Why Website Speed Matters and How to Improve It

Your website’s speed is the difference between gaining a loyal customer and losing a potential lead. When users click on your website’s link, they come with a simple expectation: seamless instant access to the content or answers they’re seeking. But if your website hesitates even for a few moments, that anticipation can swiftly turn to frustration. Website speed, often overlooked by many businesses, plays a large role in determining user satisfaction, search engine rankings, and conversion rates.

Let’s explore the reasons why website speed is paramount and equip you with actionable strategies to supercharge your site’s performance.

It’s the first impression your website makes to visitors

Before they see your homepage, read your content or explore your products, they’ll first experience the speed of your site. Internet users are accustomed to instant access, when a page takes too long to load, their user experience is interrupted which leads to impatience, dissatisfaction and, in the worst case, a quick exit!

Not only can speed have a impact on the first impression but also on your websites search engine rankings. Google prioritises a positive user experience. If your website loads quickly you will be rewarded with better visibility on search engines, which translates into more organic traffic. Ultimately this will lead to more customers and growth in your business, all without spending on marketing.

Over half of web traffic now comes from mobile devices. Usually on the go, mobile users typically have less patience for slow-loading sites. Ensuring your website’s speed is optimised will be a game-changer, opening up the accessibility of your website for all types of visitors.

Behind every slow website lies hosting, images, plugins and bloated code

Your hosting provider and the type of hosting plan you choose can be the a factor of your site’s speed. Shared hosting, while budget-friendly, can lead to slower speeds if your website attracts large numbers of visitors everyday. Consider options like dedicated hosting for better performance, especially for e-commerce websites.

Images are crucial for an engaging website, but they can also be a major speed culprit if not optimized. Large, uncompressed images can eat up bandwidth, leading to slow page loads. Make sure you use free tools such as Bulk Resize Photos to optimise images before uploading!

Every plugin or script added to a website comes with its own set of resource demands. While some are lightweight and efficient, others can bog down your site’s performance. Regularly look at the plugins installed and remove any unnecessary or outdated plugins.

Overly complex or redundant code, often resulting from unoptimized themes or plugins, can slow down a website. Regularly reviewing and cleaning up your site’s code can make a noticeable difference.

Every time a page redirects to another page, your visitor faces additional waiting time. While some redirects are necessary, it’s a good practice to minimize them for optimal performance. It’s becoming more common to put the contact form at the bottom of the page instead of asking the user to click a button that takes them to a contact page, it’s another step which slows the visitor down.

There are a number of ways to tackle a slow loading site

Firstly, it’s a smart to test your website, my preference is PageSpeed Insights this will diagnose performance issues.

A common issue is improperly sized images. To put this simply, the images of your size are far too big than what is required, for example, the dimensions of the image could be say 1000 pixels wide, when it is only being displayed in a box 200 pixels wide. You can resize images using Adobe Photoshop or WordPress’ scale tool. If you need help with this please contact me.

Another one also relates to images, many websites still choose to display images in PNG or JPG file formats. This might be okay for the time being however there is a move toward ‘next-gen’ file formats such as WebP – this file format provides great quality but at a much lower file size. You can use free tools like the aforementioned Bulk Resize Photos to convert images to WebP before putting them on your site. This will future proof your website and ensure it loads rapidly.

Fonts can also be a significant factor in a poorly loading website. Every font added introduces additional HTTP requests, leading to slower page load times. Moreover, the format in which these fonts are used matters. Traditional formats like TTF (TrueType Font) can be larger in size. In contrast, modern formats like WOFF2 (Web Open Font Format 2) are optimized for web usage, offering compression benefits that make them more lightweight and faster to load. Transfonter is a great little tool that can convert all types of fonts into the modern lightweight woff2 format.

I trust this exploration has made clear the pivotal role of website speed in today’s online experiences. From enhancing user satisfaction to boosting SEO ranks, optimal speed is a cornerstone of a successful digital presence. Looking to supercharge your website’s performance? Don’t hesitate to get in touch and discover how I can help optimize your site for the fast-paced digital world.