What performance problems occur most frequently with WordPress?

WordPress sites usually suffer from a recurring pattern. The most common brakes are: too many active plugins, each loading their own CSS and JavaScript files on every page even where they are not needed, uncompressed and unscaled images, missing or misconfigured caching plugins, outdated PHP versions, and bloated page builders generating hundreds of kilobytes of extra HTML and CSS. On top of that come databases grown over years, full of orphaned metadata, transients and post revisions.

In a typical WordPress project (project experience), we reduce the number of HTTP requests by 40 to 60 percent and the total page size by more than half, without sacrificing functionality. The keys are selective asset loading, a cleanly configured server cache and a tidied-up database. Which measures have the greatest effect on your site is revealed by the performance analysis.