Slow loading websites make for a terrible user experience and more than ever Google will punish your rankings for disappointing your visitors.
Amazon estimates each second of increased page load costs $1,600,000,00 in lost sales. Page Load or the speed your home page populates a browser is critical to the success of your website. If this is true then why are there so many slow loading websites?
Like most computational processes, the steps in completing a task impact the time to complete. For example, a manufacturing process which assembles 25 components into a finished product will take more time than a similar process that assembles only three components. It’s the same for websites. The filesize and number needed to render your website in a browser have a direct relationship to Page Load. For an excellent explanation how your slow website is effected click on the infographic below for an an excellent infographic from Hostingfacts.com
Infographic from Hostingfacts.com
Similarly the resources available will have a similar impact. Again, back to the manufacturing example; a team of five people will likely accomplish a task quicker than a team of one. So what we’ve learned is that the hosting resources allocated and the number of tasks needed to render a website will have a direct effect on page load.
Do yourself a favor and use the Pingdom Speed test which will measure your website’s page load from a variety of servers located across the world. Check the time required for the server to receive the request and respond. Also see how long your images, scripts and files take to load before your website completes. Optimize or decrease the file sizes of images if possible to speed up your load times.
If the time needed to render your website is more than five seconds, your website is seriously slow.
In my ten years of experience managing websites, below are the main factors that slow page load on a WordPress site:
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Large image files on the main page; typically in a slider. Sometimes as big as 10 MB. Reduce the size of the image by cropping or use an image optimizing plugin like Smush it to compress the file.
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Unnecessary plugins or conflicts between plugins. Delete unnecessary plugins
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Malware.Use a malware scanning tool like Sucuri sitecheck to scan for malware.
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Cheap shared Hosting Plans. Upgrade your hosting plan
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Excessive number of script files; often javascript or css files. Takes coding knowledge so you may need to hire a professional.
When tasked with improving the page load of a website, I look at all these variables first for a way to cut out valuable seconds in loading time. Often I counsel the client to improve their hosting plan, eliminate unnecessary images and plugins and implement caching with terrific results.
Many slow loading sites are the direct result of faulty web design. Which means these sites were intentionally built to be slow.
Web designers have a responsibility to counsel their clients that excessive use of plugins and large images will slow their site, resulting in diminished user experience and low rankings. Clients don’t realize that all these extras add ” file weight” to a site. It’s best to keep the website homepage factual and to the point. Avoid large sliders with expansive images. Talented web designers know how to optimize images and compress and minimize scripts but most designers don’t. When aclient is left with a slow site loaded down with unnecessary clutter a designer’s response might be “I gave you what you wanted.”
Like a race car built for speed, unnecessary file size weight needs to be discarded and page load must always be considered when designing your site.
Say more with less and you will peak your prospect”s interest and motivate them to seek more info. If you have a slow loading site and need insights on how to quicken page load, contact Taylortown SEO at ( 321) 230-3197 or visit our website at www.taylortownseo.com