1. Choose the Right Theme that Matches your Brand

As with fonts, themes can reduce or increase your website’s speed. Having themes that accelerate loading speed improves users’ browsing experience as they will stick to your site for a long time. However, themes also cripple your website speed since they take large spaces. So to increase your browsing speed, check on your themes; slash off “useless” themes leaving what you need.

[Read more: Best 10 WordPress Plugins That Will Improve your Website]

2. Deactivate Plugins that you are not Using

Having too many plugins adds junk to the server, thus slowing your site down. Freeing up your server by reducing plugins improves its speed. It also reduces the size of backup files you will be downloading.

To deactivate plugins, visit the admin area of your WordPress, click on plugins, then deactivate those that you no longer need.

3. Go Static

You can improve your Word Press site by converting it into a static site. By so doing, you’ll boost its loading time and keep hackers at bay by enhancing site security. This is where FLATsite comes in. It provides a suitable platform for website owners to create WP static sites.

4. Optimize your Images

 Images are crucial in keeping your users engaged and staying on your website. So you need clear and high-quality pictures. But quality pictures come at the expense of space and increased loading time which can be a turn-off to users. Therefore, you need to optimize your images to fit both quality and loading speed.

Technologically, optimizing your images is compressing them as much as possible without compromising their quality. There are many software (free and premium) which you can use to compress your pictures to smaller sizes.

[Read more: Top 6 WordPress Theme Detectors]

5. Choose the Right Webhosting Service Provider

Out of thousands of web hosting service providers, only a few of them provide high-quality services. These services include a promise of faster websites. Here, you can visit excellent Web Hosting services.

6. Sweep out Unwanted Dirt from your Database

In real life, a database is equal to a pantry. And a disorganized, littered, and loaded with unwanted stuff pantry is a nuisance and may consume your time when you try to locate something. This is exactly what happens to the database with tons of unwanted files, trashed posts, auto drafts, etc. they will slow your site. You can clean your database using a free plugin known as WP-Sweep.

7. Never Upload Media Files Directly to your Site

Besides taking too much space, media files use a lot of bandwidth, subsequently dropping your website’s speed. It also increases the size of backups.   

As a good practice, embed all media files in your posts and landing pages using codes offered by Youtube and Vimeo. After getting the code, just copy and enter it into your website. WordPress has a feature that adds audio and videos directly to your site without consuming your server’s space.

Wrap up 

To boost your WordPress website speed, clear the server, avoid uploading media files directly to your site and choose the right Web Hosting service provider.

The post 6 Ingenious Tips to Speed up Your WordPress Site appeared first on Tech Kalture.

Additionally, good design is an important skill to impress people with a properly designed web page. It can be a means of earning a living, and you can get additional income from the sites you design. 

In the following sections, we look at how you can design a web page that is both functional and attractive. A good wordpress website design can make your site stand out and make a great first impression on your visitors. 

Having design skills is essential, and learning about designing impressive sites can equip you with skills needed for various sites like:

– e-commerce websites

– online applications

– blogs

– online communities

– social networks

With the following steps, you can design a site that will serve its function fully and appeal to its users and attract engagement.

1. Decide on the Type of Website

The function that a site or web application is supposed to fulfill usually determines its design. A site that is intended for online banking, for instance, will look different from one that is meant for social networking or blogging. 

When you know what your website is going to do, you will design it a lot better. You will include features that add usability to the site and provide easy interaction with the end-users. An eCommerce web application will appear different from a blogging website, and you must note what kind of site you are going to design.

2. Sketch a Mock-up

Prototypes are powerful design tools that are used to create mock-ups or simple demonstrations of the results. Website mock-ups are used to show how the site should appear. With a prototype sketched on paper, you can make changes and add features as you would like them to appear on the website’s final design. 

The mock-up is not the end product and can be edited and modified as you see fit. Additionally, the mock-up will give you a better idea of how the site should look like. After a few rounds of sketching and making changes, you will have a sketch with all the features you need to appear on the final version of the website. 

3. Choose a Design Framework to Use

When it comes to transferring your site design from the paper mock-up to a working version of the website, there are many alternatives that you can choose from. There are templates that you can use and modify as you deem fit. 

Alternatively, you can decide to start from scratch and create the UI elements of the website that you have sketched using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. This means that you will need knowledge of these languages to create a working version of your site. The good thing about using these languages to develop the website from scratch is that you will not be limited by anything. 

Your sketch will be turned into a reality in precisely the same way as it appears on paper. You will also create UI elements such as buttons and forms using the simple programming languages meant for the web. Web programming also means that navigation will be easier to test, and you will be able to try out your website before it is even complete. As you continue turning the sketch into a working site, you will get the chance to make programming changes to the website that will modify many of the utilities and features integrated into the site. 

The simple navigation and the rearrangement of the UI elements as you minimize your browser and access the site from a smaller device will also be necessary. Responsive layouts are essential for the modern web. When you have a website design that can scale up and down as per the needs of the user, then you will be able to create better impressions. 

If you are not good at programming in HTML and CSS, you can use a more straightforward option like WordPress. WordPress is a good platform for creating content management systems and websites. 

There are plenty of plugins and themes that you can use to create your website. You can also make modifications to these layouts to match up with your original sketch on paper. With WordPress, you don’t need to write any code, and the website design will take less time. 

Also Read: The web design process in 7 simple steps

4. Test and Iterate your Prototype

Once you have created your initial site design using either HTML or WordPress, you need to test whether your site is accessible on all devices. You can try loading the website on a smartphone and a desktop browser to see the differences in the layout. 

From the feedback from these initial prototypes, you can go back to the previous step and change the site design. These changes should reflect the elements of the interface that you want to achieve in the final version of the site. Minor changes can significantly impact your site, and you should not be afraid to rip out entire sections and replace them with better web page elements. 

The testing will be enough to give you a benchmark for your performance. Design aspects such as colors will also be more vivid when loaded the website on an actual browser. As such, you will be able to edit the site until you have achieved a design that is pleasing to look at and functional, and easy to navigate through. 

In conclusion, designing a good website is not complicated, provided you have an idea of what you want to achieve. There are a lot of tools out there to help with your design process. If you are good at HTML and CSS, your design will be more direct, and you will easily translate sketches into working websites. A good site should impress and encourage engagement from visitors, which you can achieve by designing a good one.

The post Step by Step Guide to Designing a Good Website appeared first on Tech Kalture.