If you already have a website, you know how important the speed is in order to maintain steady traffic flow. Website performance can also affect your SEO and website rankings, which is too bad for building your organic traffic.
A recent survey shows that people will abandon a website if it loads slower than 4 seconds. Since we live in very fast times, people want things immediately, so you have to optimize your site in order to make the user experience better.
There are a lot of ways you can improve website performance, and in this article, we will highlight some of the best possible options for you.
1. Code your website for mobile usability
If you are in the process of making your website, it is best if you build your website based on mobile usability. The fact is that most of your traffic will come from mobile devices, so you have to make sure your website is optimized for that.
It is much better if you build your website infrastructure to work best on mobile devices and then optimize it for desktop or tablets. By doing this, you will minimize the number of unnecessary dependencies.
2. Reduce Media Files
The most significant delay in website speed is caused by large media files that take too much time to load. More than 60% of the website’s weight is caused by images. In order to sort out this problem, you have to go for a minimalistic design with only essential functions and avoid unnecessary images and icons that can slow your loading speed.
Also, you can reduce the size of images on your website but still maintain the same quality. There are different plugins that you can use that will optimize your image automatically, or go for a manual option by setting maximum image size.
3. Minimize the number of HTTP requests
Every web browser uses HTTP requests to fetch files from a web server. This means that the more HTTP requests you have for unnecessary items on your page, the slower your website will load. Poorly structured code can also be a problem that can cause a loop in actions, continually repeating and increasing HTTP requests.
Nowadays, there are plugins that can minimize your website requests automatically, or if you want to do that for yourself, you have to make sure you know what you are doing just to avoid messing up your website code.
4. Choose a dependable hosting
Your hosting plan has a lot to do with the website loading speed. There are many hosting plans and providers available on the market. Most of the cheap ones run on shared servers where there are a couple of different websites on the same server. This means that your website speed can be affected by a third-party or another site that weights down the server.
The best option is to go for a more expensive option and get a cloud hosting or dedicated server. This will make your website loading times load faster than a horse in the Road for the Kentucky Derby. It is wiser to make an upfront investment in your hosting plan just to avoid website migration in the future.
5. Don’t forget to cache
The best way to reduce bandwidth and improve performance is by caching as much as possible. What is caching? – Basically, it is a pre-saved version of your website that your browser saves when you visit the site for the first time. It is essential that you cache your website with every change you make. This will lower the loading times and server responses when users will try to access it.
These are some of the best ways to improve website performance. Since it can determine the future of your website, you have to make every effort possible to make sure your loading times are as low as possible. It is the only way you can stay competitive and build an online brand.
Article by Vishal
Meet Vishal Gaikar, the tech wizard hailing from Pune, India, who's on a mission to decode the digital universe one blog post at a time. When he's not tinkering with gadgets or diving deep into the digital realm, you can find him concocting the perfect cup of chai or plotting his next adventure. Follow his tech escapades on Twitter and buckle up for a wild ride through the world of innovation and geekery!
