A crucial aspect of a website’s functionality is how fast it loads. For business websites, slow loading pages can often lead to less page visits and less sales. Fortunately, there are many simple tricks you can deploy to speed up a website. This post takes a deeper look at why webpage loading speed matters and how you can make your site faster.
Why webpage loading speed matters
A slow loading website can cause all kinds of issues. Below are just some of the factors that are affected by webpage loading speed.
- Bounce rate: The ‘bounce rate’ is the amount of people that leave your site after viewing just one page. A bounce rate of 40% or lower is good, which is normal for sites that load in 2 seconds or less. However, loading speeds of 5 seconds or more can increase the bounce rate to 90%.
- Search engine rankings: A site’s speed and bounce rate are considered by search engine algorithms and can affect a webpage’s rankings. Slower websites often rank lower and consequently get less visibility and traffic.
- Direct sales: Slower websites tend to get fewer sales than faster sites. This is because people can be less trusting of slower sites or may not have the patience for them when quickly comparing deals or making impulse purchases. Lower traffic as a result of poorer rankings also means less sales.
How to improve webpage loading speed
There are many ways to make a website faster. Often the easiest solution is to work with an SEO agency that can analyze your website and identify the most obvious causes. However, you may be able to do a few of your own DIY fixes.
Optimize images
High resolution images are a common cause of a slow loading website. Consider resizing and compressing images to help them load faster. You can also use ‘lazy loading’ – which means images further down the page only load as you scroll down.
Limit third party media
Too many adverts, plug-ins and embedded videos will further slow down your website by making the code for each page bulkier. Try to prioritize third-party media that matters – limit videos to two or three per page and don’t get greedy with adverts.
Take care with redirects
Redirects slow down page loading speed so only use them when necessary. Try to make the most popular domain name the primary domain name so that visitors aren’t constantly redirecting from other domains.
Move to a faster host
Where your site is hosted can also impact its speed. You could be sharing a cluttered server with lots of other websites, making your website load more slowly. Migrating to a new website host isn’t easy and typically involves backing up your entire site’s data. Some hosts will offer managed migration or a free website transfer service, which is worth looking into.
