8 Quick Tips On Increasing The Speed Of Your Website
Is your website experiencing high bounce rates? This could happen because your site takes ages to load. The average attention span of your user is between 1 and 3 seconds. After your potential visitor’s patience runs out, he/she will leave and might never look back.
So, how can you increase your site’s speed?
1. Reduce the amount of HTTP Requests
Research shows that that 80% of a webpage’s load time is spent downloading pictures and scripts. A HTTP request is made for each of those elements. These types of elements take a lot of time to download. If you want to reduce the load time, you have to check how many requests your website is already making and then make the necessary changes to increase the page speed.
2. Defer Java loading
To defer a file means to prevent it from loading before the rest of the website loads. This is what you should do with your Java files, as they will only slow down your website if they begin to load before or at the same time with other files.
3. Reduce server response time
Server response time is one of the biggest factors in your page speed. A DNS is a server with a database of IP addresses and hostnames. If a user types in a URL in the search bar, the DNS looks for the IP address of that user. In order to have a speedy site, you need to check your DNS for speed and if it’s not quick enough, replace it for a faster one.
4. Use a web design platform made for speed
Every theme or CMS has their own speed. What you need to do to increase your speed is choose a CMS that works best for you and that’s fast enough. But when it comes to themes, you need to be just as careful. Some themes look good but are in fact really slow and they could affect your speed even though the CMS is fast.
5. Choose the right hosting option
Hosting is just as important when it comes to your site speed. But, most new site owners choose the cheapest option because they don’t have the funds. Cheap hosting is enough in the beginning and there is nothing wrong with that. But as the site progresses, you should definitely invest in better hosting because cheap hosts often equal slow speed. You have different hosting options like shared hosting, VPS hosting or dedicated servers. Shared hosting is the cheapest one, for instance, but it’s slower than the other options.
6. Run an audit
“Sometimes it’s all about checking your site for various issues that could slow you down. You might get mistakes from redesign, new product or additions to your website and so on. It’s best to check your site frequently or at least after every change you make. You can catch various issues and vulnerabilities this way,” says Derril Booth, psychologist and business blogger at <Write My X and Britstudent.
7. Enable compression
The smaller the size of your files, the faster your pages will load and one of the best ways to increase the speed is to compress the files. It’s easy, simple and effective. Compression with Gzip is standard.
Gzip works by locating strings of similar codes in your files and replacing them to make them smaller. This works in CSS and HTML because they usually have a repeated code and whitespace.
8. Enable browser caching
The elements of a website are stored on your hard drive when you visit it. This is called cache or temporary storage. So, the next time you visit the website you won’t have to download the files or send a HTTP request. But the first time you enter a page, the load time can be pretty high. On WordPress you can get the W3 Total Cache and store that info in your browser.
Increasing the speed of your site is a process that will take time and effort. But this will undoubtedly pay off as it will lead to a boost in ranking and an increased number of visitors. Hopefully, these tips will make your online life easier.
Margaret Riehle is a recruiting analyst at <Academic Brits and <Origin Writings. She likes to write about the latest trends in business, marketing and communications for various online publications like <Australia2write.com.
First photo by lalo Hernandez on Unsplash
