Start your affiliate marketing business with some of the fastest free WordPress themes that you will find. We tested a hundred free WP themes and these 3 were the fastest we could find.
Each theme was right around 1-2 milliseconds with a couple of paragraphs of content and a featured image added when we tested them.
We also plugged in a domain name. All website speed test was conducted using Pingdom. Website speed is very important.
It is one of Googles ranking factors and we all know Google hates a slow website. People also hate waiting for a site to load. They will just go look somewhere else for solutions or information they need.
If your website takes more than a couple of seconds to load that person may go to one of your competitor’s websites.
The more people that visit your website the more chances you have at generating a lead for your affiliate marketing business. Don’t leave money on the table because you’re website is too slow.
We use SiteGround and they are an excellent hosting provider that offers speed, security, and has some of the best customer services. You can find free WordPress themes when you sign up for WP hosting.
We also recommend WPX hosting as they are rated number one by customers and this information can be found on the Trust Pilot website. SiteGround was in the top ten with the most votes.
If you find a faster free WordPress theme then please share it in the comment section below. We are sharing this information to help folks get started with an affiliate marketing business.
Some people are trying to learn how to make money online and have limited funds. Once you start making a few bucks you can always switch to a paid theme.
3 Blazing Fast Free WP Themes
Now let’s get into the 3 fastest WordPress themes that we chose. We’ll also list some of the features that each them has and last time they were updated.
Sometimes you will find WP themes that have not been updated for years. You want to use themes that stay updated and follow our basic SEO checklist when writing your content.
Starting an affiliate marketing business takes time and you will need to learn a lot of new skills. Picking a fast WordPress theme was one of the things we always had a hard time with when we first started.
Especially when you don’t know what you’re doing. It was a lot of trial and error when we first started.
To be honest, we didn’t even know anything about WordPress, themes, hosting, and it took a while to just catch on with all the internet language that all these entrepreneurs use.
Picking WordPress themes, hosting, and choosing the right email marketing platform can be a task that you will not quite understand until you’ve been doing this a while.
That is why we make it easy for you, give you some guidance, and show you some proof so you know that we are giving you solid advice.
Here are the 3 things you need to start an online business with besides a domain name.
- WP theme
- Hosting
- Email Auto-Responder
We use AWeber because they are the best email marketing tool. They have the best open rates so why use anything else? Now, back to the themes.
1. Astra Free WordPress Theme
The Astra free WordPress theme is very fast. It was cloaked in at 104 ms. It received a performance score of 100. You’ll need to realize that once you start adding content to any of these themes that you are going to lose some speed.
We’ll talk about some of the ways to keep your speed in check further down in the article. Astra has over a hundred thousand users. It not only fast but is very customizable.
This theme is great for bloggers, small businesses, and even a Woo Commerce website. It is built with SEO in mind.
Astra is built with the Schema.org code so the search engines will really like your website because it will be easier for them to read.
You learn all about this type of stuff later down the road. It has a responsive design and is regularly updated. It comes with widgets, sidebar, and a footer that you can easily customize.
You’ll only get one menu option for your website. You can add your logo to the header. Speaking of logo’s, don’t worry about it. Most businesses use words.
Astra is an excellent choice and another thing is, you’ll be able to switch these free WordPress themes with one another and see which one you like the best.
Don’t spend all your time on these themes. You will want to spend your time producing great content for your audience.
You can read more about the Astra WordPress theme with a simple Google search. It’s easy to start building a website with this theme. You can learn more about this theme by just taking action and start using it.
That is the best way to get started in the internet world. Take action and produce content. It will take time before your website is found on Google to share with the world.
2. DI Business Free WordPress Theme
The DI Business WordPress theme is another fast theme that packs a punch. You can use it for a variety of different uses like an affiliate marketing business, or a small local business, and you can even ad a Woo Commerce plugin to have a storefront.
This theme clocked in around 100-200 ms and had a performance score of 100. Depending on the time of day and probably a few other small factors.
We liked this fast WP theme not just for speed but you can add your email and phone number into the header if you need to. It also comes with the social media icons built into the header.
So all you need to do is add your favorite social site links and you’re socially connected. The one drawback to the free theme is that it only comes in the green color.
