Process for moving to WPEasy WordPress hosting Print

Our Technologies:

Our WordPress hosting uses the following technologies:

1. cPanel accounts
2. Litespeed Web Server
3. Litespeed Cache
4. Cloud Linux

Typical Process for moving your WordPress site to WP Easy Hosting:

1. We run a GTMetrix site analysis to get an initial snapshot of the site performance, page speed etc. 
2. We ensure that we have access to your existing hosting and WordPress administrator login
3. We create a new cPanel account on our servers
4. We install a "Duplicator" plugin on your existing WordPress
5. We use Duplicator to create an archive backup of your website
6. We then point your domain name to the new cPanel account. Note: This process varies depending on whether or not WP Easy will be managing your domain name.
7. We then restore the archive on the new cPanel and test that the site is working properly.

Note: To maximise WordPress performance, WP Easy does not host email. If your email accounts are on your current hosting, they will remain there. Alternatively they could be moved to a cloud service like Google G-Suite or Microsoft Office 365.

Initial Optimisation:

1. Once WordPress is working on WP Easy cPanel, We do an initial setup of LS Cache (Litespeed Cache). This is just page caching.
2. We then run another GTMetrix report to get a snapshot of the difference in site performance.

Note: All other WordPress caching plugins will need to be removed first, they will not work with LS Cache.

Further Optimisation:

Additional work may be done to optimise the site performance using LS Cache. The previous GTMetrix report will provide information on recommended further optimisations .

1. Optimise all images
2. Resize any oversized images
3. Combine and minify styles (css files) 
4. Combine and minify scripts (js files)
5. Defer loading of Javascript
6. Use a CDN for content delivery

Note: These optimisation tasks are not included in the initial WordPress site move. They may be done using your support tokens.

Notes for Developers:

Why LS Cache?

LiteSpeed Cache creates cached files that sit in front of the Web Server. When a cached URI is requested, the cached file is served directly. i.e. the Web Server doesn't need to handle the request, fire up PHP, MYSQL and run WordPress. 

Other WordPress Cache plugins run from WordPress. So the Web Server handles the request, fires up PHP and MYSQL, runs WordPress, then the cache plugin servers up cached files.

It may seem like a subtle difference, but this significantly improves response times under heavy load, and reduces the server loads. 

Common Issues with LS Cache:

The most common issues are with CSS and JSS minification and combination. WordPress is made up of Themes with CSS and JS. Most plugins also have CSS and JS files. Unfortunately, some CSS and JS just do not behave well when minified or combined. 

LS Cache has a tuning tab. There you can:

1. Specify the order that files are combined in
2. Exclude files from being combined 

Our normal approach to resolving broken CSS or JS:

1. Combine all CSS and JS excluding jQuery. 
2. Check the site for any  obvious broken layout or elements
3. If there are any issues:
   1. View the page source and search for paths to all css and js links
   2. Go to "LiteSpeed Cache Settings"->Tuning
   3. Add all CSS paths to "CSS Excludes"
   4. Add all JS paths to "JS Excludes"
   5. Save Changes
   6. Purge All Cache
   7. Test the site.. All should be OK.
   8. One by one remove JS path from  "JS Excludes"
      1. Purge All Cache , Test  the site
      2. If the site breaks, put the JS path back in and move to the next one.
   9. One by one remove CSS path from  "CSSExcludes"
      1. Purge All Cache , Test  the site
      2. If the site breaks, put the CSS path back in and move to the next one.

This simple process of elimination enables you to take advantage of the CSS/JS performance improvements, while excluding any files that don't play nicely.