The internet offers a lot of alternatives to website speed. But some methods are too technical to understand and can be quite difficult to learn. Fortunately, there are alternative ways that are easy to do and don’t require high technical skills to accomplish.
Before we go into the details, let’s have a quick look at what is the average website speed index of the different types of industries in the US according to Google:
- Automotive – takes an average of 6.3 seconds to load
- Consumer Packaged Goods – takes an average of 6.6 seconds to load
- Finance – takes an average of 5.9 seconds to load
- Healthcare – takes an average of 5.4 seconds to load
- Media and Entertainment – takes an average of 5.5 seconds to load
- Retail – takes an average of 6.3 seconds to load
- Technology – takes an average of 6.7 seconds to load
- Travel – takes an average of 6 seconds to load
The best practice is 3 seconds or less. Google event aims for less than 2 seconds. Looking at the list above shows that most websites are above the best practice benchmark. This means that if you can improve your website’s speed, you can get a huge advantage over the rest of your competitors.
You can also improve your website’s mobile experience which has been said to have an average of 22 seconds. Mobile optimization is crucial to consider since people using mobile phones are growing in numbers every year. And by improving your website speed, you also help improve the user’s mobile experience.
What does a faster website bring you? There are many advantages to having a faster website. Whether you use the website for your business or for your personal use, a faster website allows you to:
- Improve the user’s browsing experience
- Decrease user bounce rate
- Speed up mobile site performance
- Grow your website traffic
- Improve SEO positioning
- Reach marketing goals
- Increase conversion rates
- More revenue for businesses
As you can see, there are plenty of benefits you can gain from fixing your website speed. It plays a pivotal role in whatever purpose the website is being used for. Now that we have a good idea of why the loading speed of your website is really important, here are the things you can do now to start improving your website’s performance.
Optimize Your Images
One of the common reasons behind any website’s slow loading speed is unoptimized images. One large high-resolution image can immensely impact your website’s loading speed making it slower or at times even unresponsive. Even when you have scaled-down your image, it can still increase the size of your web page causing a slower loading speed.
Another cause is the image format. Different types of image formats contribute to the file size. A good example is when comparing a JPEG image file with a PNG or GIF image file. Using the same image and the same image size, you will see the JPEG has a smaller file size compared to the other file types. Anything above 1MB is not recommended.
Replace Flash Content
Flash content is a great tool for adding interactive media to your website. However, flash files are usually large in file size. And from what we’ve learned, having a large file size on your website will surely impact your website loading speed.
You can reduce the size of your Flash files. Or better yet, remove them altogether. You can try using HTML5 as an alternative to Flash content. Your page loading speed will improve dramatically. Aside from that, another good reason to remove them now is that they will no longer be supported by Google Chrome by December 31st, 2020.
Audit and fix your broken links
Having broken links can be detrimental to your website. It leaves a bad impression when users see that Error 404. Moreover, they could leave your site in a split second. You can use Google Webmaster Tools, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog SEO Spider to do a complete and in-depth audit of all your links. Once you have 0 broken link results, you will notice faster loading time and better responsive pages.
Minimize Ads
Although, ads are a great way to monetize your website they should not compromise your website’s performance. Too many ads can slow down your website’s loading speed. Users are not happy seeing too many ads as well and they immediately leave.
Advertisements ads to HTTP requests which is the common factor for the slow response of the site. Additional HTTP requests would require additional processing time. An example is rich media ads. These are the auto-downloads, pop-unders, or interstitials. They make hundreds of HTTP requests causing your website to respond very slowly. Use the ads only when you need to. Properly positioning them across your web pages can help. Although there are no limits on how many ads you can put on one page, limit to at least 3 ads per page.
Reduce HTTP Requests
HTTP requests are dependent on how many CSS, JavaScript, and image files your webpage has. If you have loads of them, it can cause many HTTP requests. And this reduces your website loading speed. When a user visits your web page, the browser performs a lot of requests to load them all.
To reduce your HTTP requests, you can use Sprites. A single sprite sheet can house other images and icons instead of loading each image one by one. Therefore, your website loading speed is faster. Also, try to lessen the number of files on your pages if possible. This includes images, CSS, or JavaScript. When there are fewer files, the faster users can download your web page.
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Fix your JavaScript
Adding dynamic content to any website was made easy by JavaScript or jQuery plugins. They are very convenient and easy to install. The problem starts when they are applied incorrectly. JavaScript can cause your website to load slower.
