I'm working on optimizing a small WooCommerce store that currently only gets about one order per month. After running an audit, I've found some major performance issues and I'm looking for the best way to tackle them.
Here's a snapshot of the current setup:
- PageSpeed scores: 35 for mobile and 61 for desktop
- Load time is at 6.55 seconds according to Pingdom tests in Frankfurt
- Total page size is 1.6MB with 129 total requests
- Time to first byte (TTFB) is approximately 600ms
I'm on shared hosting in Romania with Clausweb, using PHP version 7.4.33, which I realize now needs updating.
From my plugin stack, I found several issues:
- I have the SiteGround Speed Optimizer installed, but since I'm not using SiteGround, it's not helping at all.
- There was no proper caching until I set up LiteSpeed Cache.
- I have 34 active plugins, and the Tidio chat widget makes 18 requests on every page.
- The Revolution Slider is loading on every page, even where I don't use it.
- WPBakery loads its scripts globally.
- I'm also running three email marketing plugins simultaneously (CreativeMail, Mailchimp, MailerLite).
- The theme I'm using is Woodmart, which is a heavy premium option.
What I've done so far includes installing and configuring LiteSpeed Cache, creating a staging environment with WP Staging, and identifying PHP 7.4 as a potential bottleneck.
I have a few specific questions:
1. What are the most effective LiteSpeed Cache settings for WooCommerce?
2. Can I fix the 600ms TTFB through WordPress optimizations or is it solely a hosting issue?
3. What's the best approach to manage Tidio chat – is it better to defer, replace, or disable it on certain pages?
4. How can I safely reduce the global script loading from WPBakery and Woodmart?
5. Is it worth staying with my current host, or would migrating to better hosting offer more benefits than optimizing WordPress?
I'm happy to provide more information if needed. Thanks for any help!
2 Answers
Honestly, the PHP version might not be your biggest issue here. Yes, 8 is faster, but it sounds like you're running into resource limits. Shared hosting could be bottlenecking your site due to limited RAM. You could try running the site on a different machine and check if the performance improves before deciding on your host.
Consider migrating to a VPS instead of shared hosting. Even basic VPS solutions can drastically cut your load time. I'd also recommend getting rid of that SiteGround optimizer since it's not doing anything for you. And for email marketing, choose one plugin and stick with it; having three running simultaneously is overkill and could be slowing things down significantly.
Totally agree! A host change often makes more of a difference than tweaking the plugins alone.