The world of the web has changed a lot in the last few years. Key to any strategy of success is the work necessary to get Google to like your site. The more Google likes your site, the higher your site shows up search results. This is key to getting found on the web.
It is clear that the speed of your website is critical to its overall success. Here are some key points:
Shared / VPS / Dedicated / Cloud hosting
There are a lot of hosting choices, and all of them have benefits and drawbacks. Shared hosting is always the least expensive. It's major drawback is that your website is on a server with several hundred, or perhaps several thousand other websites. And one or more of those websites might be doing things that earn that server a poor reputation. We do not recommend shared hosting if you are serious about your website success.
Too Many Active Plugins
We've seen this too often. Plugins make it easier to enable certain functionality on your site. But each plugin comes with it's own baggage. Every time a page is requested (seriously, every time) the initialization code for each plugin has to be executed. And some plugins load their own css and / or javascript files. If you have a lot (more than 10) active plugins, every time someone visits a page, the initialization code for 10 plugins has to be executed, and the browser has to perform multiple requests back to the server to load the css and javascript that might be required by those plugins.
There are some people who try to tell you that the number of plugins on your site do not matter. This is not correct. Please limit the number of active plugins on your site to less than 10. And of course, some plugins are heavier than others, so be aware of how they are impacting your site.
Page Builders
Page builders are very popular now. Elementor, Beaver Builder, Divi theme with it's own page builder. These page builders are great for getting pages up. But you may not realize that the page is now saved with html and css dependent on that page builder. You cannot move off that page builder in the future without rewriting the entire site. Additionally, these page builders all load their own css, and in some cases javascript, that add to the heaviness of the page. Google PageSpeed Insights is a very good tool for understanding the impact of these additional resources.
WordPress has added its own visual page builder - called Gutenberg during its development. While there are a few layouts that are indeed easier to achieve with the third party page builders, the native WordPress page builder is robust and powerful. And this page builder does not suffer the same drawbacks as third party builders - you are not locked into a builder, and there is no additional css or javascript loaded.
Rover IDX is highly performant
Unlike many IDX's, Rover IDX does not drag down page speed scores. We've worked hard to make this happen, and continually work with vendors and clients to continue to improve.
