4 Strategies to Increase Your Website Speed
Website speed is essential for users. Online users are highly impatient, and delays can lead to a loss in traffic. Your company could be losing traffic and potential conversions daily. The average user expects a webpage to load within 2 seconds, and loyal users will only wait for a delay of one more second. Even big companies like Google see a decrease in traffic when searches load in 2.5 seconds. Seconds may seem like a tiny portion of time, but when you’ve got a website every second is valuable. Here’s what you can do to increase your website speed.
You need to be testing your website regularly to know how long it takes to direct a client to the desired page. When a site loads in less than 2 seconds, you’re bound to increase the traffic to the website. Moreover, a faster website can encourage visitors to stay longer and view more of your content. Slower sites often discourage interested web users from ever visiting again. Having repeat customers is essential in growing the market base for your business. Customers can be motivated to revisit your website if they enjoy a great customer experience.
4 Strategies to help increase your website speed
Plugins are applications designed to perform a specific task within a program or website. For example, your favorite media player in your computer is a plugin and didn’t come with the original OS. Having plugins can increase the efficiency of your website and reduce the time it takes to load a page. Here are four plugins you should be using for your WordPress website.
1. Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Hosting your media files in one server can lead to lower speeds of retrieval of data for users across the globe. CDN hosts your data on a network of servers around the world. When users want to access a page on the website, the nearest server offers the information. CDN reduces the number of networks that data has to travel through to reach the end-user. It also saves the company bandwidth because of a decrease in requests from the website.
2. WordPress caching plugin
A WordPress caching plugin is the easiest way to improve your website’s speed. There are two types, namely, WP Total Cache and WP Super Cache. The plugins are free, and you can easily download them.
3. GZip
Using Gzip can save bandwidth while increasing your website speed. The software compresses files for smooth transfer between the server and the browser. The browser opens the zip file and displays that content to the users. The logic behind this is that zip files tend to use up smaller space, making them suitable for fast transfers.
It’s well within your rights to use various programs to improve your website and customer experience. The competition is fierce, and you have to meet the industry standards to attract a substantial amount of relevant traffic. An improvement of 0.5 seconds in your website speed can lead to a change in revenue as well as your bottom line. You should be investing in the best because every second count to your potential customers.
4. Web Hosting
Not all web hosting is created equal! We host our own sites on a server environment setup to maximize speed. It has features like SSD drives and other internal configuration pieces that help WordPress and PHP sites really zoom. Other hosts can also offer speed value. For example, SiteGround is an independent web hosting company offering a range of hosting solutions that maximize speed for WordPress sites. The decision to change your web hosting services may seem like a big one. However, you should always ensure you choose the best WordPress hosting for your business needs.
Shifting your web hosting agency can reduce the number of changes you need to make to see a significant shift in speed. Keep these speed factors in mind as you seek to maximize the speed of your site!