Loading jQuery and JavaScript takes a while. Moreover, it needs time to be interpreted and executed properly. And if you are using API calls in rendering JavaScript or jQuery data, you will notice that there’s a significant delay in loading your web pages.
You will need to audit your JavaScript scripts to find out what you must remove and what you need to retain. Choose asynchronous loading where JavaScript codes are processed along with the rest of the page content without slowing it down. Look for a single script for all your tools such as Segment or Google Tag Manager.
Enable gZIP Compression
Gzip Compression enables you to compact all the web objects like images, CSS, JavaScript files, and many more before they are transferred to the requesting browser. By compressing these web objects and other files, the size of data being transferred from your website to the receiving browser is reduced. Which in turn helps in sending the content much faster. The user’s browser will then unzip the file and displays the content.
Apply Caching Techniques
Caching is an incredible way to improve a website’s speed performance. Which explains why this is well-known and has been proven effective. So, if you have not applied this technique to your website yet, you could be missing out big time.
Caching allows you to store commonly used data points in the cached memory. Any succeeding requests for the same content will be served from the cached memory. Therefore, the data retrieval process is faster. Try implementing browser or HTTP caching and server-side caching. You will experience a big difference in the performance of your website.
Minify your stylesheets
Excessive white spaces, empty new lines, inline stylings, and unnecessary comments could cause your website stylesheet to increase in size. To reduce your website size, try to remove unnecessary elements. It will help compress the code, enhance the overall page loading time, and you may even boost your SEO performance too.
Another tip is to use inline CSS and use a single stylesheet instead of creating multiple ones. Several online tools can also help you clean and minify your stylesheets. Otherwise, you can seek the help of an IT professional.
Use a CDN
Use a CDNCDN or Content Delivery Network is where you can host your media files the help speed up your site. Oftentimes, you can save up to 60% bandwidth. It also reduces the number of requests your website makes by more than half.
Your files will be hosted across a large network of servers across the globe. So, when a user from another country visits your website, this user will be able to download files from the server that is closest to them. Thus, your website loads faster.
Choose a Good Hosting Service
Perhaps you did all the things listed here to improve your website speed but the speed is still not close to your expectations. Have you thought that it could be due to your website hosting service?
Sometimes cheap hosting services are not worth the stress and the precious hours spent trying to fix your website loading speed. Maybe switching to a better website hosting service can resolve all your website performance issues. Here are a few tips when choosing a good hosting service provider:
- Website migration is supported
- Intuitive account interface
- Offers performance optimization services included in their hosting plans
- Provides regular and automatic server backups
- Can provide up to 99% uptime
- Has an effortless and easy website recovery process
- 24/7 customer service
- Satisfactory security options
The importance of having a faster website speed cannot be taken for granted. Right now, many other people try to get their websites faster as well. It makes you think that it is a race. And you are not exactly wrong. Luckily, it’s not too late to start. You can begin with our list and see the incredible improvement in your website speed.
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Thank you for this useful advice. I had no idea that broken links could slow your speed down so much, so this is something I must start looking for.
I did try a plugin to try and improve my speeds called WP Caching, but it conflicted with my hosting, as I use Site Rubix and they use something to speed up the websites, so I took it off. Optimizing my images has also helped a lot. However I am still on the slow side, so will definitely check out the broken links as you recommended.
Does having too many plugins also have an impact?
Having too many plugins sometimes do slow your website down, but if your domain is hosted on the right platform it can help. choosing the theme plays a major factor as well that is why my favourite is Generate Press. The platform I used within Wealthy Affiliate has a sophisticated platform that helps with speed daily backups and website monitoring, so I am protected with a small premium membership that gives much more to my business.
Hello there thanks for sharing this wonderful piece it was really helpful and educative I must say. Well no doubt the internet offers a lot of alternatives to website speed but some methods are too technical to understand and can be quite difficult to learn. Working online from home is the best kind job anyone can get so far to me
Yes, the internet can be very technical and all your hard work by building a website can be of no value if the search engines recognized of it being slow. If you do not develop skills, you should look for a reputable company that can monitor your website and optimize for better results in the search engines.
This is why I give my #1 recommendation so people use it as an alternative for better website speed if they do not develop the skills. Working from home and earning a full-time income is a game-changer especially in this pandemic times that we are living in. I personally believe is going to keep increasing because of the vast majority that is clinging to that way of life.