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How to Achieve a 100/100 Google PageSpeed Score in WordPress

March 12, 2025

A fast website is essential for user experience, SEO rankings, and conversions. If you own a WordPress site, achieving a 100/100 Google PageSpeed score might seem impossible, but it is achievable with the right techniques. In this guide, we will explain step by step how to optimize your WordPress site to reach the perfect PageSpeed score.

Why is Google PageSpeed Score Important?

Google PageSpeed Insights evaluates your website’s performance on both desktop and mobile devices. A high score means your website loads faster, improves SEO rankings, reduces bounce rates, and enhances user experience. Google also prioritizes fast-loading sites in search results, making speed optimization crucial.

Steps to Achieve a 100/100 Google PageSpeed Score

1. Choose a Lightweight and Fast WordPress Theme

Your theme plays a crucial role in website speed. Avoid bloated themes with excessive features and animations. Instead, opt for lightweight, performance-optimized themes like:

  • Astra
  • GeneratePress
  • Neve
  • Hello Elementor

These themes are designed to be fast and provide a strong foundation for speed optimization.

2. Use a Reliable Hosting Provider

Hosting is a significant factor in your website’s speed. Choose a hosting provider with high-performance servers and features like:

  • SSD storage
  • LiteSpeed or NGINX web servers
  • Caching mechanisms
  • CDN integration

Recommended hosting providers:

  • SiteGround
  • Kinsta
  • WP Engine
  • Cloudways

3. Use a Caching Plugin

Caching reduces the time it takes for pages to load by storing a static version of your content. Popular WordPress caching plugins include:

  • WP Rocket (Premium)
  • W3 Total Cache
  • WP Super Cache
  • LiteSpeed Cache

WP Rocket is the best option for beginners as it offers easy one-click optimizations.

4. Optimize Images for Faster Loading

Images are one of the heaviest elements on a webpage. Optimizing them can significantly improve your PageSpeed score. Follow these steps:

  • Use WebP format instead of PNG or JPEG.
  • Compress images using plugins like:
    • ShortPixel
    • Smush
    • Imagify
  • Resize images to the correct dimensions before uploading.
  • Enable lazy loading using WP Rocket or native WordPress settings.

5. Minify and Combine CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

Minification removes unnecessary spaces and characters from your website’s code, making it load faster. Combining CSS and JavaScript files reduces HTTP requests. You can achieve this using:

  • WP Rocket
  • Autoptimize
  • Fast Velocity Minify

6. Enable a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A CDN distributes your website’s static files (images, CSS, JavaScript) across multiple servers worldwide, ensuring faster load times for users regardless of location. Recommended CDNs:

  • Cloudflare (Free & Premium)
  • BunnyCDN
  • KeyCDN
  • StackPath

Cloudflare is free and provides excellent performance improvements.

7. Remove Unused Plugins and Themes

Too many plugins can slow down your website. Keep only essential plugins and remove inactive themes. Some tools to detect slow plugins include:

  • Query Monitor
  • P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler)

8. Optimize Database Performance

Over time, your WordPress database accumulates unnecessary data that slows down your site. Clean it up using plugins like:

  • WP-Optimize
  • Advanced Database Cleaner
  • WP Rocket (Database Optimization Feature)

9. Enable GZIP Compression

GZIP compression reduces the size of your website’s files, making them load faster. Most caching plugins offer GZIP compression, or you can enable it via your hosting panel or by adding the following code to your .htaccess file:

<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
  AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/xml text/css text/javascript application/javascript application/x-javascript
</IfModule>

10. Reduce HTTP Requests

Each element on a webpage (images, CSS, JavaScript) generates an HTTP request. To reduce requests:

  • Minify and combine CSS and JS files.
  • Use CSS sprites for background images.
  • Limit the use of external scripts and fonts.

11. Implement Lazy Loading for Images and Videos

Lazy loading ensures that images and videos load only when they are visible on the screen, reducing initial load time. Most caching plugins and WordPress versions (5.5+) have built-in lazy loading features.

12. Optimize Google Fonts

Google Fonts can slow down your website if not optimized. Reduce font requests by:

  • Limiting the number of fonts and weights used.
  • Hosting fonts locally instead of using external calls.
  • Using a plugin like OMGF to optimize font delivery.

13. Disable Unused Scripts and Styles

Some plugins load unnecessary scripts and styles on every page. You can disable them using:

  • Asset CleanUp
  • Perfmatters

These plugins help you control which scripts and styles load on each page.

14. Optimize Mobile Performance

Google prioritizes mobile-first indexing, so your site must load quickly on mobile devices. Steps to optimize mobile speed:

  • Use a responsive and mobile-friendly theme.
  • Reduce image sizes for mobile devices.
  • Enable AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) using AMP plugins.

15. Regularly Monitor and Test Your Website Speed

Once you’ve optimized your site, regularly check your PageSpeed score using:

  • Google PageSpeed Insights
  • GTmetrix
  • Pingdom
  • WebPageTest

These tools help identify performance issues and ensure your site remains fast.

Conclusion

Achieving a 100/100 Google PageSpeed Score in WordPress is possible with proper optimization techniques. By choosing the right theme, using caching, optimizing images, enabling a CDN, minifying files, and cleaning up your database, you can significantly improve your website speed and user experience.

Follow these steps consistently, and you’ll see a noticeable boost in speed, SEO rankings, and overall website performance. Start optimizing today and enjoy a faster WordPress site!