Make sure your PHP is fast
Posted: Wed Dec 18, 2024 5:36 am
Check the security and speed status of your website regularly
Just like your home, your website also collects dust and clutter over time that can slow it down and make it more vulnerable to security threats. Therefore, cleaning your website is just as important as general cleaning of your home, and with our help, it can be much easier and faster.
Get started with our handy tips on how to clean up your website for better security and faster speed.
Clean your WordPress website
For all WordPress users, we have identified some important, yet easy-to-follow tips that will help you keep your WordPress website secure and fast.
Quick Website Security Tips
Keep your WordPress version and plugins up to date
It is important to keep your WordPress version and plugins updated to the latest version, because hackers use every opportunity and backdoor to attack your website and gain access to your files or valuable information. Keep an eye on the latest WordPress versions and plugins and install them in a timely manner. Fortunately, SiteGround customers don’t have to worry about this, as we do it automatically for them – we automatically update all WordPress installations, hosted with us.
Clean up your user roles and permissions
Make sure you review and remove inactive users or limit access for certain users to only the resources they require. For example, grant administrator access to your site only when strictly necessary and only to users who really need it. The same applies to login details for your hosting account.
Make sure you use strong and secure passwords
Weak passwords are one of the most common reasons why websites get hacked. Always use strong credentials to access your account. In addition to this, remember to store your passwords only in password managers, no plain text, no writing them down on paper, and no sharing. As a complementary step, you would also need to implement 2-factor authentication for login access. It will require an additional step of verification at every login for an added layer of security.
Clean up unused plugins and themes
Outdated plugins and themes can open the backdoor for hackers to gain access to your website. That's true even for disabled plugins and themes. For this reason, remove any plugins and themes you're not using to reduce the risk of security breaches on your website.
These are just a few of the steps to follow to clean and secure your WordPress website. The good news is that you don’t have to do them all one by one. You can find some of them and many more as one-click features in the free SiteGround Security plugin , available to all WordPress users. Download it now and enable many powerful security options in just a few clicks. For SiteGround customers, it’s already installed and working.
Easy to follow tips on website speed
Clean your WordPress database
Your WordPress database can significantly impact the speed of your website, which in turn affects its overall health and search engine rankings. To ensure optimal performance, it's important to keep your database clean. Cleaning your WordPress database is a vital part of updating your website and optimizing its functionality.
Compress large images
Large images can significantly slow down your WordPress website. Use image compression to speed up your website. You can compress them as much as you want, without compromising their quality. To do this, make sure to always take advantage of the latest image formats such as WebP format.
Minify CSS and JavaScript files
Minify your CSS and JavaScript files, which will basically remove all the unnecessary characters from them. Minifying CSS and JS files will speed up your website by reducing the code weight of your site.
Preload your fonts
Your website's fonts are another thing that the browser needs to load in order for users to see them. To prevent them from slowing down your website and allow the browser to render faster, you should preload your fonts . Remember to only preload the font files you use most often, not all of them; otherwise, you could end up slowing down your website even more.
To help you gain access and enable most of the above options and many more with just a few clicks, we have an in-house developed SiteGround Optimizer plugin that is free and available to all WordPress users. It also offers powerful caching features, front-end optimizations, as well as media and environmental optimizations.
Scan your website thoroughly
Continue to perform a thorough and regular scan of your website, checking it for potential malware infections and other security threats over time. There are different types of site scanning services available. At SiteGround, we have our in-house developed Site Scanner security service . Site Scanner scans your entire website for malware and the latest threats, notifying you about any potential security issues in a timely manner, giving you enough time and tools to react in case of any suspicious activity.
Apply powerful website performance optimizations
Increase your website speed by implementing these powerful india whatsapp number data optimization tips:
Make sure your website runs on the latest and fastest version of PHP and that your web server handles it in the best possible way. SiteGround customers have the opportunity to take advantage of our ultra-fast PHP configuration that reduces TTFB (Time to First Byte) and makes web pages load 30% faster compared to standard PHP configurations.
Take advantage of caching
Caching is one of the most powerful techniques to make your website load even faster. You can apply caching at different levels such as browser caching and server-side caching . SiteGround customers take advantage of our powerful out-of-the-box caching technology that is built in-house at three levels: Nginx Direct Delivery for static content, Dynamic Caching for dynamic content, and Memcached (object caching). All three can speed up website performance by up to 5x.
