Is your Website too slow?

Is your Website too slow?

Amazon has discovered that for every one second delay, conversions dropped by 7%. If you sell $100k per day, that’s an annual loss of $2.5m. Walmart has found that it gains 1% revenue increase for every 100ms of improvement.
These giants have upped their game by just optimising their websites for speed. It’s not just their products, nor their brand authority ⎯ by being considerate of people’s dwindling patience, they have made their customers happy with a good, fast website.

There are a number of simple tactics you can adopt to improve the speed of your site:

 

Select good hosting

Opting for cheap hosting services will yield you cheap results. You simply get what you pay for. Choosing a good hosting company will make the difference; you can get better support, better speed, and better space to meet your site’s demands. This 2016, you can find hundreds of website hosting companies offering a good service, but there are only a few that truly provide what your individual site needs. Consider searching for a web hosting company that has been tested by many; you will find numerous web hosting reviews and complaints that can guide you. Don’t just jump on the bandwagon and choose the first site you see advertised.

 

Value UX

In creating a website, don’t be satisfied with applying touches that appeal to your taste. A web page loads different elements at different times during the fetching-catching phase. If your business calls for more visual imagery than text, value user experience by optimising your images to appropriate sizes, categorising them into sections so loading the page will be easier. It’s been said that keeping it simple will be enough, but simplicity depends on what you’re trying to provide for the audience. Web designers are expected to work hand in hand with developers and the client; with good, clear communication, optimisation won’t take long if it’s one of the priorities in building or re branding a website. Use this opportunity to get ideas on how users interact with your website, and analyse their actions accordingly⎯figure out how to incorporate your analysis into your design.

 

Save every millisecond you can

There are numerous ways in increasing your site speed. For example, large websites may benefit from using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) for speed improvements.

 

Study and understand these concepts

For designers and developers, understanding this concept aside from SEO is also important. It’s as important as maintaining user interface and user experience alike. Use Google Page Insights to check your site. If you’re not experienced in dealing with code, consult a web developer who can assist you in optimising your site.

 

Recommended tools

  • Google Page Insights: Google’s personal tool in checking page speed performance. It has a score range that checks your website’s compliance, whether mobile or desktop view.
  • GTmetrix: gives you actionable insights on how to optimise your page speed. (Remember to choose Australia in ‘Test URL in’)
  • Pingdom: perhaps the classiest tool among the list. Your site is counter-checked against all websites they have tested.
  • WebPageTest: enables testing on various platforms using realistic data.
About the Author
Malcare WordPress Security