These days, all businesses have websites, but some are faster than others. Like most people, you probably use a WordPress site. It might surprise you to learn that these sites can vary in speed dramatically. Many people think that the speed of their site depends on the quality of the connection they use to view it. This myth is not always the case. Even if a user has the best internet connection in the world, they might struggle when it comes to viewing a super slow site.
Why should you speed up your site?
When a customer wants to know about your business, the first thing they will do is Google the company name. With any luck, the first site they should find will be your site. Of course, the customer will then click the link, hoping that they can get all the information they need from the page. Simple, right? The problem is that when the page takes a long time to load, you risk annoying your customer. Users want to get information in mere seconds. That means that they are not willing to sit around and wait for your site. In essence, this issue means that the customer will close your site and go to one of your competitors. If you want to avoid this problem, you need to make sure that your page is as fast as it can be.
Choose the best site hosting
First, let’s talk about your site hosting. People often choose the cheapest provider on the market so that they can save themselves some money. While this idea might seem the best course of action, that is not always the case. Instead, you need to find a hosting service that suits your individual needs. You need to avoid shared hosting sites at all costs as they can’t handle a lot of data. Look for a bespoke service, where you can get support and help along the way.
Make sure you optimize imagery
If your page has loads of photos, this could slow it down a whole lot. The problem is that you don’t want to lose the quality of the images, but you need them to take up less space than they do now. There are services online, such as Smush.it, where you can optimize each image you use before you upload it. If you don’t have the time to optimize each image you use, you should get the plugin version of this site. That way, whenever you upload a picture, the plugin will optimize it automatically.
Stop people hotlinking
If you haven’t heard of hotlinking yet, you need to read this. People can link to your images from their site. In doing so, they steal some of your bandwidth, which means that your page will be slower than it should be. You may not even know that this issue is happening, but it will change the speed of your site. If you want to stop people from committing this act, there is something you can do. There’s a code you can use that will prevent people from hotlinking to your site. (You can find this code easily online.)
Find a theme that works well
You might think that all you need to consider when choosing a theme is the aesthetic appeal of it. Well, you are wrong. Not all themes are the same. Some of them just don’t run as fast as they should. If there are large files on the theme, such as imagery, you will find that it takes forever to load. If the coding is poor or complex, the theme will be heavy and difficult to use. You should check the demo of the theme before you use it. That way, you can see whether it runs well or not.
Use LazyLoad for your pictures
When a user loads a page, they should not have to wait for all the images to load before they can view it. Let’s say that the page is quite long, meaning that they will have to scroll down to view it all. Usually, the page will not be ready to use until everything has loaded. If you use the LazyLoad tool, you can put a stop to this silly problem. This tool means that images will only load when you scroll down. That means that the site will take much less time to appear when you first open it.
Remember, the quicker your page is, the more customers will like it. In the modern world, people value speed, and so you have to be ahead of the game. Try these tips and see what difference they make to the speed of your site. The results may surprise you.
