How to Speed Up Your Website?

As people, we all experience the impulsive and emotional need for speed. This permeates all aspects of our lives, including the global network that has been evolving since its early days to provide a more reliable and faster service. Speed has long become a crucial factor when browsing the web via smartphones. 

A slow site kills conversions. Even a few extra seconds could have a great influence on user engagement, satisfaction, and hence, your ability to make sales. That is why having a quick loading website is essential for not only keeping your bottom-line revenue high but also for ranking well with search engines. In this article, we have decided to take a closer look at some of the most effective ways to speed up your website to boost your traffic, conversions, and revenue. 

Read also: BEST ANIMATION TECHNIQUES FOR YOUR WEBSITE DESIGN

Why to Speed Up A Website?

Basically, a website’s loading speed impacts numerous parameters, such as:

  • Corporate image and perception of a brand
  • Sales
  • Conversion rates
  • Pageviews and traffic 

Despite this, many website owners still do not put in enough effort to increase their website loading speed, underestimating its value. Well, here are some statistics. Just a one-second delay in site load time results in almost 8% loss in conversions, 16% decrease in user satisfaction, and 11% fewer page views. Besides, the vast majority of users will most likely abandon your site if it takes five or more seconds to load. Are you still thinking that your website’s speed is not that critical? You might want to change your mind.

Benefits of Page Speed Optimization

  • Better SEO positioning

Google tends to penalize with a low rank the websites that fail to provide value to their users (high bounce rate). Website speed optimization minimizes the bounce rate while maximizing the number of pages search engines can crawl/index. 

  • Reaching marketing goals

A fast website has a crucial effect on numerous metrics, including your revenue. Sites that are slow to load cause frustration on users, resulting in a serious loss in traffic. In contrast, a speed-optimized website improves your reach and engagement, allowing you to achieve your marketing goals. 

  • Improved User Experience

Website speed optimization boosts your UX design and overall experience from browsing your webpages.

Read also: PWA VS NATIVE APP DEVELOPMENT: BENEFITS FOR USERS

How to Reduce Page Load Time?

Optimizing your website for mobile can be done in many ways. Below are some of the best practices that do not require a large capital investment as well as major changes to the website current routines:

  1. Prevent hotlinking

Hotlinking your images means literally stealing your bandwidth and slowing down your website. So try to prevent other websites from hotlinking your visuals.

  1. Use a reliable CMS

Make sure you use reliable CMS such as Joomla, Drupal or WordPress. Here is a brief overview of possible options.

  1. Limit the number of external requests

Requesting files from other sites can slow down your own one. Try to store files on your own server to minimize or at least limit the number of external requests.

  1. Fix broken links

While they do not directly affect your site speed, broken links can make for a bad UX. That is why we recommend you to fix them before they scare off your visitors.

  1. Optimize your database

Regularly cleaning up your database is a great way to improve your site loading time, especially if you use a CMS. 

  1. Enable file compression

Uncompressed files use lots of server resources and take longer for it to respond. By compressing your files, you will significantly reduce their size, thereby increasing your website speed. Here is more information about it.

  1. Check your website theme

Your theme can also impact your on-site speed if its code is a mess. So when selecting a theme, consider both aesthetics and performance.

  1. Get a better host

Yes, your website hosting is also very important when it comes to its load time. Cheap hosts typically have a poor response time. So if you tried everything and nothing helped, maybe it is time to get a better host.

  1. Enable caching

Caching stores a version of your site on a browser, providing a faster experience for your website visitors.

  1.  Load ad networks code and analytics asynchronously

When loaded synchronously, they can seriously impede your site’s speed. That is why it is recommended to use asynchronous delivery.

  1. Limit/remove social media buttons

This can increase your site’s load speed due to the use of JavaScript. So we recommend you to either configure you social sharing buttons to load asynchronously, or fully remove them.

  1. Remove unnecessary add-ons and plugins 

Indeed, they can help enhance your site’s functionality. At the same time, the great number of plugins and addons installed on your site can increase your website load time as they use lots of styles and scripts.

Read also: HOW TO CREATE A PERFECT ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE?

Key Takeaways

Optimizing your page load times could be challenging. It might even require professional help. But all your efforts will pay off in the long-run with a high-quality UX design and great website performance. At Loonar Studios, we hope that the advice above will be of help to you to optimize your website for mobile. And please feel free to contact us if you need any professional assistance. Good luck!