One second, two seconds, three seconds… still loading? Most people won’t wait beyond that point, and I’m guilty of it too! We’ve all closed a tab because a site took too long to load. Did you know that nearly 53% of users abandon a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load? That’s why page speed and site speed optimization are not just user preferences—they’re necessities. It even plays a big role in how Google ranks your site.
If you’re using Elementor, the popular WordPress page builder, and struggling with slower load times, don’t worry—you’re not alone. Elementor is a fantastic tool, but if you’re not optimizing it properly, it can weigh your site down. So how can you make your Elementor-built website faster and improve overall performance?
In this detailed guide, I’ll share over 40 actionable tips to help you optimize your Elementor website efficiently and turbocharge its performance.
Speed Up Your Elementor Website with These Easy Expert Tips!
Optimizing your Elementor website doesn’t have to be complicated. With the right strategies, you can dramatically improve your site’s performance without sacrificing design. Follow these straightforward tips to enhance site speed and deliver a better user experience.
1. Choose a Performance-Optimized Hosting Provider
Your web hosting is the engine behind your website’s performance. No matter how many tricks you apply, poor hosting can slow down your site drastically. What makes a good host for an Elementor site? Look for these features:
- SSD storage: Faster read/write speeds than traditional hard drives.
- PHP 7.4 or higher: PHP is the programming language that powers WordPress, and newer versions are significantly faster.
- HTTP/2 support: A faster way for servers and browsers to communicate.
Recommended providers:
Why Let Your Website Crawl When It Can Fly?
Your site should work for you, not against you. Let Seahawk’s site optimization services give your Elementor site the speed it deserves, so you can keep your visitors happy and engaged.
Keep Reading: How to Setup Elementor Shortcodes for Easy Template Use
These providers offer optimized hosting specifically for WordPress, ensuring your Elementor site performs efficiently.
2. Use a Lightweight Theme
A lightweight theme will complement Elementor and drastically improve your website’s speed. Elementor is already a powerful tool, but pairing it with a heavy theme can slow things down. When choosing a theme, make sure it:
- Is modular: Loads only the features you use.
- Sends fewer server requests.
- Has a smaller file size.
Top lightweight themes:
These themes are compatible with Elementor and designed for speed optimization.
Read More: Page Speed Optimization Guide for WordPress
3. Minify and Combine CSS and JS Files
The more CSS and JavaScript your site uses, the longer it will take to load. Minifying these files reduces their size by removing unnecessary characters, spaces, and comments. Combining them into a single file also reduces server requests. This can be done easily using plugins like:
Both plugins are easy to configure and help you reduce load times significantly.
4. Compress Images
Images are often the largest files on a website. Optimizing them can have a huge impact on load times. Compressing images reduces their size without significantly compromising quality. There are two main types of compression:
- Lossy: Some quality is sacrificed to reduce file size.
- Lossless: Reduces file size without losing any quality.
Image optimization tools:
If possible, convert your images to WebP format, which is much more efficient than traditional JPEG or PNG files.
5. Limit the Number of Plugins
It’s tempting to load your WordPress site with plugins to extend functionality. However, too many plugins can slow down your Elementor website significantly. Review your plugins regularly and deactivate or delete those you no longer need. Some plugins are resource-heavy and could be causing slower load times.
Pro tip: Use tools like GTmetrix or Pingdom Tools to identify which plugins are slowing your site down.
Explore: How Many WordPress Plugins Should You Install?
6. Optimize Elementor’s Global Settings
Elementor provides several settings for performance optimization. Adjusting these settings can lead to a noticeable improvement in load times:
- Enable Improved Asset Loading: Only loads the CSS and JS files needed for each page.
- Disable unused fonts and icons to reduce unnecessary server requests.
These settings can be found under Elementor > Settings > Advanced.
7. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN stores copies of your website’s files on servers worldwide. When a user visits your site, they are served content from the nearest server, reducing latency. This is especially useful if you have visitors from all over the globe.
Top CDNs:
CDNs can drastically reduce load times by optimizing content delivery and reducing the burden on your server.
8. Enable Gzip Compression
Gzip compression reduces the size of files sent from your server to the user’s browser. This can lead to faster load times, especially for users with slower internet connections. Gzip can be enabled using:
- WP Super Cache
- Modifying your .htaccess file manually.
By compressing your files, you save bandwidth and improve loading speeds.
9. Optimize Your Database
WordPress databases can accumulate unnecessary data over time, such as post revisions, spam comments, and unused metadata. These can bloat your database and slow down your site. Regularly cleaning up your database can speed up your Elementor website.
WordPress Database optimization plugins:
- WP-Optimize
- Advanced Database Cleaner
Both plugins offer an easy way to schedule database cleanups to ensure your site remains optimized.
