In the world on online marketing, a slow website can really play havoc with how many people interact with your website. Slow loading speeds not only cause problems to your visitors and your website, but also for search engine optimisation as well. This can affect your website ranking greatly leading to lower ROI. So what are the ways you can increase the loading speed of your website? This expert guide is designed specifically for marketers to use to really speed up the loading time of their website. So let’s get started.
Loading Speed Tips and Tricks to Improve Website Loading Speeds
Improve Your Overall Hosting Plan
Many marketers who are new to the development of a website, tend to start out with a low grade hosting plan. This unfortunately is one of the top reasons why your loading speeds may be slower than expected. In order to fix this problem, you simply need to upgrade to a better hosting plan. There are generally different hosting plan options to choose from including VPS hosting and Dedicated hosting. Let’s take a quick look at the difference between the two:
- VPS Hosting – VPS hosting is a popular choice for many people as it’s a scalable, and sometimes more affordable option than the dedicated server. VPS hosting is distributed over numerous computers making it more flexible for small to medium businesses.
- Dedicated Hosting – Dedicated hosting is run through dedicated servers. It’s similar to if you’re renting your hosting plan from a large box or single computer. One major benefit dedicated servers have to offer is the control that you have over them. You have all the valuable resources to yourself but in saying that it can be more expensive. It’s also not as flexible as VPS hosting.
The type of hosting plan you choose to speed up your website is really up to you. Comparing different plans is the best options to get more for your money.
Make Your Images Friendlier For Internet Use
Another common problem that can slow websites down is the use of large images. All images can affect your site speed, however the larger the image the more time it will take to load. One of the basic ways to make your images more internet friendly is by:
- Shrinking the image file size on your website.
- Limiting the number of images, you have on your website.
- Having no images at all, however this can make your website boring.
Instead image optimization is your best option. Some ways you can optimize your images before uploading them includes:
- Cropping The Picture – Cropping the picture in paint or other specialised tools such as Photoshop will allow you to take out the unnecessary areas of the image while making it smaller.
- Compressing The Picture – Compressing the image is also another way to increase image data storage efficiency.
- Changing The Resolution – Reducing the quality of the image as it appears can help to also speed up your website. You don’t have to make your picture too low of quality, but you don’t need it super high either.
All these ways can help you to improve your website loading speed while still having quality images on your website.
Reduce External Scripts
External scripts are essentially extra features that are added to your site. Every time a new page loads, external scripts make HTTP requests. These HTTP requests can slow your website down. Some possible external scripts that could potentially be slowing your website down includes, but aren’t limited to:
- Website analytic services
- Pop-up boxes and lead capture tools
- External commenting systems
- External fonts
- Icon sets
- Bootstrap (via CDN)
- Facebook Boxes (like my page)
While you don’t need to completely remove all these external scripts, it’s always good to know about them in the event that you need to hone down on key areas which may be affecting your website’s loading speed greatly. If you’re not sure how to remove these scripts, you may need to seek advice from your website developer.
Remove Non-Essential Items
Over the year’s websites can accumulate many different items which really aren’t needed. These items can cause your site to become slower. Some examples of non-essential items include, but aren’t limited to:
- For WordPress users too many themes, plugins, page revisions, saved posts, and large media libraries can slow down the loading speeds.
- Too many server level backups.
- Massive databases that have accumulated more and more items across the years such as e-commerce websites.
- An accumulation of website codes.
Some of the ways to help this problem is by doing a manual maintenance check and overhaul. Here are some tips you can consider.
- Remove spam comments which may be taking up space on your website.
- Remove any broken links or non-working codes.
- Remove any products or pages which are no longer relevant to your website. (discontinued products etc.).
- Update your WordPress site to remove older, slower versions.
- Remove videos, images or other animations that are no longer relevant.
Overall
Slow website speeds can greatly impact a marketer’s chance of boosting conversions while seeing a great ROI. By utilising these tips into your digital marketing strategy, you have a higher chance of not only speeding up your website, but also providing your visitors with a user friendly experience. So is your website much faster now?