We all know it – no one loves a slow website. We are in an age of speed–food delivery, messaging, and websites too. If your site takes more than a few seconds to load, you are most likely losing visitors (and potential sales) at a great rate. The good news? You don’t have to spend the whole day to see improvements. Here are 10 tips to get your site speed up in a jiffy!
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Why Site Speed is Important
First Impressions are Key
When someone lands on your site, they first see how fast it is. If it is not fast, they are out. Out as in back button clicked out. Fast sites give off a professional look and keep users on the site.
SEO and Speed
Google loves fast sites. Page speed is one of the elements in their algorithm. The faster your site, the higher your chances of appearing higher in search results.
Impact on Conversions
Every second counts. A delay of a single second can reduce your conversions by 7%. Think about that – we had a case of 100 people buying a product, and 7 of them walked away just because the site was too slow!
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How to Assess Your Site’s Speed
Before you start to make changes, do a full assessment of what you are working with.
Best Tools for Speed Testing
Free and very powerful. It gives your site a score out of 100 and also gives you what to do.
Breaks down what is slowing your site down and how to fix it in detail.
Pingdom Tools
Very easy to use and does real-time testing from worldwide locations.
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1. Improve Image Quality Without Sacrifice
Use Modern File Types
Switch to WebP or AVIF for a smaller file size without loss in quality.
Tools for Image Compression
Try TinyPNG or ShortPixel. We saw up to an 80% reduction in file size without the quality going down.
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2. Reduce HTTP Requests
Combine What You Can
Fewer files mean fewer trips to the server, which in turn means faster load times. When you can combine CSS and JS files, do it.
Use CSS Sprites
Instead of 10 separate icons which each requires a request — create one image and use CSS to show what you need.
3. Enable Browser Caching
How Caching Works
Caching puts parts of your site that the user has visited before in their browser for when they return, so that not everything has to reload each time.
Setting Cache-Control Headers
Use .htaccess or your host’s control panel to set cache times for different file types.
4. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
How CDNs Speed Up Load Times
CDNs put your site’s content on many servers around the world. Visitors get your site from the server that is closest to them.
Recommended Free and Paid CDN Options
Free: Cloudflare
Paid: BunnyCDN, StackPath
5. Reduce Server Response Time
Choose a Better Hosting Provider
Shared hosting may be cheap, but very slow. If you can, upgrade to Virtual Private Server (VPS) or managed WordPress hosting.
Use Faster DNS
Try switching to Cloudflare DNS or Google DNS for quicker lookups.
6. Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML
What Minification Does
It takes out what isn’t needed in your code, like spaces and comments. The smaller the files, the faster they load.
Tools to Minify Code Automatically
Use plugins like Autoptimize or tools like UglifyJS and CSSNano.
7. Defer JavaScript Loading
Reduce Render-Blocking Scripts
Move non-essential scripts to the bottom of the page or use “defer” to load them after the page has rendered.
Lazy Load JavaScript Files
Load scripts only as they are needed. This also helps with faster initial page load.
8. Use Asynchronous Loading for CSS and JS
Async vs Defer
- async: Loads while the page is still parsing.
- defer: Waits until the HTML is parsed but loads scripts in order.
How to Apply Asynchronous Attributes
Add async or defer in your script tags. Easy win!
9. Implement Lazy Loading for Images and Videos
What Is Lazy Loading?
It loads media content only as the user scrolls down to it instead of at page load.
Tools and Plugins to Enable Lazy Loading
Use native loading=”lazy” HTML attribute or plugins like a3 Lazy Load for WordPress.
10. Clean Up and Optimize Your WordPress Database
Remove Post Revisions and Spam Comments
Old junk builds up. Get rid of it to improve performance and reduce database size.
Use WP-Optimize or Similar Tools
They do the clean-up for you, and can also be set to run at set times.
They outperform the manual processes in clean up, and can also be set to do optimizations at specific times.
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Pro Tips to Keep Your Site Fast as It Grows
Track the Performance of the Site
Do it every month. Use Google Analytics and speed testing tools to see what is what.
Reduce Heavy Plugin Use
Install only what is required. Each plugin is a hit to the site’s performance, also very much so to those that are coded badly.
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In the end
We went with 10 proven, easy to put into practice tips to greatly improve your website speed. Also, bear in mind that the faster your site, the better the experience for your visitors and the higher your rank on Google. You don’t have to be a developer to see results. Out of these 10, we suggest you pick 2 or 3 that work best for you and get started today!
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FAQs
What is a good website load time?
Go for under 2 seconds. Above 3 seconds, and you run the risk of a poor user experience and SEO.
How often do I check my site speed?
Once a month is what we recommend — or after any major changes or plugin updates.
Do plugins play a role in site speed?
Yes, they do, in fact, very large ones that are not well coded or that load a lot of scripts. Less is almost always more.
Can I improve site speed without being a tech person?
Of course, you can! There are tools and plugins out there for non-tech people to make great improvements.
What is the main thing that slows a site down?
Large unoptimized images, too many plugins, bad hosting, and render-blocking scripts are the primary issues.
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