We have all been there. We click on a link eager to read, find, or buy something, but the page takes ages to load. After a few frustrating attempts to refresh or checking our internet connection, we lose interest and look elsewhere. Some people would not even bother to make it work. If a website speed is low, most people just close the tab and forget about the website even existed. So, no matter how much you have invested in your online advertising to attract customers, it will be for nothing if you have speed issues. Therefore, the last thing you want is for your website speed to drop, and as a result, lose website traffic, and consequently, customers. Your business success will often depend on the quality of your website. For that reason, it’s imperative to resolve whatever reasons why your website speed is slow.
When a person clicks on your website, the browser sends a ping to your server, requesting data to load your site. If your server performance is inadequate, it will take longer to respond to this request. Even if everything else on your website is fast, and the person has clicked on a landing page that steals the attention, a bad server will slow things down, and that person will just leave.
The typical way to fix this issue is to change your web host. If you are paying peanuts for hosting, the chances are you are sharing the server with numerous other websites. You are all using the same space and resources, and the low speed is the result of your website waiting in line to be “served.” Also, if you see there are some difficulties with your RAM, CPU load, or bandwidth, you should consider upgrading.
It’s simple – if the server is far away from you, it will take much longer to load data. While it’s true that data travels fast, it cannot miraculously transport itself across the world in an instant. It’s similar to long-distance calls. The farther location you are calling, the longer it will take to connect. So, if you are located in the US but have customers from all over the world, the far-away ones may have issues with your website’s loading time.
Even though the technology is continually evolving, large files still need longer to load. And if you have a lot of big-sized media on your pages, it can definitely slow down your website’s loading time. This is due to the fact that your server carries all your data (text, images, other content), and when it receives a ping, large files can slow down the response to the request.
If you suspect this is why your website speed is slow, you must check the file sizes and format images. JPG, PNG, and GIF images can load quickly. However, TIFF and BMP are too heavy, and you should avoid them. When you want to post a picture, you should try different formats and compression settings to determine which would be ideal for that particular image. Since there is no one-size-fits-all solution here, you can contact developers who can deal with this and advise you if you are struggling to find the best solution.
If you don’t have a truly valid reason, avoid redirects. These are automatic instructions that take your visitors from one location to another. It’s the same as in life. You ask for directions to the nearest post office, but when you get there, it’s under construction. So you must ask for directions to another one and lose half a day. Thus, if you have too many pointless redirects, it will slow down your website speed significantly.
If you have a WordPress website and are experiencing speed issues, you need to check out all the behind-the-scene plugins. Every plugin makes its own file requests. Thus, the more plugins you have, the more file requests are made, which can slow your website down. Also, the size of the plugins you use matters. So, even if you have only a few of them, if they are on the bulkier side, they may cause problems.
To deal with this issue, remove all the plugins you are not using. Also, check if some of them are unnecessary. For example, you can create custom post types without a plugin. And try to use well-maintained ones because they are usually better optimized.
One of the most effective ways to enhance your content delivery is enabling browser caching. If it’s disabled, every time a person visits a page, all the data has to be downloaded again. However, if you enable it, you can choose which elements of your website will be cached and how often it should refresh. Although this will not resolve the speed issues the first time your website is loaded, every other page a visitor clicks on will utilize the cash it already has stored locally in their browser. It will not have to download the data from the server again and again.
Writing code is an art form. Indeed, it’s like painting a picture. An unskilled developer may create too elaborate, messy code that will impact the website speed. Eliminating unnecessary code will help considerably. Moreover, the poorly written script can lead to compatibility issues with other parts of your website. This can also affect your loading speed.
This problem may take more time to resolve. You can run some tests to determine which scripts are causing the most trouble and decide which ones to remove. You can also try turning off some scripts for a while to see if there will be any significant speed improvements.
No one likes a slow website. It has a considerable impact on the user experience and typically leads to the loss of customers and leads. Therefore, you need to check your website’s loading speed frequently and if you see any issues, proceed to determine why your website speed is slow. There are millions of other websites out there, and many offer the same or similar products or services as you. Naturally, users will turn to those running faster. So, if you want to stay in the game, make sure your website is competitive.
My name is Mukesh Jakhar and I am a Web Application Developer and Software Developer, currently living in Jaipur, India. I have a Master of Computer Application in Computer Science from JNU Jaipur University. I loves to write on technology and programming topics. Apart from this, I love to travel and enjoy the beauty of nature.