Step 1: PingDom Test

Go to the Pingdom website, enter your root URL and run the test. In the settings tab you can choose from several datacenters, pick the one that’s the closest to you. After the test you will see a result like the one below:
PingDom
Let us shortly explain the different results:
  • Requests: This is the number of request by your site. The perfect range would be something lower than 20, unless you have a lot of scripts running that require more requests.
  • Load Time: Anything above 800ms is not acceptable for a blog/simple website. For e-commerce sites, the loading time may vary, but should not exceed a few seconds either.
  • Page Size: Try to reduce your page size to a bare minimum. The lower your page size, the faster your site and the better the overall performance.
You should now have a general idea on how your site is responding. But we need to run one more test for some additional data:

Step 2: Google PageSpeed Test

Install the PageSpeed Extension in either Firefox or Chrome. Hint: You will also need Firebug (http://getfirebug.com/‎) to use this extension with Firefox. After the extension has been installed, go to your website and run the PageSpeed test. Right click >> Firebug >> Go to the Page Speed tab and click “Analyze Performance”.
Below you will see an example of a well-optimized website and a website that can use some improvement in certain areas Well-optimized:
Well Opt
In need of improvement(s):

Not Well opt.


Step 3: Optimize with W3 Cache

The Pingdom and the PageSpeed tools will give you a rough idea on what needs to be optimized. Barring some critical improvements suggested by Pingdom/PageSpeed, in most cases it is usually enough to install a simple caching plugin to significantly increase the speed of your site. To this end, we will now configure the previously installed W3 Cache Plugin using this very awesome and extensive tutorial here: http://themeid.com/help/discussion/736/how-to-get-99100-on-google-page-speed/
After you have configured your W3 Cache plugin, run the Pingdom and PageSpeed tests again and see how much the performance has improved. If your site is still not above the aforementioned performance ratings, then it’s time to  optimize things further.

Step 4: Optimize your images

First of all, it’s always good to use JPG as opposed to PNG. The former image type is a lot smaller and the quality loss is only marginal to the human eye. If you don’t want to use JPG’s at all, then using the PNG-8 format is also a good option.

Step 5: Optimize with CloudFlare

CloudFlare is a completely free cloud-based service that helps to speed up websites. It works by distributing content around the world so the data is closer to your visitors. Go to https://www.cloudflare.com/ and register an account.
After registering, follow their guidelines to install CloudFlare for your site. If you have any problems to configure CloudFlare, just follow this quite comprehensive tutorial: http://www.comfuge.org/2012/12/setup-CDN-setting-on-your-domain.html Run the Pingdom + PageSpeed tests again and see where you are at. The speed should have improved significantly, thus improving the overall performance and quality of your now fully-configured website.