You have to get the paid version to get more color options.
The DI Business theme is SEO (search engine optimization) friendly. It comes with widgets and is easily customizable for most any type of business.
It even comes with a thumbnail blog post widget to display your post in the sidebar. This theme is an excellent theme for local businesses like wedding planners, restaurants, gyms, and the list keeps going on.
You can also use this theme with a lot of the new page builders. Need a theme with the color green? You’re in business with this great fast WP theme DI Business. Very professional and easy to learn.
It even comes with a mega menu option. You get 2 menu locations, a footer copyright option, and also you can choose your own typography options. You can do quite a few marketing jobs with this great fast WP theme.
3. Generate Press Free WordPress Theme
Generate Press is another fast WordPress theme that is an excellent choice. It clocked in between 100-200 ms and also had a performance score of 100. The Generate Press theme is SEO friendly and is very use able for new folks.
It is fully Schema compliant and works with all the main browsers. You can easily customize the navigation menus to get them to look and move with your content.
You’ll also get many widgets areas to use for your sidebar, header, and footer. This theme comes with a header bar and a footer bar to add the things you may need.
Typography customization is a breeze with the Generate Press theme. You can get a lot of different looks with this theme that usually come from a paid theme.
It also comes with a responsive design so it will not matter if your visitor is checking your site out from a mobile phone, tablet, or a desktop. You’re covered no matter what device they are using to visit your site.
WordPress.org gives it a 5-star rating. So you can rest assured you are getting a quality free WP theme.
It’s compatible with most of the well coded WP plugins to include Woo Commerce. You also shouldn’t have any render blocking issues that will give you a lower performance score with some of the website speed test sites.
The Generate Press free WordPress theme has been downloaded over a 1000 times a day all year long. It stays up to date as it has all of this year 2018. This is a great choice for a great affiliate marketing theme.
Remember you can check out all 3 of the fastest free WordPress themes and switch to the one you like best.
Summary Fastest Free WordPress Themes
- 100 Tested And 3 Gave The Speed You Need
- WordPress Hosting Is A Major Factor For Website Speed
- The Fastest – Astra Free WordPress
- DI Business Free WordPress Theme
- Generate Press Free WordPress Theme
- They All Scored 100 Performance Score
- Beware – Once You Start Adding Content Speed Will Drop
Website Speed Killers For The Fastest Free WordPress Themes
Slow Hosting is the number 1 WordPress Speed Killer. Your probably still thinking about choosing the fastest free WordPress theme but once you start adding content those speeds will start to fall very quickly.
You’ll need to learn a few things to help you keep your speed under two seconds or faster. Like we mentioned earlier, hosting is the first thing you need to consider.
Not all hosting is the same or created equal.
The ones you will hear about all the time are Host Gator, Go Daddy, and Blue Host. From all that we gathered from customers that actually vote on these issues is that they are at the bottom of the barrel.
During our time as an internet marketer, we have used all three because we did not know any better when we were new.
We mentioned our two top choices, SiteGround, and WPX hosting. SiteGround starts you out with a better deal and we have not had any complaints using their hosting product.
Once you find one you’re happy with and it gives you the speed you need for your WordPress website, more than likely you’ll stick with it.
You might pay a little more for great hosting but it’s worth it because you won’t lose visitors, you’ll have awesome customer service, and have some of the best up times for your website.
Nothing worst than your website being down because of the hosting company. It will cost you money. If it takes longer than 2 – 3 seconds for your site to load you will start to lose up to 40% of your visitors.
We have found that WPX hosting was the fastest we have used at an affordable price when compared to
But you will find that most of the top internet marketers, affiliate marketers, and entrepreneurs use WordPress. As a matter of fact over 30% of all websites on the internet use this platform
Why? Because it is one of the best that anyone offers and you can do a lot with the platform.
So let’s get into the other two WordPress website speed killers that you can manage. The first one is the images. We all like using images but if you slap a highly weighted image on your site it will slow your site down tremendously.
Next big website speed killer is using WordPress plugins.
Images Are A Big Website Speed Killer
Yes, those beautiful images that you put on your website can kill your speed. It can act as though it takes forever to load a website page with an image that is not optimized.
