Ten Easy Ways to Increase Your Website’s Page Speed
Page loading times are crucial to a website’s success. Search engines factor it into their ranking results, and 40 per cent of site visitors typically abandon a site that hasn’t loaded within three seconds.
Here are ten simple yet effective ways to increase page speeds:
- Compress graphics. Photos can be reduced to a fraction of their original file size, without looking pixellated. Specify image dimensions too, to save processing time.
- Simplify coding. HTTP requests are needed for each stylesheet, script and image. Less is more, so reduce scripts and streamline elements wherever possible.
- Abolish redirects. Building on the last point, 301 redirects involve extra HTTP requests that extend loading times. Choose responsive site frameworks instead.
- Enable browser caching. Regular visitors to your site won’t always need to load every page in full. Browser caching will store key attributes for quicker access in future.
- Learn how to minify. Empty elements, whitespace and HTML comments still matter. Increase page speed with tools like YUI Compressor for CSS and JavaScript.
- Streamline homepages. These are typically the first port of call for search engines and customers/visitors alike. Eliminate auto-playing media, and keep text/images concise.
- Delete plugins. It’s easy to get carried away with WordPress plugins, for example. Place substance over style by removing anything that’s not essential to increase page speed.
- Choose an efficient theme. Another WordPress tip is to choose a minimalist template. Don’t let form dictate function. Many responsive frameworks are designed for download speed.
- Tidy databases. Sites needing to interrogate databases will slow down with every revision, macro and extra sheet. Clean up databases to accelerate interrogations.
- Use powerful servers. At UK2, we’re committed to rapid content delivery. Our powerful global servers increase page speeds, boosting SEO and audience retention.