How to Give Your Website a Quick Speed Boost
The average timeline for developing a website? 14 weeks. Now that’s a lot of effort and time invested in one website as the developers try to minimize the risk of bugs or any other shortcoming. But there’s one issue that sneaks in and can create a mess if not fixed early on. What is it? It’s slow website speed.
While it’s common to test website speed before its final launch, when actual traffic starts rolling in, there’s a probability for the website speed to collapse due to high traffic. But traffic isn’t the sole reason. There are a few common culprits that we would like to highlight. Mind you that we won’t only be highlighting the issues that induce slow website speeds but will also indicate the reasons causing such a dilemma. Once the reasons are highlighted, we shall focus on the quick fixes for improving website speed. We have also attached guides that can help you further.
So are you ready to make some tweaks to improve your website speed? Keep on reading!
Test website speed
Before jumping into anything, it’s better to test out your current website speed and see if you need to make any changes or not. The average website load time is 3 seconds so set that as your benchmark. 3 seconds is all a website user can wait for. Now head on to platforms like GTMetrix to run a quick website speed test.
Done with the test? Good. Now you know whereame your website load time lacked, the total page size and page speed insights on mobile and desktop both. Jot down this information and if your website doesn’t meet the regular speed standards, proceed to the following steps:
Image Optimization
Image optimization is one of the few quick changes you can make before jumping to the more complex parts. Now website development is a lot more than a bunch of HTML and CSS code thrown on to the interface. It’s all about both user experience and interface. Therefore, high-quality images play an integral role in catching the attention of the visitors as well as their experience using the website.
But there’s a con to it. Most website owners overdo it and add several high-quality images which in turn slow down website load time. The solution here is to scale down all the images on your according to the display size (pixels) dedicated to each image.
Perform website caching
The primary goal of every website owner is to have recurring visitors. Supposedly, you have a bunch of users that visit your website often but with due to slow website load time, you see a decline in user traffic and engagement. There is one great way you can disable load time and that is through website caching.
Here’s an extensive guide on how you can enable website caching. Once you go through it, you will find how users can choose to pick website cache for quicker load time. All the necessary bits and elements of a website are stored on the visitors’ storage areas. So whenever they are directed to your website, HTTP requests aren’t induced on each visit, in turn, making the website load faster.
Choose a simple-looking web design
While going fancy or distinctive with the website design phase is a surefire way to attract user attention but it can backfire, as well. Especially if you’ve ever had a hard time maintaining website speed, you should consider going down the simple website design route.
Once you choose a simplistic design for your website, one that doesn’t have a lot of animations and high-definition images, there will be a decrease in the HTTP requests your website makes toward a user’s system. So remember the website mantra – the simpler the design, the quicker the load time.
To conclude
Giving your website a quick speed and performance boost looks like a hassling endeavor but it really isn’t. Now that you have successfully implemented each step, you can sit back, relax and give yourself a treat. You can either tune into your Spectrum Silver plan, especially if you’re a Dallasite, or you can scroll a few posts or two on Instagram. Whatever works for you as a small achievement treat!