The benefits of a fast loading website are well known, with increasing profit and SEO performance being the two of the most notable advantages.
So how fast is fast? And what can you do to improve a slow website? Firstly, have a look at your own website and think about how long it takes to load.
- Less than 1 second = perfect
- 1-3 seconds = above average
- 3-7 seconds = average
- 7+ seconds = very poor
Now if you’ve done little in the way of optimisation, we can assume that your page load time leaves much to be desired. If this sounds like you, here are five tips to increase your website load speed.
Use content delivery systems
By hosting all your media information on a content delivery network, you can significantly improve the performance of your website. Content delivery systems host your files on a number of servers across the globe, meaning you’ll be using bandwidth on your end as well as displaying content at a much faster rate. Because your content is hosted across multiple servers, the risk of DDOS attacks is significantly reduced, making it a security enhancement too! For more security tips, be sure to check out nccgroup.com.
Hosting companies
The performance of your web hosting company can have a significant impact on your website page loading speeds. By simply opting for a well-known web host you could see seconds shaved off your page load times. Do a little research and you’ll quickly find a number of providers that are renowned for fast hosting.
Caching plugins
A simple way to improve your web page loading time is to use a caching plugin. However, this is only applicable if you’re using a WordPress based website. If you want to incorporate one into your site, go to the plugin section in the back end of your site and search for caching plugins. WP Total Cache and WP Super Cache are our recommended plugins.
Change your theme
All your efforts to improve your load times could be in vain if you are using a poorly coded, bloated website theme. There are many aesthetically beautiful templates you can buy, but not all of these are made equal. As such, always do research before investing in a theme. A rule of thumb is to avoid extremely minimal designs with a heavy focus on large resolution images as these can really hold you back in terms of speed!
GZIP
Compressing your website content is a great way to improve page load speed times with very little effort. GZIPs compress your content into a zip file which is then sent and unzipped by users who are viewing your website. This reduces the amount of data being sent and increases the speed at which content is displayed. If you use WordPress, there are numerous plugins that will help you do this.
