Today, Internet users expect to receive the information they’re looking for immediately. If the website loads slowly, most people will leave it and will not come back ever again.
If one of your business goals is to increase your page load speed, we have a solution for you. In this blog post, WishDesk explores the best ways to ensure that the pages load as quickly as possible.
Why Is Page Load Speed Important?
Slow page speed kills conversions.
According to Kissmetrics, 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less and 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Increasing website loading speed improves performance and effects site rankings. People hate waiting. Even one second of delay can be frustrating and irritating. Since 2010, Google has included page speed in its ranking algorithm to create a better user experience. The faster every element loads, the higher your website will be on the search engine results page.
The most disappointing fact is that a slow website costs you money and your client’s credibility. Don’t let slow load speed ruin your business. Check out our tips and optimize your website today!
10 Ways to increase website speed
There may be dozens of reasons for slow load time. Web specialists at WishDesk highlight the most important issues to be aware of.
1. Make sure you have a good web hosting
There are three different options when it comes to web hosting: Shared hosting offers the most basic set of services. Its greatest disadvantage is the inability to handle high traffic. A VPS (virtual private server) offers a shared environment as well, however, each user has his own part of the server. A dedicated server is fully dedicated to one user, but it requires thorough maintenance.
Each option has its advantages and downsides. However, we recommend you to stay away from shared hosting if your site has high traffic.
Here at WishDesk, we offer flexible and secure hosting solutions. Check out our VPS hosting plans and choose the one that meets your needs.
2. Compress your images
Images are a vital part of a website content. They allow to showcase your products, services, and much more. Image optimization increases page load speed and provides positive user experience.
If you don’t compress the images before uploading, you might run into trouble with page speed. There are special services that decrease the file size while still keeping it high quality. The best example of such a tool is reSmush.it.
3. Enable caching
By enabling caching, you can reduce the website load time for repeat visitors.
If your platform is set up for caching, some information from your site will be stored on their hard drive in a cache or temporary storage. The next time these users visit a website, their browser will load part of the content without sending HTTP requests to the server.
4. Keep your CMS up-to-date
No matter what CMS your website is built on, keep its core, modules and themes updated. Updates are meant to enhance security, fix bugs, and increase page load speed. With every update, website functionality, as well as speed, improves. This is also true for the modules and theme that you are using.
5. Do a code clean-up
Very often, the website speed is slow because of pitfalls in the code. For example, code duplication results in unnecessary requests to the server. The team at WishDesk is ready to examine your website code and clean it up to increase page load speed.
Learn more about why code review is important.
6. Enable text compression
Text compression minimizes the byte size of responses that include text content. Enable text compression on the server that served these responses, as the fewer bytes have to be downloaded, the faster page load speed is.
7. Eliminate render-blocking resources
Render-blocking resources are one of the most common issues that slow websites. Usually, they are JS and CSS files that are located in the head of your website. They load in above the fold area, the area you see on a website before scrolling down. Eliminate all the components that delay visibility of primary content on the page.
Use Google PageSpeed Insights to identify render-blocking scripts.
8. Avoid multiple page redirects
Redirects are the source of additional delays before the page can be loaded. Remove unnecessary redirects and replace them with direct links. Use special services, like redirect checker, to deal with this issue.
9. Avoid an excessive DOM size
If your server delivers a large document object model (DOM) tree, lots of unnecessary bytes are delivered with it. As the result, page load time slows down, because the browser may be parsing lots of nodes that aren't even displayed above-the-fold.
An optimal DOM tree should have:
- less than 1500 nodes total
- a maximum depth of 32 nodes
- no parent node with more than 60 child nodes.
Create DOM nodes only when needed, and destroy them when no longer required.
10. Instrument your scripts with User Timing marks and measures
The User Timing API enables you to measure JavaScript performance. Instrument the parts of scripts you want to optimize with the User Timing API.
And some more!
- AMP your page
- Reconnect to required origins
- preload key requests
- avoid enormous network payloads
- reduce JavaScript execution time
- ensure text remains visible during web font load
- defer unused CSS
Do You Need to Speed Up a Website?
These tips are only a small part of a long and complicated website optimization process. We chose them because they’re the easiest, but at the same time most effective, changes you can implement.
There are many website speed analysis services that allow you to check whether your website needs page load speed.
If you want to get a detailed report about the causes of slowing, contact WishDesk web development company for the performance audit. After a check-up, WishDesk specialists will optimize your platform and increase website performance.
