A DIY WordPress Speed Checklist: Fixes a Business Owner Can Do in an Afternoon

You do not need to be a developer to make a slow WordPress site noticeably quicker. A surprising amount of the weight on a typical business site can be removed from the WordPress dashboard alone, with no server login, no code and no hosting control panel. This checklist is for exactly that: a business owner with an admin login, a cup of coffee and a free afternoon.

Work through it in order. Each step is safe if you follow it as written, and the order puts the backup first and the biggest easy wins early. If you are still trying to work out what is making your site slow in the first place, start with our plain-language guide on why your WordPress website is so slow, then come back here to fix it.

Before You Start: What You Need

• An administrator login to your WordPress dashboard.
• About three to four hours.
• A notepad or spreadsheet to write down your before and after results.

That is it. Anything that needs server access (PHP versions, server caching, CDNs) is covered separately in our WordPress server and hosting optimisation guide, which is written for developers and technically minded owners.

Step 1: Take a “Before” Measurement (15 minutes)

Go to Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool, paste in your homepage address, and run the test. Write down the mobile and desktop results, then repeat for one or two other important pages, such as your main service page or contact page.

The report shows two kinds of results, and it helps to know the difference:

• Lab data is a simulated test run on the spot. It changes straight away when you fix something, so it is what you will compare at the end of the afternoon.
• Field data comes from real Chrome users over a trailing 28-day period. It only appears if your site has enough visitors, and it takes weeks to reflect your changes.

The three Core Web Vitals in that report are Largest Contentful Paint (how fast the main content appears, good is 2.5 seconds or less), Interaction to Next Paint (how quickly the page responds to a tap or click, good is 200 milliseconds or less) and Cumulative Layout Shift (how much the page jumps around while loading, good is 0.1 or less).

Step 2: Make a Backup You Know How to Restore (20 minutes)

Every step after this one changes your site, so do not skip this. If your site is hosted with JWD, use the backup tool in your control panel. Otherwise, check what your host provides, or install a reputable backup plugin and take a full backup of files and database.

A backup only counts if you know how to get it back. Before moving on, find the restore option and read how it works, or ask whoever manages your hosting.

Step 3: Read Your Site Health Screen (10 minutes)

WordPress has a built-in health check that most owners never open. Go to Tools > Site Health in your dashboard. The Status tab lists critical issues and recommended improvements, including warnings such as an outdated PHP version or plugins waiting to be updated.

Write down anything it flags. Plugin and theme items you can deal with in the next steps. A PHP version warning is a job for your host or developer, and our server optimisation guide explains what to ask for.

Step 4: Update, One Thing at a Time (30 minutes)

Go to Dashboard > Updates. Update WordPress itself, then your theme, then your plugins, one at a time rather than all at once. After each update, open your homepage and one other page in a private browser window and check that it still looks and works right.

Updating one by one means that if something breaks, you know exactly which update caused it. Older versions of plugins and themes are also a common source of slowdowns and conflicts, so this step often helps speed on its own.

Step 5: Delete What You Do Not Use (20 minutes)

Go to Plugins and look at every plugin, active or not, and ask one question: does the business still use this? Old contact form plugins, sliders from a previous design, and “just trying it out” plugins tend to pile up.

• Deactivate a plugin first, then check the site still works.
• If it does, delete it rather than leaving it inactive.
• Go to Appearance > Themes and delete themes you are not using. Keep your active theme, and if it is a child theme, keep its parent too.

Fewer plugins means less code loading on your pages and fewer things to keep updated.

Step 6: Fix Your Heaviest Images (45 minutes)

Images are usually the heaviest part of a business website, and this is where an afternoon of work often pays off most.

• Find the big ones. In Media > Library, switch to list view and open your homepage images. The attachment details show the file size. Anything over a few hundred kilobytes on a normal content image is worth a look.
• Resize before you upload. A photo straight off a phone is far wider than any screen needs. Resize it to roughly the width it displays at, then upload the smaller version and swap it into the page.
• Use WebP where you can. WordPress has supported uploading WebP images since version 5.8, as long as your host’s image library supports it. Free tools like Squoosh convert and compress images in your browser.
• Leave lazy loading on. Since WordPress 5.5, images with width and height set are lazy-loaded by default, which means they only load as the visitor scrolls towards them. You do not need a plugin for this.

