Web users, today, have become increasingly intolerant of slow loading websites. Even Google has shown its intention to reward sites with faster loading speeds than those that are not.
So, if you really want to keep one length ahead, you have to take advantage of the two situations highlighted above. Maybe, this article can help you.
How fast is it fast enough?
There is a free online tool called WhichLoadsFaster that you can use to compare the speed of your site with all major competitors.
The following guidelines may also be useful to you:
- Under a second: Perfect
- About one to three seconds: Above average
- Three to seven seconds: Average
- More than seven seconds: Terrible; must be repaired as soon as possible.
Do not forget that even a delay of one second can result:
- Fewer page views,
- Customer dissatisfaction, and
- A significant conversion loss.
So, never take the speed of your site for granted. It can certainly make all the difference in the world for better or for worse.
How to speed up your company's website
2. Compress large pages to reduce loading time
Large pages (including those built for high quality content) are often very large and can take up to 100KB or more. As a result, they become very slow to download.
The best way to speed them up is to compress them via a technique called compression.
Compression helps to reduce the bandwidth of these pages, simultaneously reducing the HTTP response. You can do it with the help of any data compression tool, for example, GNU Gzip.
3. Adjust the size of your images before downloading
Different content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla, etc. give you the ability to upload your full size images and resize them from your website backend. This option is really convenient and saves a lot of time.
However, this forces browsers to execute multiple commands at once; something that can significantly slow down your website.
To avoid this, use an image editing tool (online or offline) to resize your images to the appropriate size BEFORE uploading them to your platform.
4. Install a Caching Plugin (Exclusive Point for WordPress Users)
If you use the WordPress Content Management System, the easiest way to improve the loading speed of your page is to install the WP Super Cache or WP Total Cache plugin.
The two plugins mentioned above are available for free and can be downloaded in a jiffy.
5. Paying special attention to bad requests
Broken links usually result in 404 or 410 errors.
These two errors result in unnecessary requests that can dramatically reduce the speed of your site as a whole. It is therefore advisable to repair the broken links as soon as possible – especially the pictures! You can use tools like Broken Link Checker for this purpose.
6. Allow caching of the browser
The browser caching feature allows your visitor's browser to store strategic copies of your site's pages on their device.
Therefore, when the visitor returns to the future, the content of the site can be called again from the browser cache itself. The whole process is significantly faster than the full reload of the site.
7. Reduce the number of your redirects
301 redirects are obviously better than 404 errors, but they are still not the ideal solution.
Indeed, redirects, like broken links, can also slow down the browser by trying to reach the correct version of the page. It is therefore advisable to reduce their number to obtain more effective results in the long term.
With that, I will finish this article for the moment. I hope you find practical advice for your purpose.
Speed Photo via Shutterstock