Interview: Barıs Ünver, Optimocha CEO, about speed optimization

Barış Ünver is the man behind Optimocha, a “speed optimization service” for websites powered by WordPress. Read this interview and find out some great tips about how to speed-up your site.

Can you tell us about yourself?

I’m a 30 year-old web developer, living in Ankara, Turkey. I met WordPress in 2006 and started learning how to make websites with it. I also like to write–not just blogs, but I’m also an amateur playwright.

How did you decide to start a business on speed optimization?

I’ve written WordPress tutorials for Tuts+ Code between 2012 and 2016; I was the lead WordPress instructor when we parted ways. Several of my last tutorials were about speed optimization in WordPress, and while writing them, I realized that I really enjoy making websites load faster. I decided to build an online business on this very issue.

When did you start Optimocha, and who was your first client?

I think the first website I optimized was an online magazine in Turkey, about women. I didn’t officially start the business back then (in 2015) but I was already planning on it, and my first client really helped me see my way through building a business.

My first “Optimocha client” was the Stuart Brent, founder of StartupResources.io. He’s got a screen printing business called Vacord and that was the first website I optimized with the name Optimocha. It was kind of a “brand deal”, I guess: In exchange for optimizing Vacord, he featured me on the StartupResources.io newsletter on Black Friday 2016. He’s a super nice guy, and a dear friend ever since we met.

What’s your speed optimization process? Which tools do you use the most?

After getting your credentials, I start reviewing your website by analyzing the speed with third party tools and prepare a report on your WordPress setup. Configuring my favorite tools (Autoptimize, WP Rocket, ShortPixel Image Optimizer and such) is the easy part; the hard part is talking with the client about the plugins they’re using, and getting rid of excess content. Plus, you know, some more magic tricks I don’t want to talk about :).

Usually at the end of a job, I see a speed improvement between 200% and 300%, but I’ve seen websites that used to load in 25 seconds and now they’re loading under 3 seconds. Improving page load times is my guarantee, or else I refund the client’s money.

Any free tips that can be applied by the readers themselves?

Sure!

1. Always be mindful about using plugins. Using more plugins doesn’t necessarily slow down your website, but heavy plugins cause heavy usage on server resources.

2. Be careful what you want to display on the website. While showing off lots of fancy fonts, good-looking maps, popup modals, live chat scripts and social media widgets might all seem crucial to you, your visitors might not need it and might leave your website because of the unnecessary, page-bloating external scripts and styles. Think from the perspective of your users, not your business, ask yourself “Do my visitors really want to see this?” and ask this question constantly.

3. Invest in a good hosting environment and website maintenance services. Even if you have light content and a very small theme & plugin footprint, bad servers can cause slowness and even downtime for your website. (Hint: Optimocha, along with website optimization, offers server management and maintenance services as well.)

Since you’re so nice about featuring Optimocha, I’d like to return the favor and offer your visitors a nice discount on Optimocha’s one-time speed optimization services:

Until the end of 2017, ShortPixel visitors can enjoy a 20% discount by using the coupon code SHORTPIXELLOVE on checkout.

Thanks for reading!