People are impatient. They want their requests served right away and get whatever information they need in just a few seconds. When they don’t get what they want, they become annoyed and look somewhere else.
This especially applies to people viewing a website. According to a report from Marketing Dive, mobile website visitors will leave a web page if it fails to load within three seconds.
If the load speed of your website is bumming out visitors and potential customers, you’ll need to do something about it – and quickly. Slow loading speeds can cause you to lose web traffic, as Google uses page speed as a ranking signal for mobile search.
What’s more, you lose people who want to buy from your store. This will prevent you from growing your bottom line and expanding your business.
Here are some ways that will help you make your pages load faster:
Optimize Images and Videos
When you are improving your website by yourself or with the help of a website optimization company, you need to remember that you shouldn’t just focus on text. Pay attention to your site’s photos and videos. These two elements usually take up a significant chunk of a page’s overall size.
Pay attention to two unique factors related to videos and images: the total number of assets loaded on any given page and the size of each individual asset.
When reducing the file size of your media assets, keep the following suggestions in mind:
- Embed Videos Using a Third-Party Video Hosting Platform – Video hosting platforms, such as Wistia or Vimeo, can cut down the impact on your hosting server’s bandwidth.
- Compress Your Videos – Although high-definition videos are great to watch, they have the potential to be a major speed hog. So, make sure that you compress each video using a compression platform, such as Handbrake.
- Compress Your Photos – Photographs, even if they have an appropriate size, can still have a large file size. Make sure that you compress your images to significantly cut down file size without drastically undermining picture quality. You can use image compression tools on the web – or export from Photoshop using a “save for web” option.
- Use the JPEG File Extension Whenever Possible – JPEG, also known as Joint Photographic Experts Group, is a compressed image format that maintains the image’s integrity without wasting unnecessary space. JPEG is preferred for many applications. You should only use PNG, or Portable Network Graphics, when transparency is necessary.
- Size Your Images Appropriately – Some website owners make the common mistake of uploading full-sized images without taking the time to resize them. Refrain from uploading a large pixel-wide image if you plan to display them at a smaller pixel count. Size your photos and other images according to the parameters of the design.
Turn on Browser Caching
This form of caching allows the browser to store a variety of information, including JavaScript files, images and stylesheets. This way, the browser won’t have to reload the whole page every time a user visits it.
If you’ve used WordPress to build your site, consider installing WP Rocket, a powerful caching plugin. This plugin employs cache pre-loading and page caching to optimize the speed of your web pages and generate lightning-fast loading times.
Take note, though, that WP Rocket is a premium plugin, which means that you’ll need to shell out cash for this tool. Check out the pricing page to find a license that best fits your needs.
Leverage a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A content delivery network, also known as a content distribution network, is a network of servers that can help bump up the loading speed of your web pages. CDN does this by hosting and delivering copies of your website’s static content from servers situated around the world.
A CDN works with your host. You can leverage a CDN to distribute copies of your website’s files among strategically picked data centers.
This strategy can maximize performance by cutting down the distance data requests have to travel between your host’s servers and browsers. By loading content for a web page from a server near each visitor, a content delivery network helps produce lower time to first byte and reduce network latency.
Minimize Redirects
Redirects are often required when you delete or move pages. They are the best way to get rid of issues with broken links.
Having too many redirects, however, can create additional HTTP requests, which can negatively impact speed, specifically on mobile devices. As much as possible, keep redirects to a minimum.
A slow website will annoy visitors and even result in lost sales opportunities. If you have this problem on your site, take note of these tips to help improve your loading times.
