Do you know around 57% of visitors tend to leave a web page if it doesn’t load in under three seconds? Almost all the eCommerce websites that rank higher on Google strive to load the web page in half a second. A slow website will hurt your business, including lower search engine rankings, higher bounce rates, and decreased conversion rates.
Fortunately, increasing the page speed can also deliver multiple benefits, such as increased traffic and better search engine rankings. If you want to increase the page speed of your website here are a few tips, but before that, let’s understand what page speed is-
Table of Contents
What is Page Speed?
Page speed is the amount of time taken by a web page to process and load completely. Other terms for page speed are “page load time” and “time to first byte.”
Tips to Increase the Speed of Your Website
Optimize Your Images
Images are crucial in captivating the visitor’s attention, so they must load quickly. However, large images may take more time to load. Therefore make sure you use the smallest file size possible without compromising its quality.
There is another option called ‘lazy load’. With this technique, you can craft the website or elsewhere to load them only when they come into view rather than all at once. It can dramatically improve your page load time.
Minimize HTTP Requests
An HTTP request happens whenever a user tries to load a file from your server. These requests consume considerable time and decrease page loading speed. Therefore, you should take adequate measures to minimize HTTP requests so that it doesn’t compromise the page loading speed.
There are several ways to minimize HTTP requests. These are-
- Decrease the number of files on the website
- Decrease the size of files
- Remove unnecessary images for the website
- Reduce the size of images
- Set your website to load JavaScript files asynchronously
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN is a distributed server system that delivers content to users based on their geographic location. A CDN can improve your website’s speed by shortening the path between the server and the user. When a user accesses information, the nearest server delivers the information making the process quick.
Enable Browser Caching
Browser caching allows browsers to store static files from your website on users’ hard drives so they don’t have to download them again the next time they visit your site. It will reduce page load times significantly for returning visitors.
Avoid Redirects
Redirects happen when the user tries to access a particular URL but finds himself at another URL. These are extra steps for the user, most of which probably abort the site and switch to another due to the redirection. These also add to the HTTP request, which further slows the website.
The company developing your website can take adequate measures to prevent redirects, thereby increasing the page loading speed.
Minimize the Use of Plugins
There are so many plugins available to increase the functionality of your website. However, these can also dramatically decrease the page loading speed. They can also add bloat and slow down your site.
You can discuss eliminating the unwanted plugins with the team handling your web design & development and ask them to incorporate only the necessary ones. Removing the unwanted ones can help increase the page loading speed and also help the website rank.
Upgrade Your Hosting Plan
If your website runs on a shared hosting plan, you may share resources with other websites, leading to slower speeds. Upgrading to a VPS or dedicated server can give you more resources and help improve your page loading speed.
Follow best practices for coding and designing your website
Incorporating good design practices and using clean, well-written code can help keep your website running smoothly and quickly.
Use a well-coded theme or framework for your CMS
If you’re using WordPress, Drupal, or another CMS, choose a theme or framework that is well-coded and up-to-date. Outdated themes and frameworks can introduce security vulnerabilities and slow down your website.
Keep On Testing the Website
The only way to know that your efforts are paying off is to test your site’s speed and performance regularly. Using website testing tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix can help to get detailed reports on where your site needs improvement. It will help to keep track of your progress over time.
Summing Up
Increasing the website page loading speed is critical for it to rank. Therefore companies doing web design in Melbourne can assist in improving page loading speed and enhancing the website performance. Following these tips and prioritising speed optimization, you can significantly improve your website’s performance and user experience!