Step 7: Put Your Homepage on a Diet (30 minutes)

Look at your homepage the way a visitor on a phone would. The usual heavy items are:

• Image sliders with five or six large photos, where visitors only ever see the first.
• Background videos that autoplay.
• Embedded social media feeds, maps and review widgets.
• Chat widgets and pop-ups that load on every page.

For each one, decide whether it earns its place. A single strong image usually does the job of a slider. A map can often be a link to Google Maps on the contact page instead of an embed on the homepage. Each removed embed is one less set of outside scripts the browser has to fetch.

Step 8: Set Up One Caching Plugin, Properly (30 minutes)

Caching saves a ready-made copy of each page so WordPress does not rebuild it for every visitor. Before installing anything, check two things:

1. Does your host already cache pages? Some hosts cache at server level, and adding a plugin on top can cause conflicts. Ask them if you are not sure.
2. Is a caching plugin already installed? Two caching plugins at once is a common cause of odd behaviour. Keep one.

If you need one, choose a well-known caching plugin that suits your host (for example, the LiteSpeed Cache plugin is designed for hosts running LiteSpeed servers), turn on page caching, and leave the advanced options at their defaults for now. After enabling it, check your contact form and, if you sell online, the cart and checkout, since those pages must not be cached for everyone.

Step 9: Tidy the Database (20 minutes)

Over time WordPress stores post revisions, spam and trashed comments, and leftover data from deleted plugins. A reputable database clean-up plugin can remove this from the dashboard. Only do this after Step 2, and stick to the standard clean-up options (revisions, spam, trash) rather than deleting database tables you do not recognise.

Step 10: Measure Again and Write It Down (15 minutes)

Re-run PageSpeed Insights on the same pages you tested in Step 1 and compare the lab results. Write both sets of numbers down with the date. That record is the start of your ongoing routine, which we cover in our guide to keeping WordPress fast with a monthly and quarterly performance routine.

Do not expect the field data or the Search Console Core Web Vitals report to change the same day. Field data is a 28-day rolling picture of real visitors, so give it a few weeks.

A faster site is a better experience for your visitors and removes a disadvantage in search, but Google is clear that good Core Web Vitals scores alone do not guarantee high rankings.

What This Checklist Cannot Fix

Some speed problems sit below the dashboard, and no amount of plugin tidying will reach them:

• Slow or overloaded hosting, or an old PHP version.
• Missing server-level caching, compression or a modern connection protocol.
• A heavy theme or page builder that loads large amounts of code on every page.

The server and hosting side is covered in our WordPress server optimisation guide. If you would rather have someone measure, diagnose and fix all of it for you, that is what our WordPress speed optimisation service does. If the site has become so heavy that a rebuild makes more sense, compare the options in our guide to static, WordPress and custom CMS websites: a WordPress site starts at R3,000 for 1 to 3 pages, a custom static site at R2,500, and a custom CMS site at R4,000.

Prefer to hand over just the fiddly parts? Our website maintenance is R450 an hour, with the time agreed before any work starts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I speed up WordPress without access to the server?

Yes, to a point. Updating and removing plugins, fixing heavy images, trimming the homepage and setting up one caching plugin can all be done from the WordPress dashboard. What you cannot change from the dashboard is the hosting itself, such as the PHP version, server caching and the connection protocol. Those need your host or a developer.

Do I really need a backup before doing any of this?

Yes. Updates, plugin removals and database clean-ups all change your live site, and a rare conflict can break a page. A recent backup that you know how to restore turns a bad afternoon into a five-minute rollback.

Why did my PageSpeed Insights field data not change after my fixes?

Field data is collected from real Chrome users over a trailing 28-day period, so it catches up gradually. Compare the lab results straight after your changes, and check the field data again in a few weeks.

Is it safe to delete inactive plugins?

Generally yes, once you have confirmed the site works with the plugin deactivated and you have a backup. Inactive plugins still need updates and add clutter, so if the business does not use one, delete it. Keep the parent theme if your active theme is a child theme.

How often should I run through this checklist?

Once is enough to get the big wins. After that, a lighter monthly and quarterly routine keeps the site from slowing down again. Our WordPress performance maintenance routine sets out what to check and when.