The set of techniques and best practices used to make a website as quick as feasible is known as “website speed optimization.”
The first impression of your company online is created by the speed of your website. It’s critical to realise that you only get one chance to get the user experience right. One of the most annoying things that will make consumers dislike your resource is a slow website.
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6 Best Practices for Increasing Website Speed
As you can see, several things affect how long it takes for each page on your website to load. But there are just as many ways to boost your website’s functionality. Here are a few examples:
Image size optimization
Everyone enjoys striking visuals. Images are a crucial component of successful eCommerce websites. Engagement is improved by having several photographs, images, and graphics on your product pages. The drawback of using images is that they are frequently big files that make websites load slowly.
It’s time to optimise the size of the photographs once you are assured that you are loading the optimal resolution across all device kinds. For instructions on how to achieve it, consult Shopify. Ensure that you also use the right file type as it also helps you improve user experience on the website. For images with many colours (such as photos), use JPEG; for graphics with fewer colours, use PNG.
Make use of a content delivery network (CDN)
The time it takes for content to load when a user connects to a website depends on their physical proximity to the web hosting server. In addition to consuming less bandwidth, the globally dispersed network of data centres speeds up the transmission of web page content to users, regardless of where they are in relation to the main server.
Additionally, the load time lengthens the farther away customers are from the server. User requests are routed to the closest server using CDN. As a result, a website loads quicker, and users receive content more quickly. This is a costly but very efficient method of reducing load time.
Find and fix 404 errors
Simply put, a bad user experience might arise from repeatedly receiving 404 errors while attempting to access a particular website. Broken links on your blogs will make visitors less likely to visit them again.
Once all 404 errors have been found, you must evaluate the amount of traffic they bring in. You can leave these dead links alone if they no longer generate any traffic and don’t ever use up any server resources. If traffic to these pages is still flowing in, you could want to redirect external links and change the internal links’ addresses.
Limit the HTTP requests made
The browser must request several files each time a user accesses a page on your website. The speed at which the web page loads is directly impacted by these HTTP requests.
In general, fewer HTTP requests result in a website loading more quickly. Eliminate demands that are purely needless as your initial step. How long does your website’s minimum render time need to be? Identify it, and then just load the required external resources. Any extra photos, JavaScript files, stylesheets, fonts, etc. should be removed. Remove any superfluous plugins if you’re using a CMS like WordPress because they frequently load extra files on each page.
Reduce redirects
You want your website visitors to land at the new location, not the old one when you relocate or remove something. A redirect is a feature that instantly directs visitors to your website to a new destination. The advantage of redirects is that they are simple to detect. We’ll offer you a brief overview of the subject so you are fully aware of what you are working with.
Change to HTTP/2
The initial purpose of the data transport protocol HTTP was to transfer hypertext documents. The HyperText Transfer Protocol acronym makes clear what the HTTP protocol is used for. Texts with links to other documents are referred to as having “hypertext.”
A solution to this issue is to decrease the volume of requests. In any event, this is a wise strategy. Faster page loads are always going to result from fewer resources being used to render your website, but there is another approach to reducing this cost. You could convert it to HTTP/2 for your website. Depending on the hosting company you choose, the specifics of how to achieve this will vary. Over HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2 offers several benefits. One of them is the capability of sending several files simultaneously over a single connection. Multiple requests’ overhead is avoided in this way.
Conclusion
The faster your website performs and loads in browsers, shows content, and responds to user input, the reduced your bounce rates will be and the higher your conversion rates will be. Examine and evaluate the necessary components for a successful website while considering conversion, visibility, and usability. When it comes to these three factors, test the speed of your present website and give priority to the pages and features that require the most work. Start your optimization with the elements that slow things down the most, and concentrate on the pages that have the biggest impact on conversion success.
