WordPress is by far the most popular content management service in the world. It is easy to use, has a great community, and has a vast library of plugins for anything you need it to do. One of the drawbacks of WordPress, however, is that WordPress sites are dynamic. This means that every time a user visits your website, the server has to regenerate the HTML/CSS/JS files using PHP, which can greatly slow your site’s loading speed.
This tutorial will go over how you can convert your WordPress website into a static site, or use WordPress as a static site generator. This allows for faster loading times, increased security, and free hosting on sites such as Github pages and Netlify.
Install the Simply Static Plugin
Start by logging into your WordPress website through /wp-admin.
On the sidebar, click on the plugins button, then click on Add New. Search for “Simply Static” and press enter.
Click on the install button. After it installs, click on the Activate button.
Using the Plugin
You should now have a new option on your sidebar – Simply Static. Click on it to open it.
You can change the default configuration under the settings tab, but the defaults should work fine for our purposes.
Click on the “Generate Static Files” button.
After a period of time (which can vary greatly depending on the size of your website), a “Click here to download” button will appear. This link will download a zip file containing all of the static files for your website.