When 40% of people abandon websites that take 3 seconds or longer to load, website speed starts becoming a huge concern.  

Less people read your content, less people see your products, and according to Walmart, conversions are reduced drastically because of slow website speed.

This has prompted Google to study website speed and its affect on consumer satisfaction. They found faster websites to have lower costs and happier customers. Due to their findings, Google has incorporated website speed in as an important factor for ranking websites.

Simply, you need a fast website — there’s no way around it.

But how do you increase the speed of your website?

There are many methods, and we are going to show you some basic ones anyone can implement.

Measure Website Speed

First, we have to know — is your website fast?

Go to Google’s Page Speed tool, PageSpeed Insights, and enter your website into the blank space.

This will bring up the results of website’s speed analysis for desktop and mobile. Likely, the scores aren’t great, and you need some help. Let’s get started!

Optimize Images

The single largest contributor to a slower website is image size.

This makes the solution quite simple. Make the images smaller.

Let me show you how:

Step 1: Go to Imageoptimizer.net

Step 2: Click “Choose File” and Upload your image. (The JPG format would be preferable. If you have a PNG, we will show you how to convert it.)

Step 3: Choose the proper quality, width, and height. Don’ worry too much about proper dimensions because this program will automatically do that for us.

Step 4: You now have a much smaller image

If you have a PNG, you will have to convert it to a JPG. In order to save time, the best solution is to do both the resizing and the format conversion at the same time.

But why is this necessary?

The reason we convert PNGs into JPGs is because JPGs can be much smaller.

Let me show you.

JPG (65 KB):

PNG (225 KB):

They both have relatively the same quality, but the JPG file is almost 1/4 the size of the PNG file.

In order to convert your file, you can use http://image.online-convert.com. They have a variety of options for different file types, but make sure to enter the correct dimensions. Unlike Image Optimizer’s tool, it doesn’t calculate proper dimensions.

Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

If you haven’t already done this, then most people are accessing your website through the use of your host’s server. For example, if someone gets a website with Host Gator, then their website will most likely be accessed through Houston, TX.

This is alright when someone from Arizona is accessing this website, but what if someone from Sweden wants to do the same?

This is where a CDN becomes useful. A CDN is a network of servers that delivers static files to those who open your website. Instead of having someone from Sweden accessing your website through a Texas-based server, they can instead be redirected to Stockholm or another European city in order to get the information they need.

This tutorial will show you how to implement a CDN for your WordPress website. Although, it can be a little complicated. You might have to reach out to your local developer.

Cache Your Files

Instead of having users download every piece of data when they visit your website, have them download files to their computer for future use.

Now when they visit your website, they won’t have to download the same old files again.

Being able to manage resources is an important part of managing a website’s health.

In order to get your website to allow you to do this, you will need to contact your website’s hosting company and it is advisable to get help from a web developer.

Measure Plugin Use

Are plugins slowing down your website?

If you are running plugins with WordPress that are unimportant, delete them. Plugins can take up a large chunk of memory usage, and this will slow down your website.

To see how much your plugins are slowing down your website, we will use P3 Plugin Profiler.

Go to your plugin section on left sidebar of your WordPress interface. Click the words “add new”:

Afterwards, search for “p3 plugin profiler” and download it:

After downloading it, go back to your plugin page, find the p3 plugin profiler tab, and click “scan now”:

This will measure the effects of your plugins usage and give you an idea of what you might need to change.

Conclusion

Website speed is always becoming more important, and now companies like Google are forcing others to focus on this issue. It’s understandable when Google only wants the best websites to be found, and it is no argument, consumers like faster websites versus their slower counterparts.

From properly writing efficient code, avoiding broken links, using expires headers and more  — there are a myriad of solutions to speeding up your website, but some are more complicated than others.

A business could find it beneficial to have a third party to help them understand how to access these methods of website speed efficiency. 

Our team at Tampa Bay Web Design Firm had highly-trained developers who are more than happy to help you speed up your website! Wondering how you can immediately improve your website’s speed? Call us right now and we’ll help you out! 

Our Number: 727-237-2035