When it comes to website performance, page speed ranks highly. Users prefer faster page load times, otherwise they’ll quickly find another option. Load time is the measure of how quickly a website’s page content loads onto the screen when a user clicks on it. To reduce user bounce rate, you need a good website that optimizes website performance for faster loading times.
What affects page load times?
According to Cloudflare, various factors can affect page speed. Below are some of the most important ones:
- The number and quality of images, videos, and other media files on the page or website
- Dependencies such as cache, themes, plugins and the CMS installed on your site
- The site’s coding and specific server-side scripts.
- Bad or shared web hosting
- Too many page redirects
These and other elements can slow down your page loading speed if not optimized and result in a high bounce rate. To prevent this from happening, you can work with a good website designer like Bizango to optimize your website’s performance for faster loading.
How to optimize website performance for faster loading times
Here are some quick tips and tricks to optimize website performance for faster loading times.
1. Optimize the size and format of images and videos
Optimize your website’s video and image sizes and format for faster page loads. Use smaller but high-quality images that will make your website or page load faster. Compress and optimize images in standard formats such as JPG, PNG, GIF and WebP, but do not reduce their quality. Don’t let the images take up a lot of bandwidth on your website.
2. Reduce HTTP requests
Reduce the number of HTTP requests and minimize the time to first byte in the following ways:
- Switch to HTTP/2.
- Reduce image requests with CSS sprites.
- Use the CSS elements “Background position” and “Background image” to combine background images in one image.
- Combine all javascript files in one file and all css files in one.
3. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to reduce latency
Also known as a Content Distribution Network, a CDN consists of many servers spread across different geographic locations to serve content to users in those locations. CDN reduces the load that a hosting server can have when many users are requesting content at the same time, which reduces latency and helps improve page load speeds.
4. Cache pages
Caching stores the current version of your website on a hosting server and displays that version every time a given device reaches it until it is updated. This reduces latency as the device remembers the information and loads it quickly since it doesn’t have to resend database requests every time.
5. Reduce redirects
Too many redirects affect the loading time of a webpage because each redirect lengthens the page’s HTTP request and its response process. Avoiding or reducing unnecessary redirects increases page and delivery speeds and decreases page load times. Look for broken links (e.g. 404 and 4XX errors) and fix them immediately. Keep only necessary redirects, e.g. B. when changing to a new domain. Reducing redirects is also a good factor for website ranking.
6. Minimize plugins
Websites use plugins to improve user experience, but too many plugins can cause websites to load slowly and degrade user experience. Check all the plugins you have installed on your website and delete any unnecessary ones to improve website loading time.
final grade
Improving your website or page speed is important for a better user experience. Keep in mind that this is an ongoing process that may also take some time to implement. The best place to start is with a site audit to find and fix the pages that are loading slowly or affecting your site’s loading speed. Follow the steps above and your website will load faster.
