptimize
WProcket.
Search for Autoptimize/WProcket settings on google to set it up.

 

[StormGirl]

I also use Astra + Namecheap and my speed is really good (90+). These are the tools/plugins i used:
Cloudflare
Autoptimize
WProcket.
Search for Autoptimize/WProcket settings on google to set it up.

Thanks! I was considering buying WP Rocket, and now I'm convinced.
For what is Cloudflare?

 

[Hanuman]

Great thread. Do we need WPRocket if you already have caching from Cloudflare? I don't have it installed since that would be one plugin less for my sites.

 

[Rufai]

Thanks! I was considering buying WP Rocket, and now I'm convinced.
For what is Cloudflare?

Cloudflare for content delivery network (CDN)

Great thread. Do we need WPRocket if you already have caching from Cloudflare? I don't have it installed since that would be one plugin less for my sites.

You use cloudflare CDN while WPRocket for caching and speed optimization.