In this fast paced world, waiting too long for something is an overkill. Though it is said that patience is a virtue, when it comes to websites, it really doesn’t matter to the billions of people surfing the world wide web.
According to a report published by Google, the chance of a bounce increases to 32% when a page load time goes from 1 to 3 seconds, and rises to 90% when the load time takes 5 seconds. If a website takes upto or more than 10 seconds to load, then that chance increases to 123%.
Back in 2010, Google announced that a website’s load time will be taken in as a ranking factor for their algorithm. And in July of 2018, they announced that load time will be a ranking factor for mobile searches too.
Let’s understand how you can speed up your WordPress site in 5 easy steps.
The easiest way to do that is to follow the best practice when building/optimizing your website. Remind you, these are generic points for reducing the load time. But they are helpful and can drastically cut down your load time.
Just follow these simple steps:
In order for you to start improving your website’s load time, you’ll need a baseline to work with and a way for you to monitor the progress that you have made. There are abundant free tools out there that can help you measure your site’s load time. The ones that we trust are listed below:
When a browser sends an HTTP request to a server, in response the server sends an HTML bundle containing the requested information. Your browser then displays the information on your screen. That in theory is what happens when you enter a Website URL on your browser. Scripts can be loaded in a fraction of a second, but loading Images and Videos can really do some damage when it comes to your site’s load time. Therefore, it is recommended that Image and Video extensions that are website friendly (smaller file size) be used.
You might think that reducing the size of the files would affect the quality. No, there are extensions that will preserve the quality, while reducing the size.
You can use HTTP Compression to send a single bundle which has a smaller file size than sending multiple responses with different files when an HTTP request is sent from a browser. You can check out this article from Mozilla on how to use HTTP Compression.
You can also optimize your CSS and JavaScript files by combining them and minifying the source code. If you’re using WordPress, we recommend using LightSpeed Cache which is a plug-in available on wordpress.org. You can also use other plug-ins like WP Rocket or WP Super Minify.
According to the World Wide Web Consortium (w3c), it is recommended to put your stylesheet reference at the <head> of your HTML document, as it allows the page to render styles progressively.
This tiny bit of info is only for webmasters working with custom coded websites. CMS platforms use it as a default setting.
To cache a web page means to save a static version of the website that is shown to the site user instead of loading it over and over again. For WordPress developers, we recommend using plug-ins like W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache.
301 Status Code, or better known as 301 Redirect is used to redirect your browser from one URL to another and thereby increasing the load time of a page. Avoid using 301 redirects at all costs.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, these are generic tips and best practice guidelines for improving the load time of any website but, this is a starting point. Follow all the guidelines to the letter if possible and you’ll end up with a high performing website that’s ready to bring in new audiences with just a click.
Hope you’ve found this article useful. Comment down below if we’ve missed out on anything and don’t forget to share this with your fellow webmasters.
See you in the next one!
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