How to Speed up Suffusion and WordPress

How to Speed up Suffusion and WordPress show you how to improve Suffusion theme and WordPress performance for your site.

Last Updated: December 3, 2021

Latest News: Fixed a broken link.

The following steps will help you improve your sites speed and SEO. This is one of the most important factors nowadays when working online. Search engines like Google love fast sites. They want the sites to load very fast in a desktop as well as a mobile device. If your site is fast loading on a desktop but slow when loading on a mobile device, you will loose ranking and visitors.

The following steps and instructions should help you.

How To Speed Up Suffusion and WordPress

1. Install Suffusion.
2. (Optional) Install Suffusion child theme.
3. Use Google Libraries.
4. Optimize your Database and delete any Revisions.
5. Install an avatar plugin.
6. Install a cache plugin.
7. If you have a Facebook and Twitter account then you are probably using one or more plugins to automatically post to these social medias.
8. Optimize your images to reduce the size and increase speed.
9. Set up Suffusion to be responsive.
10. Set up Google Custom Search Engine.
11. Sharing on social media.
12. WP 4.2+ Emojis functionality

Important: The information below explains in detail each step above.

Modules

Step 1 ) For suffusion Modules set up the following under Appearance -> Suffusion Options -> Back-end -> Modules. See image below

Site Optimization

Step 2 ) For suffusion Site Optimization set up the following under Appearance -> Suffusion Options -> Back-end -> Site Optimization. See image below

Note: If you use a cache plugin to minimize your css files make sure you disable this option here.

The following image shows you what you should select.

• Auto-generate the CSS and include it as a linked file (High load on server, elegant page source code)
• Auto-generate the CSS and print it in the HTML source (Least load on server, ugly page source code) (This is the one you choose)
• Auto-generate the CSS and link it as a file (Low load on server, elegant page source code)
• Don’t auto-generate the CSS, and print it in the HTML source (Low load on server, ugly page source code)
• Don’t auto-generate the CSS, and link it in the HTML source (Highest load on server, elegant page source code)

The following image shows you what you should select.

Minify generated CSS

• Minify the CSS (Remember to disable if you use a cache plugin to optimize the CSS)
• Don’t minify the CSS

Use “Lite” version of JQuery Cycle?

• Use Lite version (4KB) (This is the one you choose)
• Use Regular version (29KB)

Step 3 ) The following plugin Speed Booster Pack,I use in some sites to further optimize the speed. (Note: This plugin is very tricky. Use this plugin only if you know what you are doing.)

The plugin has a few options apart from Google Libraries. Just play around with the settings until you get the desired speed.

Step 4 ) Install Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions and configure. This plugin has only a few options to setup, go to Settings -> Optimize DB Options and configure the plugin. Once you have it setup, simply run it regularly to optimize you database and especially after you have added a new post or updated a post.

Step 5 ) Install WP User Avatar to manage your local avatar and create a default local avatar. This will save time when visitors who don’t have an avatar use your default avatar.

Step 6 ) Install and set up Hyper Cache. Go to Settings -> Hyper Cache and configure the plugin. You might like to read my tutorial Hyper Cache General Settings.

Cache Plugins

You might want to check the following URL WordPress Cache Plugins.

If you are using WP Super Cache or Hyper Cache, you can further improve your speed and performance by using Autoptimize in conjunction.

Note: You might also like to check the following link w3 Total Cache Troubleshooting for more tips.

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Social Sharing Plugins

Step 7 ) If you have not signed up to Facebook and Twitter, then I recommend you do. Once you have signed up then read the following tutorial Publish WordPress Posts To Facebook and Twitter. Currently I am testing Zapier external service to publish posts and pages directly to Twitter and Facebook. There are many different online services for you to choose from. There are also great plugins that will do a great job. However the goal here is to use as less plugins as possible. That’s the reason why I choose an external service.

Note: The more plugins you use the more resources your server will use like memory and processing power. This will increase your page load time.

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Step 8 ) There are two tools you can use to help you with optimizing your images to speed up your site. Gtmetrix.com.

You might like to read my tutorial Optimize Images Using EWWW Image Optimizer Plugin.

Step 9 ) Click on the following URL Responsive Settings to configure your theme to be responsive for mobile devices. Configuring this option means you don’t have to installed a responsive plugin. This in turn will reduce the processing of WordPress and reduce the request to the server.

Step 10 ) Click on the following URL Suffusion Google Custom Search Engine Responsive to add Google Custom Search engine to the website.

Step 11 ) I am sure that most of you will be sharing your information with some of the most popular social medias out there like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus, YouTube and more. The following URL Social Plugins is a list of social sharing plugins I recommend.

Step 12 ) Since WordPress 4.2 and above you have had the ability to customize the emojis in your website. These are those little smiley faces. What if you don’t really want that functionality because your run a business website and you also want to improve your speed. The following plugin Disable Emojis will disable that functionality from your website.

Optional Settings

Step 1 ) If you don’t use suffusion additional options you can disable them in your functions.php file found in your parent or child theme folder. See option below.

remove_theme_support('suffusion-additional-options');

Step 3 ) How does your website compare to W3 standards? Click on the following URL w3c.github.io/developers/tools/. You will find all the necessary tools to thoroughly check your website or blog. This should be a must do action every time you design a website.

I suggest that you use W3Schools which has all you need to help you troubleshoot css, html, js errors and more.

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If you install all the plugins mentioned above and you follow my instructions you will notice a difference in speed and performance for your website or blog. This will make Google happy and it is also good for SEO. Of course there are more options you can implement to speed up your WordPress website but I just wanted to use the simplest method for anyone who wishes to try without having to hack or add some code.

Other Options To Consider

If you are using a shared host for your website or blog. Shared host have many websites hosted in the one server using the same IP address. This can also cause problems with your speed and performance. You will also notice spiking on your account from time to time. Here is a website you can use to check and see how many websites are hosted on your shared server, web sites on server. This tool only reveals the main domains hosted on the shared server including the URL, it does not show add on domains or sub domains. If you want a total number of domains in your shared server then click on the following link https://reverseip.domaintools.com/. This tool will give you a total number but it will not reveal the URL of the domains.

Once you have completed all of the above to Speed Up Suffusion and WordPress, click on the following URL Gtmetrix and run a test.

Other tools you can use to carry out a speed test.

1. Google Speed Test
2. pindom website speed test
3. Test your website with the WP Engine WordPress Speed Test.

Note: Run a test before you begin applying the above settings and tweaks. Then run another test after you complete your customization. This will allow you to better compare your improvements.

“Important: Remember if you are on a Shared Hosting Account then you can only do so much to improve the speed running a WordPress website. If you are in a Pro Server Account speed starts to improve substantially. However if you are on a VPS or Dedicated Server, the speed will improve substantially.”

Mbrsolution Website Information (VPS account)

Info: Google Speed Test, 96/100 for desktop and 90/100 for mobile, I am very happy with this.

• VPS Hosting account Justhost.
  
• 577 post
• 39 pages
• 832 Comments
• 2756 images
• I have 15 plugins installed and 12 plugins are active
• WordPress 4.5.3
• Hyper Cache = great plugin
  
• Autoptimze = great plugin

Image and test taken July 10, 2016

The above should help you get your website running faster and smoother.

Note: The less plugins you have running the faster your website will perform.

Click on the following URL Back End Tutorials for more back end tutorials.

If you have any questions please let me know. I will be updating this from time to time. So keep coming back for the latest.

Enjoy.

More Suffusion Tutorials:

• Suffusion Theme Tutorials