You must optimize your images to get the fastest results. You can use plugins but there is still work that should be done for better results.
Google hates slow loading website pages and you can get a better ranking score when your website loads quickly. It also makes for a better user experience when your images are optimized and you have a faster loading speed.
You should try to use a JPEG file because the files are usually lighter and have a smaller file size compared to a PNG file. They can be resized easily without much picture quality loss.
The lesson here is to compress and resize all the images that you will need on your website. Use PNG files for smaller images like vectors, screenshots, and even your logo.
Keep the size of your images as small as possible and you can find tools to resize your images for free with a quick Google search or we’ll let you know when you subscribe to our newsletter.
It’s a way to start your very own online business and you’ll get guidance on stuff like website speed, SEO, and tips to help you succeed.
Anyway, keep your images at the right size without any expensive software or programs. Keep it simple and use some of the free things that are easily accessible online.
You can optimize your images using a WordPress plugin. We use the EWWW Image Optimizer. It works great and we use the free version.
Next up is the plugins that can also cause slow website speed.
WordPress Plugins Are A Website Speed Killer
WordPress plugins can save you a lot of time and headaches. You got to beware of some plugins. Some are just plain outdated and do you little good if any.
We just spoke about images. Without image optimization, your website can come to a crawl.
You can use a WordPress plugin to help you out. There are many free image optimization plugins that do a pretty good job. You still should resize the images before you put them on your website to keep every file size as small as possible to keep a faster website speed.
Don’t get lazy. Resize your images before you put them on your site.
Our recommendation for image optimization is the EWWW Image Optimizer. It is an excellent tool to resize your images and keep your speed where it needs to be.
We have used 3 or 4 different plugins for this task but the EWWW Image Optimizer is the one we have had the best results with. It is from Shane Bishop and is constantly being updated.
Try to use the least amount of WordPress plugins as possible.
Our Favorite WordPress Plugins
Here are the favorite ones that we have used.
- EWWW Image Optimizer
- Yoast SEO
- Antispam Bee
- GA Google Analytics
- Social Sharing by Danny
- WordFence Security.
We try to use no more than 6 -7 plugins at any one time. The less you use the better your website speed will perform. All of the Plugins we mention are free.
Some hosting providers have you covered with security and spam. We just like a little extra protection. We only use the free versions for these plugins.
We keep a lean and mean budget when it comes to our affiliate marketing business.
Summary – WordPress Speed Tips
- Not All Hosting Is The Same
- Hosting Must Provide-Speed-Great Service-Good Rate
- Our Top 2 Choices – SiteGround – WPX Hosting
- Images Are A Speed Killer
- To Many Plugins Are A Speed Killer
Conclusion – Fastest Free WordPress Themes
- Try To Keep Upload Speed Below 2 Seconds
- Thank You Pingdom Website Speed Test
- 100 Free WordPress Themes Tested – We Chose The Top 3
- 1-Astra Free WordPress Theme
- 2-DI Business Free WordPress Theme
- 3-GeneratePress Free WordPress Theme
- Watch For Website Speed Killers
- Images Are A Big Speed Killer
- WP Plugins To Many Plugins Are A Speed Killer (6-7 Max)
- Hosting Is The Number 1 Website Speed Killer
- Hosting – You Must Have Fast & Reliable Hosting
- We Chose 2 Hosting Providers – Service-Speed-Rate
- WPX Hosting & SiteGround Hosting
Let Us Hear Your Input About The Fastest Free WordPress Themes
Drop down below and leave a comment about the fastest free WordPress themes. Do you have one that can beat these 3 themes. Let us know.
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Did you get a chance to read, How To Speed Up A Website So You Quit Losing Customers?
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Astra theme is pretty good. Also mention about cdn plugins like commonwp, NGT jsDelivr CDN etc which loads the files from cdn instead of your hosting which decreases the load time of your website.
Astra Theme is one of the fastest growing themes on the market today. The main reason is it’s lightning fast upload speed when hosted with a fast hosting provider like Builderall or WPX hosting. As far as the plugins you are talking about, we have no knowledge about them. We only use about 5 plugins. The hosting we mentioned above both have CDN networks so we do not need those plugins to speed up our site.