10. Implement Lazy Loading for Images
Lazy loading ensures that images are only loaded when they enter the user’s viewport, reducing the initial load time of your website. Elementor natively supports lazy loading, but if you’re not using this feature, consider adding it.
Best lazy load plugins:
These plugins reduce the amount of data loaded on your page, speeding up the user experience.
11. Preload Key Resources
Preloading tells the browser to fetch important resources, such as CSS or JS files, early on in the page load process. This can be done by adding a <link rel=”preload”> tag to your header or by using a plugin.
12. Use Critical CSS for Above-the-Fold Content
Critical CSS is the CSS required to render the above-the-fold (visible without scrolling) content. By loading this CSS first, your page will appear faster, even if other elements are still loading in the background. Many optimization plugins have built-in critical CSS features.
13. Reduce the Number of Sections and Columns in Elementor
Using fewer sections and columns in your Elementor designs can speed up rendering times. Complex page structures with too many elements can slow down your site, so aim to simplify where possible.
Know: How to Optimize Images & Improve Website Speed?
14. Remove Unused CSS and JavaScript
Some elements on your website load CSS and JavaScript even if they aren’t being used on a particular page. Plugins like Asset CleanUp and Perfmatters allow you to selectively disable unused CSS and JavaScript files on specific pages.
15. Use High-Performing DNS Providers
DNS (Domain Name System) acts like a phone book for the internet. When a user types in your URL, the DNS translates it into an IP address. A slow DNS provider can result in delayed load times. Switch to a faster DNS provider to improve this.
Recommended DNS providers:
- Cloudflare DNS
- Google DNS
These DNS providers are not only fast but also offer additional security features.
Keep Reading: Top Themes for Elementor: A Definitive Guide
16. Enable Browser Caching
Browser caching stores static assets (like images, CSS, and JavaScript) in the user’s browser so that they don’t have to download them again on subsequent visits. This reduces the load on your server and speeds up the site for repeat visitors.
17. Use External File Method for CSS in Elementor
Elementor gives you the option to either embed CSS in the page’s HTML or load it as an external file. Using the external file method can reduce the overall size of the page, leading to faster load times.
18. Offload Media to a Cloud Storage
Offloading media files to cloud storage services like Amazon S3 can reduce the load on your server and improve loading speeds. Large media files, such as videos and high-resolution images, are especially suited for offloading.
19. Use Optimized Widgets and Add-ons
Not all Elementor widgets are created equal. Some widgets are more resource-intensive than others. Consider using optimized add-ons and disabling unnecessary widgets to reduce load times.
Optimized Elementor add-ons:
These plugins offer useful features without overloading your website with excessive code.
20. Disable Unused Elementor Widgets
Elementor comes with many widgets, but not all of them will be necessary for every website. Disable widgets you aren’t using in Elementor > Settings > Experiments to prevent them from loading unnecessary resources.
21. Upgrade to PHP 8.0
PHP 8.0 offers improved performance over older versions, with faster execution times and lower memory usage. Make sure your hosting provider supports PHP 8.0 and update your WordPress site to take advantage of its performance benefits.
Related: How to Update WordPress PHP Version?
22. Limit the Use of Sliders
Sliders are notoriously resource-heavy. If possible, avoid using sliders altogether, or limit their use to improve load times. If you must use a slider, ensure it’s optimized with lazy loading and minimal animations.
23. Remove Unnecessary Redirects
Redirects can slow down your website because they add additional steps for the browser. Clean up your redirects to ensure users can access content directly.
Technical Read: How to Redirect WordPress URLs with & without Plugin?
24. Optimize Fonts
Fonts, especially custom ones, can significantly slow down your website. To optimize fonts:
- Self-host Google Fonts or use system fonts.
- Preload fonts to ensure they load quickly.
Related: Fix Elementor Animated Headline Not Working
25. Optimize Mobile Performance
With most web traffic coming from mobile devices, optimizing your Elementor site for mobile is essential. Elementor offers responsive web design options, so make sure your mobile design is streamlined and optimized.
26. Activate Elementor Experiments
Elementor has experimental features that are designed to enhance performance. These features are not always enabled by default, so make sure to check them out.
- Go to Elementor > Settings > Experiments to turn on the experiments that can improve your site’s speed.
Know: Best Elementor Alternatives
27. Change CSS Print Method to “External File”
By default, Elementor prints CSS inline, which can slow down your page’s loading speed. Switching to the “External File” method reduces page size and speeds up rendering.
- Navigate to Elementor > Settings > Advanced and change the CSS print method to “External File.”
Related: How to Fix Widget Panel Not Loading in Elementor
28. Host Fonts Locally Using WOFF2
Hosting fonts locally rather than fetching them from external servers can speed up load times, especially if you’re using Google Fonts. The WOFF2 format is smaller and faster to load than other font formats.
