Improving Your WordPress Editing Experience

1. Disable Unused Plugins During Site Development

Certain plugins can significantly slow down your editing experience, especially when building or updating your site. Two particularly resource-intensive plugins are:

• The Events Calendar: If you’re not actively managing events, consider temporarily disabling this plugin while working on other content.
• Gravity Forms: This form builder is powerful but can slow things down. Disable it when you’re not specifically working with forms.

How to do this: Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins, then click “Deactivate” under the plugins you’re not currently using. Remember to reactivate them when needed!

2. Limit Multiple Open Tabs

It might seem efficient to open several pages or posts in different tabs for editing, but this practice can actually:

• Drain your computer’s resources
• Create multiple simultaneous connections to the server
• Slow down your overall editing experience

Better approach: Work on one or two pages at a time, save your work, and then move on to the next task.

3. Rethink Password Protection

Password protecting content might seem like a good security measure, but it comes with significant performance costs:

• Forces all pages on your site to bypass the Varnish cache
• Slows down the experience for all users
• Increases server load for everyone

Alternative solutions:

• Use Google Drive for documents that need controlled access
• Consider if the content truly needs password protection
• Discuss with your team whether there are better security approaches for your specific needs

4. Connect to the Campus VPN

Using the campus VPN while editing can prevent many common issues:

• Avoids firewall restrictions
• Prevents security filtering that might block certain actions
• Creates a more stable connection to the WordPress servers

Reminder: Always connect to the VPN before beginning your editing session for the best experience.

5. General WordPress Performance Best Practices

• Optimize images before uploading them (aim for under 1MB per image)
• Use the Media Library rather than uploading the same images multiple times
• Delete unused media files, plugins, and themes
• Clean up your database by removing post revisions and other unnecessary data
• Schedule large content updates during off-peak hours when possible

Need More Help?

If you continue experiencing significant performance issues after following these recommendations, please reach out to the support team. We’re here to help make your content management experience as smooth as possible.

Remember, our UComm and OIT teams are actively working on broader performance improvements to the system. Thank you for your patience as we work to enhance the WordPress experience for everyone.