The optimization of website speed is crucial if you want to improve its engagement and search engine visibility. A website with poor loading speed can drive away your website traffic and conversion rate and increase bounce rate.
Put yourself in the shoes of users and think would you bother staying on a website that is taking too long to load?
The ideal load time of the website is four seconds, so if your site is taking longer than this, then you must optimize it.
Every lead provides you with an opportunity to close a sale. So, if users are not staying on your website due to poor speed, it means your business is losing potential customers.
Let’s find out some reasons for slow-loading websites and their solutions, so you can fix it and achieve desired results.
Poor Hosting
One of the primary reasons for the low-speed website is poor hosting. It is crucial to choose reliable hosting service providers with a proven track record.
If you have been facing a website speed issue for too long, then change your hosting plan or switch to a better-managed service provider (MSP).
Choosing a cheap hosting service for a website is not the right idea. Investing in your website initially can help you get good returns later.
Shared hosting has some major drawbacks, as you are not able to share server resources with other websites. It can make your website slow due to a lack of resources.
Therefore, choosing high-quality service providers is essential that guarantees good security and overall performance. Take your time and do proper research to find hosting solutions that offer 24/7 support.
Heavy Images
Another reason for the slow website is un-optimized images. If you do not optimize images, then it means half of the site is unoptimized.
To optimize images, compress their size, but it may affect the image quality; however, it is not the case with every image.
The JPEG XR, AVIF, and WebP file formats have better compression characteristics. Reducing the file size of these formats will not compromise the quality.
Heavy Website Code
The load time depends on the website code that has to be executed on the browser. The longer the code is, the more time it will take the page to load.
To fix the issue, try code minification, which is the process of removing useless portions of code like comments and white space.
You can also try code compression, which involves applying algorithms to rewrite the code files by using lesser bits. You will require the expertise of the developer in this scenario who can optimize the code of your site.
Presence of Too Many Themes and Plugins
Installing too many plugins or themes may not be a great idea, as it can significantly impact your website speed. Especially if you have built a website on WordPress, then you must avoid doing this.
Keep only those themes that you think are essential and can improve your website performance.
The same applies to websites that are built on other CMS. If you use excessive third-party extensions or plugins, then it can slow down your site.
Only keep lightweight and updated themes that offer useful functionalities and can improve your website performance.
Plenty of Ads
The presence of ads provides you with an opportunity to monetize your website with heavy traffic. But its drawback is that it can slow down your site pages.
Ads require additional HTTP requests that take a toll on your website traffic. The auto-downloads, pop-unders, and pop-ups can clog a website which means users have to wait for too long for pages to load.
Not Using CDN
Network latency occurs when there is a delay in network communication due to a large distance between the server and the user.
To address this issue, you must use CDN (content delivery network) that contains different servers worldwide in different locations. It reduces the physical distance by providing the content to the users from the nearest server, which will reduce website load time.
If you target users worldwide, then using CDN can be beneficial for you as it will help you attract web traffic globally with ease.
To use CDN, contact your managed service provider. If you have a WordPress site, then you can install the CDN plugin as well.
Overhead in Database
Overhead refers to extraneous elements that do not originally exist in the database of the website. It includes items like logs, transients, and unwanted themes or plugins that can build up with the passage of time.
Excessive overhead in the database can cause a delay in queries. As a result of it, the web server starts responding slowly, which badly affects the website speed.
To get rid of this issue, you must remove overhead by accessing the database management via your hosting services. You may get professional assistance if you are unable to resolve the problem on your own.
Absence of Caching Layer
One of the best ways to optimize your website is caching. It is the procedure to create a copy of website files and save them in a place known as a web cache.
A lack of caching layer can slow down your website. Because when users try to access your website, they have to request assets of your site like CSS, JS, or HTML.
To address this issue, you can use caching plugins that will automate the entire process for you. You can also use CDN for this purpose.
Conclusion
A slow website will not add any value to your business. It is the biggest obstacle to your success, so you must identify the issues as early as possible to have a smooth-running website.
Websites can be slow due to different reasons, but the most common ones are already mentioned above. A website with lighting speed is an asset that can significantly impact your engagement, conversion rate, and sales.
If you are looking to get a fast-running website that can ensure top performance for your business, then contact us. Our team will assist you and respond to all your queries.
