A slow site loses visitors and sales. This website speed optimisation checklist works for WordPress, Joomla, PrestaShop, custom PHP and static sites on cPanel hosting. Work through it in order: the first items usually give the biggest gains for the least effort.
Before you start
- Take a full backup, see cPanel Backup Wizard.
- Pick three key pages to measure: the home page, a typical content page and a product or form page.
Measure before you change anything
- Run each page through PageSpeed Insights and note LCP, INP, CLS and the server response time.
- In the browser open DevTools → Network, reload and note the document's waiting time (TTFB), total requests and transferred size.
- Repeat after each change so you know what helped.
Enable server-side caching
Page caching gives the biggest win for dynamic sites. MdmHost hosting runs LiteSpeed, so use LSCache: the LiteSpeed Cache plugin for WordPress, or the official LSCache modules for other CMSs. Check the response header x-litespeed-cache: hit on a second load to confirm pages come from cache.
Turn on compression and browser caching
- LiteSpeed compresses text responses with gzip or Brotli. Confirm with the
content-encodingresponse header. - Set long cache lifetimes for static files (images, CSS, JS, fonts) with
Cache-ControlorExpiresheaders in.htaccess.
Optimise images
- Resize images to the largest size they are shown at.
- Serve WebP or AVIF, with JPEG/PNG fallback where needed.
- Lazy-load images below the fold, but not the main hero image.
- Always set width and height to avoid layout shift.
Use a current PHP version with OPcache
- Go to cPanel → Software → Select PHP Version (or MultiPHP Manager).
- Choose the newest PHP version your application supports. Newer versions are significantly faster.
- Make sure the
opcacheextension is enabled, so compiled PHP code is reused between requests.
Clean and tune the database
- Delete spam comments, old revisions, expired transients and abandoned sessions.
- Optimise tables in cPanel → Databases → phpMyAdmin.
- Find slow pages caused by heavy queries: plugins that run complex searches or reports on every page view.
Reduce scripts and third-party code
- Remove unused plugins, sliders, chat widgets and tracking tags.
- Defer non-critical JavaScript and inline or preload critical CSS.
- Self-host fonts and limit them to the weights you use.
Add a CDN for distant visitors
Choose the MdmHost location closest to most visitors (Germany, USA or Singapore). For a worldwide audience, a CDN such as Cloudflare or QUIC.cloud serves static files from nearby edge locations.
Watch resource limits
If pages are fast sometimes and slow at peak times, the account may be hitting CPU or entry process limits. Check cPanel → Metrics → Resource Usage. Caching usually fixes this; if not, a larger plan is the answer.
Tip: Change one thing at a time and retest. Aggressive CSS/JS optimisation can break layouts, so keep the ability to undo each step.
Troubleshooting
- No cache hit header: the cache plugin is not active, the page sets cookies, or you are logged in.
- Layout broken after minification: exclude the affected file from combining or deferring.
- High TTFB on uncached pages: profile slow plugins and database queries.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good page load time?
Aim for an LCP of 2.5 seconds or less for most real visitors, and a server response under about 0.8 seconds.
Do I need a CDN if my server is close to visitors?
Not always. A CDN helps most when visitors are far from the server or traffic spikes are large.
Which change helps the most?
For dynamic sites, full-page caching. For image-heavy sites, image optimisation.