Preface
Is your Elementor website feeling a bit sluggish? You’re not alone! Many users find that Elementor, while incredibly powerful and user-friendly, can sometimes impact website loading times. The good news is, you don’t need the Pro version to significantly improve your site’s performance. This guide will walk you through practical steps to optimize your Elementor website for speed, even without the premium features. Let’s dive in and make your website lightning fast!
Why Website Speed Matters
Before we jump into the how-to, let’s quickly cover why website speed is so crucial:
- User Experience: Visitors expect websites to load quickly. A slow website can lead to frustration and a high bounce rate.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Google and other search engines consider website speed as a ranking factor. Faster sites tend to rank higher in search results. You can check out this quickstart SEO guide to optimize your wordpress website.
- Conversion Rates: Faster loading times can lead to improved conversion rates, whether you’re selling products, generating leads, or building an audience.
Testing Your Website Speed
First things first, let’s see where your website currently stands. Use these free online tools to test your website speed:
- Google PageSpeed Insights: Provides detailed insights and recommendations from Google. Google PageSpeed Insights
- GTmetrix: Offers in-depth analysis and performance metrics.
- Pingdom Website Speed Test: Simple and easy to use for a quick overview.
Hint: Test your website multiple times and from different locations to get an accurate average speed.
Optimizing Elementor Websites for Speed (Without Pro)
Here are actionable steps you can take to optimize your Elementor website speed without needing the Pro version:
1. Choose a Fast and Reliable Hosting Provider
Your hosting provider plays a significant role in your website’s speed. Shared hosting can be affordable, but it often comes with performance limitations. If you’re serious about speed, consider investing in a quality hosting provider such as Bluehost, Dreamhost, or a VPS (Virtual Private Server).
Info: A Content Delivery Network (CDN) can significantly improve website loading times, especially for visitors from different geographic locations. Cloudflare offers a free plan that can be a great starting point.
2. Select a Lightweight WordPress Theme
While Elementor allows you to design your website visually, the underlying theme still matters. Choose a lightweight and well-coded theme that doesn’t add unnecessary bloat. Some excellent options include:
- Astra: A popular, fast, and highly customizable theme. You can even create a sticky header with the free version of astra. Read about it here: How to Create a Sticky Navigation for Astra Starter Templates with the Free Version of Astra
- GeneratePress: Known for its clean code and focus on performance.
- Neve: A modern and SEO-friendly theme with a lightweight footprint.
3. Optimize Images
Large, unoptimized images are a common cause of slow loading times. Before uploading images to your website, make sure to:
- Resize Images: Use image editing software (like Photoshop, GIMP, or even online tools) to resize images to the appropriate dimensions for your website. Avoid uploading images that are much larger than needed.
- Compress Images: Use image compression tools (like TinyPNG, ImageOptim, or ShortPixel) to reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality. There are also many plugins that do the task. Take a look at this tutorial on how to create high quality screenshots and turn them into base64: How to Quickly Make High-Resolution Screenshots in Base64
- Use the Correct File Format: Use JPEG for photos and PNG for graphics with transparency.
4. Leverage Browser Caching
Browser caching allows visitors’ browsers to store static files (like images, CSS, and JavaScript) locally, so they don’t have to download them every time they visit a new page. You can enable browser caching by adding the following code to your .htaccess file (located in your website’s root directory):
ExpiresActive On ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 year" ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 year" ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 year" ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 month" ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 month" ExpiresByType text/html "access plus 1 hour"
Info: Always back up your `.htaccess` file before making any changes. Incorrect modifications can break your website.
5. Minify CSS and JavaScript
Minifying CSS and JavaScript files removes unnecessary characters (like whitespace and comments) from your code, reducing file sizes and improving loading times. You can use plugins like Autoptimize or WP Rocket (paid, but offers more features) to automatically minify your CSS and JavaScript files.
6. Optimize Elementor Settings
Elementor has built-in options that can help improve performance:
- Improved Asset Loading: Go to Elementor > Settings > Experiments and activate ‘Improved Asset Loading.’ This feature can significantly reduce the amount of CSS and JavaScript loaded on your pages.
- Improved CSS Output: Also in the Experiments tab, activate ‘Improved CSS Output.’ This generates more efficient CSS code.
- Lazy Loading: Enable lazy loading for images in the Elementor settings. This means images will only load as they come into view, improving initial page load time.
7. Use a Caching Plugin
A caching plugin creates static HTML versions of your pages, which can be served to visitors much faster than dynamically generated pages. Some popular caching plugins include:
- WP Super Cache: A free and easy-to-use caching plugin.
- W3 Total Cache: A more advanced caching plugin with a wide range of options.
- LiteSpeed Cache: Especially effective if you’re using LiteSpeed server.
8. Limit the Number of Plugins
Too many plugins can slow down your website. Deactivate and delete any plugins you’re not actively using. Regularly review your installed plugins and remove any that are unnecessary.
Hint: Before deleting unused ones, create a backup of your website!
9. Optimize Database
Over time, your WordPress database can accumulate unnecessary data and overhead, which can slow down your website. Use a plugin like WP-Optimize or WP-Sweep to clean up your database by removing things like trashed posts, spam comments, and orphaned metadata.
10. Use System Fonts
Whenever possible, use system fonts instead of custom fonts. System fonts are already installed on users’ devices, so they don’t need to be downloaded, which can improve loading times. Read here: How to choose the right fonts for your website and Top 10 Free Best Google Fonts for Your Website
11. Inline critical CSS
Critical CSS refers to the CSS styles that are necessary to render the above-the-fold content of a webpage. By inlining these styles directly into the HTML, the browser can render the visible portion of the page without waiting for external stylesheet files to load, reducing the render-blocking time and improving the perceived loading speed. You can use online tools to extract the critical CSS and you dont´t need the pro Version for elementor.
Conclusion
Optimizing your Elementor website for speed without the Pro version is achievable by following these steps. By choosing a fast hosting provider and lightweight theme, optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, minifying CSS and JavaScript, optimizing Elementor settings, and using a caching plugin, you can significantly improve your website’s performance. Regularly test your website speed and make adjustments as needed to ensure your site delivers a fast and enjoyable user experience. Happy optimizing!