- Use tools like OMGF to download and host your fonts locally.
Read: Custom Theme Development Vs Elementor
29. Preload Fonts
Preloading fonts ensures that browsers fetch them as a priority, speeding up the initial rendering of your website.
- Add a <link rel=”preload”> in your header to prioritize key fonts.
30. Leave Google Fonts Load as “Swap”
If you are using Google Fonts, set the font-display property to “swap,” which ensures that the text is displayed immediately using a fallback font, then switches to the custom font when it has loaded.
- You can achieve this by adding a CSS rule or through a plugin that manages Google Fonts.
Further reading: Best Elementor Landing Page Templates
31. Disable Gutenberg’s wp-block-library
If you’re not using Gutenberg on your website, you can disable its block library stylesheet, which is loaded on every page by default.
You can do this by adding a line of code to your theme’s functions.php:
remove_action( ‘wp_enqueue_scripts’, ‘wp_block_library_css’ );
32. Remove Unused CSS with Elementor Exclusions
Some parts of Elementor’s CSS may not be needed for all pages. You can exclude unnecessary CSS to prevent it from loading on pages where it’s not needed.
- Use plugins like Asset CleanUp or Perfmatters to selectively unload Elementor CSS files.
Find: Best Elementor SaaS WordPress Themes
33. Use Transform and Translate for Animations
If you’re using animations in Elementor, consider using CSS transform and translate instead of traditional position properties. These methods are more performant and reduce the strain on the browser, especially on mobile devices.
- Adjust your CSS or use animation settings within Elementor.
Learn: Elementor Stuck on Loading Screen? Here’s How to Fix It!
34. Code Your Header/Footer in CSS
Instead of building your header and footer with multiple Elementor widgets, consider hard-coding them using lightweight CSS. This reduces the number of resources required to render your header and footer sections.
- If you’re not comfortable with coding, consider using a minimal header/footer template.
35. Delay JavaScript with Elementor Exclusions
JavaScript files can delay the rendering of your page. Delay non-critical JavaScript to improve page speed without affecting functionality.
- Use a plugin like WP Rocket or Perfmatters to delay JavaScript loading while excluding essential Elementor files from this delay.
36. Test Plugins for High CSS, JS, or Memory Usage
Some plugins add unnecessary CSS, JS, or consume too much memory, slowing down your site. Regularly test your plugins and identify those that use too many resources.
- Use tools like Query Monitor to find resource-heavy plugins and either optimize or replace them.
Keep Reading: Great Tools to Test WordPress Performance and Speed Effectively
37. Disable Plugins Where They Aren’t Used
Not all plugins need to be active site-wide. Disabling plugins on pages where they aren’t used can significantly reduce load times.
- Use Plugin Organizer or Asset CleanUp to selectively disable plugins on certain pages.
38. Use Fewer Elementor Widgets/Columns
The more Elementor widgets and columns you use, the more your website will have to render. Simplify your designs and use fewer widgets/columns where possible.
- Keep your design minimal and clean to ensure faster loading times.
Explore: How to Setup Elementor Shortcodes for Easy Template Use
39. Upload Images in WebP Format
WebP is a modern image format that provides superior lossless and lossy compression for images on the web, reducing file sizes without compromising quality.
- Use plugins like Imagify or ShortPixel to automatically convert your images to WebP format during upload.
Read: Best WordPress Image Optimization Plugins
40. Use Full Page Caching
Full-page caching saves a fully rendered page and serves it to users, bypassing the need to reprocess the page for every visit. This reduces server load and improves page speed significantly.
- Use a caching plugin to enable full-page caching.
Related: 10 Fastest WordPress Themes In 2023 (With PageSpeed Scores)
Conclusion: Optimize Your Elementor Website Efficiently!
Optimizing your Elementor website doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By leveraging these 40+ actionable tips, you can take control of your website’s speed, performance, and overall user experience. Whether it’s simplifying your design, optimizing your hosting, reducing plugin load, or implementing smart caching techniques, each tweak plays a crucial role in enhancing your site’s efficiency.
Remember, faster websites not only offer a smoother experience but also rank higher in search engine results, driving more organic traffic. In a world where every second counts, speed has become a decisive factor for both user retention and conversions. A sluggish site can drive potential customers away, but a well-optimized one keeps them engaged, boosts SEO rankings, and improves your bottom line.
With the right strategies in place, your Elementor website will load quickly, perform smoothly, and offer a top-notch experience for all visitors. Don’t wait—start implementing these optimizations today and watch as your website transforms into a faster, more efficient powerhouse that stands out in today’s competitive digital landscape. Your users will thank you, and so will your business!
