Digital marketing is a complicated field that is constantly changing. There is a new tool or strategy to try out every day. As a marketer, it can take a lot of work to keep up with the latest trends and technologies and find the time to test them. So, we made a list of essential […]
How to Improve Your Website Loading Speed
November 23, 2022
It's no secret that website loading speed is critical for SEO. Google has confirmed that site speed is a ranking signal. But did you know that website loading speed is also important for conversion rate optimization? Studies have shown that when a website takes more than three seconds to load, 50% of visitors will leave. That's why it's essential to focus on performance optimization and ensure your website loads as quickly as possible. This blog post will discuss the importance of website loading speed and how you can improve yours!
Use a content delivery network (CDN) to speed up website loading times
A CDN is a network of servers that are located around the world. When you use a CDN, your website's static content (images, CSS, and JavaScript) is cached on these servers. This means that when visitors try to access your website, the content will be delivered to them from the server closest to their location. This can dramatically improve website loading times, especially for visitors who are located far from your server.
Many different CDN providers exist, such as Cloudflare, Amazon CloudFront, and Fastly. You can usually set up a CDN with just a few clicks; most providers have easy-to-use control panels.
If you're unsure whether your website uses a CDN, you can check by using a tool like GTmetrix. Just enter your URL and click on the "Waterfall" tab. Suppose you see that your static content is being delivered from multiple servers (labeled with different URLs). In that case, you're probably using a CDN.
Optimize images and videos for faster loading
Images and videos are often the biggest culprits for slow website loading times. That's because they can be large files that take a long time to download. But there are a few things you can do to optimize your images and videos for faster loading:
- Use compressed file formats, such as JPEG or MPEG- four.
- Resize images to fit the dimensions of your website.
- Use a tool like Cloudinary to automatically optimize images for faster loading.
You can also try lazy loading, a technique that delays the loading of images until they're needed. This can be especially helpful if you have a lot of pictures on your website.
Minimize HTTP requests
Every time visitors try to load a page on your website, their browser has to send an HTML request to your server. This is called an "HTML request." If your website has a lot of images, CSS files, and JavaScript files, this can add up to a lot of requests. And the more requests there are, the longer it will take for your website to load.
One way to reduce the number of HTML requests is to use a " bundling technique." Bundling means combining all your CSS files into one file and all your JavaScript files into one file. This reduces the number of requests that have to be sent to the server, which should significantly improve your website loading speed.
Enable compression
Compression is a technique that reduces the size of your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This makes it faster for visitors to download these files from your server. You can enable compression on your server by using a tool like Gzip.
Once you've enabled compression, test your website to ensure everything is working correctly. You can use a tool like GTmetrix to do this. Just enter your URL and click on the "Performance" tab. If you see that your files are being compressed, then you're all set!
Use caching
Caching is a technique that stores frequently accessed data in memory so that it can be quickly retrieved when needed. This can dramatically improve website loading speed, especially for visitors who have been to your site before.
Many different caching plugins and tools are available, such as WP Super Cache and W three Total Cache.
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If you want more up close and personal marketing strategies, advice, or an overhaul of your marketing structure, email us at zack@roimf.com or schedule a call with Zack now.