Use CDN
Speed up your website even more by enabling a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN stores copies of your website on servers that are geographically closer to your end users. Then, when they request to view a web page, it’s served to them fast
Just like your home, your website also collects dust and clutter over time that can slow it down and make it more vulnerable to security threats. Therefore, cleaning your website is just as important as general cleaning of your home, and with our help, it can be much easier and faster.
Get started with our handy tips on how to clean up your website for better security and faster speed.
Clean your WordPress website
For all WordPress users, we have identified some important, yet easy-to-follow tips that will help you keep your WordPress website secure and fast.
Quick Website Security Tips
Keep your WordPress version and plugins up to date
It is important to keep your WordPress version and plugins updated to the latest version, because hackers use every opportunity and backdoor to attack your website and gain access to your files or valuable information. Keep an eye on the latest WordPress versions and plugins and install them in a timely manner. Fortunately, SiteGround customers don’t have to worry about this, as we do it automatically for them – we automatically update all WordPress installations, hosted with us.
Clean up your user roles and permissions
Make sure you review and remove inactive users or limit access for certain users to only the resources they require. For example, grant administrator access to your site only when strictly necessary and only to users who really need it. The same applies to login details for your hosting account.
Make sure you use strong and secure passwords
Weak passwords are one of the most common reasons why websites get hacked. Always use strong credentials to access your account. In addition to this, remember to store your passwords only in password managers, no plain text, no writing them down on paper, and no sharing. As a complementary step, you would also need to implement 2-factor authentication for login access. It will require an additional step of verification at every login for an added layer of security.
Clean up unused plugins and themes
Outdated plugins and themes can open the backdoor for hackers to gain access to your website. That's true even for disabled plugins and themes. For this reason, remove any plugins and themes you're not using to reduce the risk of security breaches on your website.
These are just a few of the steps to follow to clean and secure your WordPress website. The good news is that you don’t have to do them all one by one. You can find some of them and many more as one-click features in the free SiteGround Security plugin , available to all WordPress users. Download it now and enable many powerful security options in just a few clicks. For SiteGround customers, it’s already installed and working.
Easy to follow tips on website speed
Clean your WordPress database
Your WordPress database can significantly impact the speed of your website, which in turn affects its overall health and search engine rankings. To ensure optimal performance, it's important to keep your database clean. Cleaning your WordPress database is a vital part of updating your website and optimizing its functionality.
Compress large images
Large images can significantly slow down your WordPress website. Use image compression to speed up your website. You can compress them as much as you want, without compromising their quality. To do this, make sure to always take advantage of the latest image formats such as WebP format.
Minify CSS and JavaScript files
Minify your CSS and JavaScript files, which will basically remove all the unnecessary characters from them. Minifying CSS and JS files will speed up your website by reducing the code weight of your site.
Preload your fonts
Your website's fonts are another thing that the browser needs to load in order for users to see them. To prevent them from slowing down your website and allow the browser to render faster, you should preload your fonts . Remember to only preload the font files you use most often, not all of them; otherwise, you could end up slowing down your website even more.
To help you gain access and enable most of the above options and many more with just a few clicks, we have an in-house developed SiteGround Optimizer plugin that is free and available to all WordPress users. It also offers powerful caching features, front-end optimizations, as well as media and environmental optimizations.
Scan your website thoroughly
Continue to perform a thorough and regular scan of your website, checking it for potential malware infections and other security threats over time. There are different types of site scanning services available. At SiteGround, we have our in-house developed Site Scanner security service . Site Scanner scans your entire website for malware and the latest threats, notifying you about any potential security issues in a timely manner, giving you enough time and tools to react in case of any suspicious activity.
Apply powerful website performance optimizations
Increase your website speed by implementing these powerful india whatsapp number data optimization tips:
Make sure your website runs on the latest and fastest version of PHP and that your web server handles it in the best possible way. SiteGround customers have the opportunity to take advantage of our ultra-fast PHP configuration that reduces TTFB (Time to First Byte) and makes web pages load 30% faster compared to standard PHP configurations.
Take advantage of caching
Caching is one of the most powerful techniques to make your website load even faster. You can apply caching at different levels such as browser caching and server-side caching . SiteGround customers take advantage of our powerful out-of-the-box caching technology that is built in-house at three levels: Nginx Direct Delivery for static content, Dynamic Caching for dynamic content, and Memcached (object caching). All three can speed up website performance by up to 5x.
Use CDN
Speed up your website even more by enabling a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN stores copies of your website on servers that are geographically closer to your end users. Then, when they request to view a web page, it’s served to them fast