Customers in today’s world do not have the patience that customers in the past might have had. They do not want to wait for the items and information they need. This is the fast food generation and people want everything right now. If you have a website that loads slowly, people simply are not going to stick around. They will go to another company offering the same or similar items. Slow loading pages mean a loss of revenue for you. Here are some tips you can use when you are trying to improve the loading speed of your pages.
Work with a Great Team and System
First, consider the host for your site and the programs you are using. They need to have a quality infrastructure in place before you can even begin thinking about improving your site load times. Do your research and make sure that you are getting service from a reputable and quality company. Make sure you are using the right host and the right package for your current needs.
For example, if you are on a shared hosting site, this could be affecting your page load times negatively in some instances. If this does happen, it might be time to look into dedicated hosting or virtual hosting for your site instead.
Better Image Formats
One element that can take some time to rework is removing the current image files you have on your site and replacing them with images of a reduced size. The images on a site can make it load slowly, so this is very important to do. Reduce the size of the image using different formats, such as jpeg, and it can keep the quality while still reducing the file size. When you do this across all of your images, it has the potential to improve the image load speed.
Cache
When you allow browsers to cache versions of elements on the site that are static across pages, it can help the site to load faster. This is especially helpful with many ecommerce sites that have so many similar elements on the pages, and where the only real information that changes is the product information.
Using Plugins
While plugins do have the potential to provide your site with more functionality for visitors, you have to be careful. Having too many plugins can slow a page down. Weigh the benefits of using the plugins versus the increased speed of your site. Only choose to keep the plugins that are essential to your visitors.
Test the Speed
You need to make sure you actually test the speed the same way that your actual customers will test it. Use it. Go to your site and visit different pages through a variety of devices to see what works quickly and what is still loading slowly. This way, you will have a better understanding of what your customers will experience when they come to your site. It also should show you the areas you need to fix on the site.
For those who have trouble making the fixes on their own, consider hiring a professional to look at the site and get it into fighting shape for you. While it might cost a bit to have them improve your site quality, having a faster site often means more sales.
Today, the competition is fierce, and that means that there are a number of other companies out there offering services and products similar to yours. If your site is taking forever to load, you can say goodbye to a number of customers. Put in the work to make your site lightning fast.
Resource: http://www.hostway.com/blog/10-ways-to-make-your-website-load-faster/