How to Increase Website Speed
October 11, 2022 | Category: Uncategorised
Have you landed on a website that takes more than 4 seconds to load? Did you wait? If you waited, it might have coloured your perception of the business; you may have decided never to return. If your website is running slow, here are 7 things your website developer can do to increase its speed.
Improving website speed is essential for attracting potential customers to your website and hoping they’ll return.`User experience is a fundamental factor in whether your website ranks higher in search results.
SmartWebPros.com is a London, ON, professional website design and website hosting service, marketer, and SEO specialist for small and large companies alike.
7 things website developers can do to increase your website loading speed.
- Optimize the images on your website
- Make the CSS and JavaScript files as simple as possible
- Implement browser caching
- Remove some HTTP demands
- Utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
- Avoid page redirects
- Test the website’s performance speed
- Optimize the images on your website. Great photos are part of a great website, but if they maintain their full resolution and file size, they take longer to load. Therefore the page will load more slowly. This process must be done to each image. If you are the photographer, use the many image compressors available, either already on your computer or available online. Submit your photos to your website designer already compressed, or the designer can handle that responsibility.
- Make the CSS and JavaScript files as simple as possible. Code is what makes up your website; it is the language of computers. Removing whitespace, code comments, and even unneeded semicolons mean your website takes up less bandwidth. This alone will do little to help your website speed, but as part of a larger process, it helps.
- Implement browser caching. Has someone ever suggested you “clear your cache on your computer”? A cache is a name given to the temporary browser storage of recently visited web pages so they can load more quickly in the future. If certain website page elements rarely change, a developer will instruct browser caching of those elements, significantly reducing the amount of data needed to upload the page.
- Remove some HTTP demands. Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the request and response language of the internet. It is essentially the transfer of information between network devices. You will see these letters at the beginning of all protected search results. Each information request on a page means time is taken to both request and retrieve the resource, which is why it is always a good idea to include backlinks to trusted websites that would be most unlikely to have their own problems with load times. A page speed test should let a developer know which link takes the longest to load.
- Utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Similarly, a browser can cache (save) page content to allow uploads of the page more quickly, and so can CDN caching servers. These servers boost the speed of a website with their cached content worldwide. The content is cached in CDN servers close to the request for content, not the hosting server, so potentially thousands of miles of transfer time is saved. CDN caching results in a tremendous increase in website loading time.
- Avoid page redirects. Page redirects are often necessary; temporary redirects or permanent in the case of a domain change. Each redirect adds time to the overall page loading time.
- Test the website’s performance speed. Speed tests are quickly done and will alert a developer that improvements may need to be made. A speed test will also identify some of the issues slowing the website. Google provides page information that indicates the speed between the request and fulfillment.
Website speed helps your SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the tailoring of content available online to ensure search engine’s algorithms find it, evaluate it and in turn, rank (send it closer to online page one search results) your website higher for searches.
As long ago as 2010, Google announced website speed would be an element of search rankings, especially for mobile devices.
The easier your website makes the ranking process of a search engine (Google, Firefox, or Edge, to name a few), the more traffic will be driven to your website. Search engines reward speed of loading.