Optimizing the loading speed of the website. How to deal with the slow side?

When it comes to website performance, speed matters. It can influence how potential customers perceive your brand. If your site loads slowly, you’re likely to lose their interest and miss out on conversions, especially if they’re browsing on their mobile devices where loading times are even more crucial. Here are some tips on how to optimize your website’s loading speed and make sure that speed matters to your business too.

What is speed and why does it matter?

Internet speeds depend on how close you are to the internet provider and what type of connection you’re using. Using a desktop browser or laptop with a Wi-Fi connection generally provides faster speeds than mobile devices that access the internet via cellular networks. When people talk about page load times, they’re referring to how long it takes for a web page to fully load from when the initial request is made until all of the page elements are visible.

Loading speed as a ranking factor for Google

Website loading speed has a direct correlation with bounce rates and site engagement. With 40% of users expecting a website to load in two seconds or less, it is crucial for businesses to take the time to make sure their website loads quickly. Some sites have started penalizing slower websites by ranking them lower in search engine results pages, which means that users are more likely to find another site if your site takes too long. In addition, page load time also affects conversion rates.

Tips and tricks. How to improve your speed?

However, remember that not all solutions are for you. You need to be able to define your goals and needs, and then choose the appropriate solutions. If you are unable to make up your mind, it is worth enlisting the help of experts.

Get rid of unnecessary plugins

Every plugin, widget, and extra script that you add can make your site take longer to load. That’s why it’s important to review the plugins you have installed regularly and delete any that are no longer needed. Anything that makes a website more complicated also makes it slower. The more scripts, JavaScript files, and images your site loads, the slower it will be. Try deleting some of those as well if you need to trim down the size of your site in order to improve loading speed.

Minimize redirections

Redirections happen when one page on your site takes a visitor to another page on the same site. A full round-trip goes from your homepage, landing them on a single product page and then taking them back again when they exit. This causes delays and a frustrating user experience which is why it’s important to minimize redirections. If you need to move something or reorganize content, use a nofollow link instead of a redirect.

Reduce data transfer by compressing images

Compressing images can help reduce data on your server’s bandwidth usage, as well as reduce the size of the image that you download. Generally speaking, if you save an image as a JPEG file (a compression option offered by most graphics programs), you can expect anywhere from 50% to 60% reduction in file size. This will help reduce the load time for your page.

Use lazy-loading for your heavy image files

Lazy-loading is a method of deferring the loading of certain images until the user scrolls down far enough on the page. This way, no matter how many elements are loaded above the scrolling point, images below that point will not take any extra time or bandwidth as they get loaded. Once a user scrolls past an image, it will download in its entirety and replace itself with a previously downloaded one.

Host as close as possible

Using a good hosting company is key for optimizing the loading speed of your website. A reliable host will take care of many things for you, from registering your domain name and email services to providing updates on security and boosting your site’s performance in search engine rankings.

Use a CDN

A CDN, or content delivery network, works like a proxy service for your site. It has servers in many different geographic locations and caches copies of the most popular files on these servers. Then when your website requests one of these files, the CDN intercepts the request and serves up its cached copy rather than sending a request back to your server. By speeding up the data transfer from their cache to the end user, CDNs make webpages load faster.

Use web fonts instead of local fonts

Using web fonts instead of local fonts can significantly improve your website loading speed, especially on mobile devices. The font files are usually hosted remotely and need less bandwidth than the local file with your custom font in it. CSS3 also helps make your content more accessible as different browsers render text differently. While a web font may be slightly more expensive than a regular typeface, it can still be significantly cheaper than paying for each glyph individually.

Consider using asynchronous JavaScript loading

One of the ways in which you can get a website loading more quickly is by loading scripts asynchronously. That way, if it takes more time for some of your scripts to load than for others, then the web browser will wait for those scripts before continuing on with the rest of its work. As soon as the script loads, it can carry on with rendering other elements in the page.

Use browser HTTP caching

Another way of speeding up your website loading can be accomplished through a browser cache. All you need to do is upload the same resource, like HTML, JavaScript, or CSS file with a different filename. This tells the browser that it already has the file saved on its own system and doesn’t need to get it from the server again.

Last words

The loading speed of your website is one of the key aspects that determines how many people will visit and buy your products. The faster the site loads, the better chances for conversion. In order to keep everything on track and running smoothly, you should constantly update its content or make some changes from time to time.