Internet users simply don’t have the patience to wait for webpages to load, checking the latest headlines or looking at product reviews. Even a delay of a few seconds is enough to create a negative impression on users. Therefore, the best thing you can do to improve your website is to optimize its speed.
Optimizing website speed should be a priority if it hasn’t already been done. Otherwise, you risk that messages are expected and will leave the website due to slow webpage loading. In order to correctly identify all problems with the loading speed of the website, constant monitoring is carried out. This will allow you to find and eliminate problems as efficiently as possible.
Website loading speed and ways to improve it
Numerous Google studies have shown that visitors interact less with websites that load slowly. Therefore, Google has made website speed a ranking factor for the search engine and Ads. This happened after the introduction of Mobile First and Speed Update priorities. This is a system update of Google’s internal algorithms that makes loading time a ranking factor for mobile devices.
This means that slow webpage loading can reduce the ratings in Google’s advertising and search results in both the desktop and mobile versions. Thus you need to know how to optimise your website to improve its loading speed.
Reduce image size
The number of resources on a page has a big impact on load times. Reduce the file sizes of the images on the website. Alternatively, if you are using WordPress, you can also install the image compression plugin.
Use caching
Another way to improve website speed is to expand your browser’s cache settings. The first user visit will take time as each component will be loaded and saved. But subsequent visits will be much faster, since the files can be retrieved locally.
Clean up and minify the website code
Minification refers to removing clutter from CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files. Comments and separators are usually not needed for the website to work. Use a free tool like Unminify to remove unused code and reduce file size.
Use file compression
Reduce and compress website files. It will significantly improve website performance, because users will load less resources. Gzip is a popular software that reduces the size of CSS, HTML and JavaScript files on a website.
Move website to faster web hosting
Opt for a fast web host to dramatically improve your website speed. Choosing a cheap web hosting plan can save you money in the beginning, but you end up paying more for it in the long run.
Website loading speed and monitoring
Website monitoring itself is a vital thing for a website. No matter how complex a website is, the webmaster needs to keep an eye on it. And if it is a large website or an online store, then it will be difficult to cope with monitoring the website on your own. That is why more and more often even large companies resort to using complex monitoring tools.
Today, in the era of widespread online services, web platforms for monitoring websites are very popular. For example, HostTracker is one of the most advanced online monitoring systems. This comprehensive website monitoring service includes many tests. Thanks to this, he is an indispensable assistant for any webmaster.
And thanks to the system of instant notifications, detailed statistics and other additional functions, the webmaster can easily find the reason for the slowdown or other problems with the website. This means that the webmaster will be able to quickly respond to all problems and eliminate them as soon as possible.
