Shay Toder – Page Speed Optimization Expert

My name is Shay Toder, a Page Speed Optimization Expert. Got 1st place in 2019 & 3rd place in 2020 in a worldwide WordPress performance contest.

Owner of ShayToder.com – a blog dedicated to page speed optimization.

The Journey Began

In the past, I built a website for my wife’s child’s book using Dreamweaver with pure HTML. A few years later, I built a website for my brother’s clinic, but this time It was none other than WordPress, as I needed to publish posts in the easiest way and give others the option to edit & publish content without messing with the design. I was looking for something easy to accomplish so I decided to go with WordPress.

During that time and for the last 14 years, I worked as a SQL DBA (Database Administrator), writing complex queries & procedures, and the thing I like the most, is to improve the performance of queries and the clients are like: This guy doing MAGIC.

So it was natural when I looked for ways to develop myself in the online world, to take my passion for improving performance, and to harness it to websites.

The Need for ShayToder.com

Shay Toder Logo

As a page speed optimization expert, I wanted to give something new to the audience. I didn’t want to quote or rewrite others, the result, and I hope it will be better in the future, you will not see too much content in my blog, as generating unique content is time-consuming.

My first article was how to gain a perfect score in GTmetrix, only to understand that speed matters, not score.

Moving between a few hosting companies was also part of my early days, realizing not to fully believe every eager affiliate person promoting web hosting. So I ended up making my own hosting comparison to find the fastest one, and only after seeing the results I moved to the winner and became an eager affiliate myself.

But even with only a handful number of articles, imagine my surprise to see one article, of mine ranked #1 in Google with the keywords Facebook pixel page speed.

Working with Clients

During my early time, I began to optimize page speed for clients, learning new things every day. At first, I even took jobs and paid all my profits, and even more, to other speed experts to help me so I will learn from them as well.

I didn’t care how many hours I worked on optimizing a single site and believe me, it was not worth the money, but I didn’t care, as learning new stuff was my main goal, and this approach paid off.

Winning Worldwide Contest

Shay Toder Performance Contest

One day, I was on a chat with another speed and optimization expert, he mentioned to me a speed optimization contest. My eyes popped out of my head.

I was so excited to find out that I can still register, and so I got the registration thing done on the same day. I waited a few weeks for the contest to begin. And once it started, for the rest of five days (entire contest period). I dedicated my time to it and didn’t do ANYTHING else.

All the contestants got a slow WooCommerce site, and I Improved every single bit that I could find. There were some restrictions you can read more about it here.

After some time, I receive an email with the sentence “You’ve Won the WordPress Performance Contest 2019″. I was in HEAVEN!

A year has passed, and the 2020 contest arrived. I worked hard, and once again, won the contest,  this time I got 3rd place, just lagging by 0.1 sec & 1 point in PageSpeed Insights score behind 1st place.

My Online Course

The Page Speed

Winning the contest gave me a boost in my skills. I continued improving page speed for clients, as I’m doing today, but I also began gathering materials for my online course on WordPress Page Speed Optimization Course.

In this course, I teach all the things I am doing every day for clients, helping site builders and SEO persons and even nurture other speed experts, increasing their skills in on-site optimization.

In this course, I give personal assistance, sending each course member a long audit video for his/her site to be optimized. Giving recommendations and a list of lessons to focus on, along with a membership to a private Facebook group where I answer all speed-related questions.

Advice for Business Owners

Here is some advice I truly believe that will help anyone:

• Invest in yourself!
• Take a mentor that will help you with your marketing strategies or a designer that can beautify your site i.e, whatever help you need.
• Keep learning!
• Do your things today so you won’t regret it in the future by not doing it.
• Doing good is good for business. – Richard Branson. I’m helping a lot of people by giving free recommendations. I invest a lot of time answering in groups. It pays off!
• Everything is possible. The impossible just takes longer. – Dan Brown

WordPress & Beyond

I am sure WordPress will still be the lead player in building websites, as it is such an easy platform, suitable for all kinds of websites. Page builders will get advanced, allowing them to exclude unwanted scripts.

As far as my plans are concerned. There are dozens of lessons I still want to create in my course and, trying to make it the most comprehensive optimization course.

My Love for the WordPress Community

I love the WordPress community. All the Facebook groups, which help so many people every day. So far, I haven’t attended any WordCamp or meetups.

I planned to deliver a presentation about page speed optimization, but COVID-19 changed the plans for the whole world.

How I Keep Myself Updated

I love reading articles on web.dev and participating in speed up Facebook groups like WPSpeedMatters & WordPressSpeedUp.

I Have a Life Other Than the Work

Actually, I work a lot! Too many things on my to-do list.

But I play Nintendo every day with my 6.5 kid, swimming with him in our backyard pool, and occasionally take my Shih-Tzu cutest dog for a walk.

Shay Toder Pet

Connect With Me

• ShayToder.com | Facebook | Twitter | Linkedin