With most consumers having internet speeds fast enough to download an entire movie in a matter of seconds, they expect that plain websites will load in milliseconds. Unfortunately, that is not the case with a lot of websites and that can severely impact the experience of a customer.
If you’re experiencing such issues with your business’ website then you should definitely consider improving your loading speeds as the faster a site is, the more likely it will have more traffic and a better conversion rate.
To help you with that, we’ve crafted this list of the best 5 ways to improve a website’s loading speed.
Let’s have a look!
Why Are Loading Speeds So Important?
By now, most people on the internet are used to a flawless site experience as most popular websites are as optimized as possible. Think Amazon or eBay. These brands are massive and they have to uphold certain standards, so naturally their page is always lightning fast, otherwise they could lose thousands or tens of thousands of customers.
Because of this standard, people expect that every online business out there will have a website that loads just as fast as Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, Amazon, etc. And that’s just one factor.
Loading speeds also affect your SEO ranking which will affect your number of visits, the conversion rates, and ultimately, your brand revenue.
Fortunately, optimizing website loading speeds is neither complicated nor expensive, so most businesses can afford it and should absolutely do it.
1. Change Your Hosting Service
While there are a lot of things you can do yourself to bump up the loading speeds of your website, there is one thing you don’t have control of that has a huge impact on site speed and that’s your hosting service.
A lot of hosting companies offer shared hosting services to minimize their costs, but to offer cheaper pricing as well. While these can be useful for startups, upgrading to better hosting options is a necessity, especially if you’re looking for a faster loading speed.
Consider replacing your current provider with faster hosting providers. They might end up being more expensive, or you may need to sign up for a 48-month term, but the returns you get out of that extra performance will definitely cover the extra costs.
2. Image Optimization
One very common reason why a website has slow loading speeds is because of image size. We want our websites to best represent our brand and that can’t be achieved through low-quality images, that’s for certain.
However, you do not have to give up on image quality to boost website speeds. There are several ways one can optimize images while maintaining (most) of the quality. Here’s what you can do:
- Test your current loading speed with Google’s PageSpeed Insights – you can use this test for benchmarking.
- Resize your images – if you’re working with Photoshop or other photo editing software, make sure to resize your images that fit your site’s banner/image size. This saves on file size by reducing image resolution. You can also use resizing website apps before uploading.
- Use JPEG – JPEGs contain less data so they’re much smaller in size compared to PNGs or other file types, so consider using this file type when uploading images as it won’t affect the quality of the image as much.
- Try image compression – if you can’t seem to squeeze out enough file size to affect the loading speeds of your site, your last resort should be image compression. The best way to do this is with one of the various free online tools for image compression.
3. Use Browser Caching
This is one of those must-dos when it comes to loading speed and general website optimization. By enabling this feature, you allow (user) browsers to temporarily save data that can be reused the next time a user visits the back. This kind of caching is usually applied to images or other elements of the page that will not change often.
This will considerably improve the user experience of return customers.
4. Remove Unnecessary Plugins (If Using WordPress)
WordPress plugins, or plugins for other similar web-building platforms can be a lifesaver. However, certain plugins are known to considerably slow down the loading speed of a website. To find out which plugins are hindering your site’s performance, do a trial-and-error test.
Disable one plugin and then do a page speed test. Then enable it and the same thing with the next one. Find out which plugin is most detrimental to performance and find a way how you can replace it. You can either find an alternative and lighter plugin or hire a web dev to add the feature for you rather than using a plugin.
5. Limit Your Redirects
Redirects in most websites are a necessity because sometimes you just have to redirect a visitor to a different URL. It’s unavoidable.
However, redirects can severely impact performance, so if you cannot get rid of them completely, try to limit them as much as you can. You can use the same page speed tester from Google to find out how many redirects you have and which ones affect your website loading speed the most.
Things To Keep In Mind
While your aim is to reduce your loading speeds to just a few milliseconds, there are some things you have to keep in mind:
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User experience comes first – make sure that none of these changes will severely affect the user’s experience as this is still your number one priority.
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Find a balance between performance and appearance - like we don’t want our performance-based changes to the website to affect the user, we also don’t want to affect the aesthetics of the website. Try to find that balance between performance and appearance.
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Regular testing – to ensure that your visitors will always get the same experience when visiting your website, consider implementing regular speed testing to check for any hindrances.
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Backup before any major changes – make sure you have backups of your data and site settings in case any major changes affect loading performance negatively. This way, you can always revert back to your previous setup.
Final Summary
Improving your website's loading speed is essential for providing a great user experience, enhancing SEO, and boosting conversions. Employing strategies like optimizing images, minimizing HTTP requests, enabling browser caching, using CDNs, and compressing code can make a significant difference.
Remember that optimization is an ongoing process that requires regular monitoring and staying updated with the latest best practices. Balancing speed with aesthetics and functionality is crucial, as a fast, well-designed website leads to higher user satisfaction and better business outcomes.
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