Give us a call: (800) 252-6164
How to make your website load in under 2 seconds using Apache, Nginx, Redis, PHP7, MySQL, and WordPress

Load Times Under 2s: WordPress Speed Improvements

May 6, 2018 | By David Selden-Treiman | Filed in: hosting.

At this point, you’re going to need to install a couple of plugins: one to allow the WordPress page to benefit from the Redis server, and one to cache the rendered versions of the WordPress site pages so that they don’t have to be generated every time someone tries to access the site.

Redis WordPress Plugin

To have the WordPress installation use the Redis cache, we’ll need to install a plugin. I personally use Redis Object Cache (https://wordpress.org/plugins/redis-cache/) , but you could use another Redis plugin. To set it up, install the plugin by searching for “Redis Object Cache” in the plugins list from the admin section. Click install, and the plugin should be installed.

We will now need to follow the installation instructions on the plugin page, specifically by adding a prefix for use in the Redis cache. Simply add the following line to your wp-config.php file

 

Reload the plugin, and everything should be working.

Caching Plugin

The easiest way to cache the rendered pages from your site is to use a caching plugin. To do this, search for and install the “WP Super Cache” plugin. When it’s installed, We need to select “Caching On” on the “Easy” page. On the advanced page, we need to select “don’t cache pages for known users”, “compress pages so they’re served more quickly to visitors”, and “cache rebuild….”. Under the “Preload” tab, select “Preload mode” and then select to preload the cache. This should cache your website’s contents to the folder that we specified in the Nginx configuration file

Further Development

At this point, if you’ve followed the tutorial from the beginning, you should have your website loading quickly. If your website is still loading slowly, there are a number of speed improvements that can be made.

If you have reached the end of this tutorial, and need the installation done quickly, or if you just want the work all done automatically, we can do that for you (for a fee of $100). We have an automated script that can SSH into your server and run this tutorial from beginning to end (as long as it’s running CentOS 7). If you would like this done for you, please contact us using the form below.

Also, if you require assistance, we provide server consulting starting at $100/hour, and we have a number of scripts that we can use to get your server up and running quickly. Please contact us below if you need further assistance:

 

    Get Started








    Part 1: Introduction and Planning

    Why it’s important to have your pages load in under 2 seconds, and a plan of how we will set up and configure the server.

    David Selden-Treiman, Director of Operations at Potent Pages.

    David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.

    Part 2: Installing Software

    Initial setup of the server, including installing CentOS7, installing tools, installing SSH and SSL, enabling repositories, and installing support packages.

    David Selden-Treiman, Director of Operations at Potent Pages.

    David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.

    Part 3: MySQL, Apache, PHP7, & Composer
    David Selden-Treiman, Director of Operations at Potent Pages.

    David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.

    Part 4: PHPMyAdmin & Redis
    David Selden-Treiman, Director of Operations at Potent Pages.

    David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.

    Part 5: SSL Certificate & Apache Configuration
    David Selden-Treiman, Director of Operations at Potent Pages.

    David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.

    Part 6: FTP & DNS
    David Selden-Treiman, Director of Operations at Potent Pages.

    David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.

    Part 7: Installing Nginx
    David Selden-Treiman, Director of Operations at Potent Pages.

    David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.

    Part 8: Configuring Nginx
    David Selden-Treiman, Director of Operations at Potent Pages.

    David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.

    Part 9: Adding a WordPress Website

    How to add a WordPress website to the server including configuring the DNS Server, adding a verified SSL certificate, either manually or for free using Let’s Encrypt, setting up FTP for your site, configuring Apache, configuring Nginx, uploading your WordPress site files, and importing your MySQL database.

    David Selden-Treiman, Director of Operations at Potent Pages.

    David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.

    Part 10: WordPress Website Speed Improvements

    Speeding up your WordPress installation using a Redis plugin and a caching plugin.

    David Selden-Treiman, Director of Operations at Potent Pages.

    David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.


    David Selden-Treiman, Director of Operations at Potent Pages.

    David Selden-Treiman is Director of Operations and a project manager at Potent Pages. He specializes in custom web crawler development, website optimization, server management, web application development, and custom programming. Working at Potent Pages since 2012 and programming since 2003, David has extensive expertise solving problems using programming for dozens of clients. He also has extensive experience managing and optimizing servers, managing dozens of servers for both Potent Pages and other clients.


    Tags:

    Comments are closed here.

    What Is The Best Web Hosting Provider?

    Finding the best web hosting provider for your needs is an important step in optimizing your website. There's a lot to consider. Here are our basic recommendations:

    Simple Websites

    For simple websites, you have a lot of options. Most web hosts will do acceptably for a simple small-business website or blog.

    That said, we recommend avoiding website builders so that you maintain control of your website.

    VPS Hosting

    If you just need a simple VPS, most providers will work well. Different providers have different downtimes, but the big differentiators are cost.

    Providers like AWS and Google Cloud tend to be much more expensive than more specialized providers.

    We recommend Digital Ocean and Hetzner if you're looking for a good VPS provider at a good price (it's what we use.)

    High Performance Hosting

    If you're looking for high performance web hosting, you're going to need something more specialized.

    You can't just expect a simple cPanel host to give you what you'll need. You need a custom configuration.

    Generally, you'll need either a managed host, or you'll need to get your servers configured with custom configurations.

    If you're looking for a high performance hosting provider, we offer hosting designed for high-availability and high-traffic.

    WordPress Hosting

    What WordPress Hosting Should You Get?

    There are many considerations when getting a WordPress hosting provider. Focus on the performance needs of your website.

    WordPress Hosting Setup

    When setting up your WordPress hosting, or switching hosts, there are a number of steps to complete. These include:

    WordPress & Security

    There are a number of WordPress security threats to contend with. We recommend using a plugin like WordFence to help secure your site.

    WordPress Backups

    Make sure to also back-up your site. It's absolutely essential, and ideally use an off-site backup provider that's different from your hosting provider.

    WordPress Speed Improvements

    There are a number of ways to improve the speed of your WordPress site on its hosting.

    There are a number of plugins that can help improve your site's speed.

    DNS

    DNS Records

    There are many different types of records, each with their own purpose. These include: SOA, A, TXT, CNAME, PTR (reverse DNS), and more. On some servers, you can also set up wildcard records.

    The records you need will depend on what you're doing; WordPress sites require different records than mail servers, for example.

    Propagation

    The process of your records transmitting to DNS servers around the world is called propagation. It normally takes 48 hours, but you can speed it up a bit with some planning.

    Testing

    To test your DNS records, there are 2 main tools: dig and nslookup. Each is very helpful in its own specialty.

    Reliability & Security

    There are a number of ways to improve your DNS reliability and security.

    • Split Horizon allows you to separate networks, either for intranets or for separating by geographic region.
    • GeoDNS allows you to give different records to different locations based on the requesting IP address. This allows you to create your own CDN, speeding up your site.
    • DNS over QUIC speeds up your DNS requests and gives you better DNS security by encrypting your DNS connection.
    • DNSSEC allows you to sign and encrypt your DNS connection, ensuring that nobody is changing your records.
    • DNS over HTTPS allows your visitors to request your DNS records over an encrypted connection.

    Internationalized Domains

    Internationalized domain names allow character encodings other than Latin characters. They have their own methods for backward compatibility.

    Scroll To Top