When a WordPress website becomes over 500 megabytes in size, several problems can begin to occur.
The site can get harder to backup and resurrect in the case of a problem. It’s good practice to consider the backup copy also takes up your valuable hosting disk space. The size of the images are usually the main contributing factor. These large images can also slow down the website’s loading times, and potentially your Google search result ranking.
Larger sites with larger images and slower load times will drain bandwidth resources much faster than a smaller, more efficient site. The less hosting resources your site uses means the less money you will spend on hosting costs overall. If you save resources, you save money, and make your audience happy too.
Here are some rock solid suggestions from Hester Design’s team of web developers:
1. Regular Review
Review your media library for old files that can be removed, or large files that can be replaced. Have a 3 to 6 month schedule to do this periodically. If your library does not have a “replace” option, call us.
2. Images
Always save your images “for web” with an image editor. Adobe Photoshop is a great tool for this. Only upload WEBP, JPGs or PNGs to the media library for images. If your image is over 1 megabyte, it’s likely too big. Another resource is TinyJPG.com or Bulk Resize Photos to crunch them down further. It’s free.
— Images should be under 2000 x 2000 pixels in size.
— Check your site’s stylesheet page to crop images properly.
3. Documents
Save documents “for web” as PDFs. If you have to have a linked document, this is the best method. Your website is not a good storage area for documents though. Use documents sparingly and wisely. Adobe Acrobat is a great tool for crunching down PDF files.
— PDFs should be under 2 megabytes in size
4. Videos
Do not upload videos to the media library. Use YouTube or Vimeo to host these very large files and display them on your site efficiently. These resources give you code for each video that can be used in an HTML Block in your website’s page editor.
5. Upgrade Hosting
Upgrade to the next hosting level. This is a cost effective way to give you more room while you work on efficiencies. Hester Designs can upgrade your hosting at any time. Just give us a call or send an email.
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