Speeding Up Your Website (Caching & Performance) : Exact Hosting Customer Support

A faster website keeps visitors engaged and ranks better in search results. This article covers practical ways to speed up a site hosted with Exact Hosting, from caching to image optimization, with no advanced setup required.

What affects your site's speed

A web page's load time depends on how much data it has to send, how many requests it makes, and how quickly your server can build each page. On shared hosting you improve speed mainly by reducing work and reusing results — that is what caching, optimized images, and lighter code all do.

Staying within your plan's resource limits also keeps your site responsive. If your site is hitting those limits, see Understanding Resource Limits & '508 Resource Limit Reached'.

Before you begin

Access to your website and its admin area (for example, the WordPress dashboard).
A baseline speed test. Run your site through a public page-speed tool first, so you can measure improvement.

Step 1: Enable caching

Caching stores a ready-made copy of your pages so the server does not rebuild them on every visit. It is usually the single biggest speed improvement.

For WordPress, install a reputable caching plugin and enable page caching. [SME CONFIRM: whether Exact Hosting recommends or includes a specific caching solution, or server-level caching such as on the Managed WordPress plan.]
For other sites, enable browser caching so repeat visitors reuse files they already downloaded.

Step 2: Optimize your images

Images are usually the largest part of a page.

Resize images to the dimensions they actually display at.
Compress them before uploading, or use an image-optimization plugin.
Use modern formats (such as WebP) where supported.

Step 3: Reduce and clean up

Remove unused plugins, themes, and extensions — each adds work. See Hardening Your WordPress Site.
Minimize the number of plugins that load on every page.
Keep your database tidy by clearing out spam, trashed items, and old revisions.

Step 4: Keep your software current

Newer versions of WordPress, plugins, and PHP are generally faster as well as more secure.

Update your applications regularly.
Use a current, supported PHP version — see Managing PHP Settings (MultiPHP INI Editor). [SME CONFIRM: that customers can self-select PHP version on shared plans.]

Step 5: Re-test and compare

Run the same page-speed test you used for your baseline and compare. Make one change at a time so you can see what helped.

Note: Shared hosting balances resources across many sites. Caching and optimization deliver the biggest gains; if you consistently need more raw power, a higher-tier plan may be the better fit.