On average, how long do you expect the site to load?
Or how long are you willing to wait for the site to load?
Studies show that on average, after three seconds of waiting, users leave the website without waiting for eternity.
That is why speed optimization is essential. We do not invest in marketing and website development services to create only a beautiful picture on the Internet, right?
There are many exciting tools to check your page speed, but the most famous is this; try PageSpeed Insight
If the test results are not very good, I can suggest a few ways to improve page speed. But first, let’s understand what can affect the page load speed.
1. Unclear code
Yes, and it practically kills your site in the first place, not just the speed of its loading. All minor bugs and inaccuracies in the code undoubtedly affect the product as a whole system. Therefore, it is better to take care of the quality of the code immediately and responsibly choose the specialists who will work on it.
2. External scripts (pop-ups, website analytics tools, external fonts, etc.)
These are the additional programs that are downloaded at the same time as the page of your site. Of course, they are prevalent, and without them, the site already looks old-fashioned and too simple, but it is worth understanding that this is an additional HTTP request in the form of Javascript code. The system must process a considerable amount of information in seconds, which often slows down the site. There are currently a lot of additional tools that can help pick up unnecessary external scripts, such as Okmeter.
3. Flash content
Everyone usually wants to stand out from the crowd because the site is integral to a marketing campaign. Here helps the flash content, which captures all the user’s attention. However, there is one important “but”: enormous size. Take this into account. Let’s be honest: who cares about bright animation if out of 10 site visitors, only 3 can wait till the loading is over: you wait for it during the test and (at best) two patient users?
So, when adding such content, decide what is more important to you.
4. Additional plugins (for example, some analytics tools)
They are usually used for CMS like WordPress. Often such plugins are used to perform simple functions that can be implemented in the code of your site. That’s why the first piece of advice was to turn to good professionals to write clean, well-thought-out code. People who create not the first site are well aware of what it takes to effectively manage the site’s content and optimize its work, including loading pages. Therefore, good code solves unnecessary problems and simplifies everything at times. Think about it once more.
I hope it was clear. If the reason lies in the above factors, the solution will be simple – to simplify as many operations as possible. Minimalism is still a good trend! Take away animated content, swirling fonts, and additional plugins. But the quality of the code is recommended to be handled by specialists. There are many IT companies that can handle optimizing a code or an entire website without pain in the neck. By the way, the guys from the CGS-team promise to help with such issues as fast as possible.
If you want to figure it out on your own – here’s what you can do for your product:
- Gzip compression
Zip archives save a lot of space on our devices. On the site, gzip compression files will also be appropriate because when you download files from the site to a PC or mobile, they will be automatically unzipped. And imagine: this simple (at first glance) solution reduces the response time to requests up to 70%!
- Image optimization
First of all, each website needs a particular size of images. Take this into account. Of course, you can download a picture weighing 2MB, which will be of good quality. But imagine the situation: you go to the site, the text is downloaded instantly, and to view a short diagram (which, in theory, should motivate the user to read the text on the blog), you will need to wait more than 10 seconds. (We also think about the speed of users’ Internet, which is not always ideal).
You understand that the whole idea is destroyed in this case, and the result will be negative.
Also, adapt the image to the various possible screens and do not overdo it when compressing. You will be happy as a result, I promise.
- Optimize your database
This is essential for those who use CMS. I explain: that optimization reduces the size of the database itself. Logically, this should help when downloading content because that’s where all the data is stored. It is recommended to clean the base every time after the backup.
- Use cache
Browser caching helps a lot: the content of the whole page is loaded, and when you return to it, all data is displayed without additional loading. That is, there is a static copy on the user’s devices. In this case, the reduction in download time is due to a decrease in the number of requests.
- Update web hosting plan
Usually, when you publish a website for the first time, you choose the basic plan. Quite logically, however, this plan is not enough to ensure proper functioning when filling the site with content and traffic.
- Take care only of high-traffic pages, not the whole website.
Maybe that’s not good advice. But for the first time – a pretty good decision. Prioritize correctly and, if possible, improve your site gradually, step by step.