How to Improve Website Speed & Performance for Better User Experience?

The world moves fast. When the new version of the iPhone is launched, most of us rush to be the first to see and review it. When any breaking news hits the nation or the world, we glue to our TV screens to get the latest updates and the reporters rush to be the first to deliver the news. No wonder, people expect the same agility and speed while browsing the web. They have no patience, they want to experience the unhindered performance of the web so that they may calmly and quickly receive the information they are searching for. This is why websites with poor load speeds or inadequate performance have no place in the World Wide Web today.

The Importance of Website Speed & Performance –

As per a study done by Akamai, more than the 50% of web users expect a site to load in less than 2 seconds and if it’s unable to load within 3 seconds, the users tend to switch on the next and don’t wait for the website to load. A more alarming statistic is that around 70% of users who are not satisfied with websites’ load time; they count on the other rivalry addresses.

It simply means, by having the poor website load time, you are not merely losing your current visitors and decreasing conversion rates but also running the risk of not getting new customers who visit your website on the referrals of other existing customers.

In the current fast-paced world, every second makes the difference. Your users expect your website to load fast and if not, they will not stick to your business. Keeping this crucial fact in mind, let’s take a look at some vital ways to increase website speed and performance.

How to Improve Website Speed & Performance for Better User Experience?

Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network)

Hosting your media files on CDN is one of the best ways to speed up your site. CDNs work by hosting your files on a big number of servers across the globe. For instance, if a user visits your website from Greece, they will download files from the server that is closest to them.

Not to mention, the speed of your website is greatly affected by the location of users, relative to your web server. The farther they are, the more data being transmitted has to travel. Having your content hosted on CDNs will help resolve this problem. A CDN might make your operating cost a little higher, but your website will surely be load in no time, no matter from which corner of the world the user is viewing your business. Don’t strain your nerves if you are not familiar with CDN, a reputed Website development company in India can help you in this regard.

Use GTMetrix –

GTMetrix is a web application that helps you analyze and optimize your website. The web developers in India offer a free version and paid plans for users who have one or multiple websites. These users can benefit from faster analysis, additional API access, hourly URL monitoring, more targeting options, and white-label PDF reports. At a glance, users can view a summary of their website’s performance.

Essentially, GTMetrix is Google’s solution to evaluate the speed and performance of websites for both desktop and mobile devices. This web application provides a score ranging from 0 to 100 and Google confirms that a score of 85 or higher indicates that a website is performing well. So, to get the clear idea of how fast the website loads under various circumstances and at different times of the day, use GTMetrix.

Use Pingdom –

Speed testing is an essential task for all website owners and it can be effectively done via using Pingdom. It is one of the best website monitoring and speed testing tools currently available. Use this testing tool to measure and monitor the load time of a Website. Pingdom might seem like a relatively easy testing tool to e used due to its ostensibly basic free speed test but once you get registered to it, a whole world of a multitude if features get available. To make the most of all the accessible features, take help of a professional website developer and enjoy the unmatched website’s speed and performance.

Minimize HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) Requests –

HTTP requests are counted whenever a browser fetches a page, picture or file from a web server. As per a recent study, these HTTP request may take up to 80% of a Webpage’s load time. It means that the more HTTP requests you need to load, the longer it will take your web page to go and retrieve them all, which will increase the load time of your website. So, you should minimize HTTP requests. But how will you reduce HTTP requests?  Simple, take help of professional website developers in India and they will do the job for you.

Use a Caching Plugin –

If you are using WordPress, one of the easiest and quickest ways to speed up your web page loading time is to install a caching plugin like WP Super Cache or WP Total Cache. However, if you are using WP Engine, you need not use caching plugin ass they have it built-in.

Compress Images and Optimize Their Size –

Images currently take around 60% of the average bytes loaded per page. So, remove any images of assets you think you don’t necessitate them. It will significantly improve the speed and performance of your web page. 

If you have oodles of images in the page, you should learn about the optimal format for each image. There are typically three kinds of formats JPEG, GIF, and PNG. JPEG is considered the most suitable format for saving the images with smooth gradients and color tones whereas GIF or PNG are good for the images that have solid colors.

While images will still take up the majority of your HTTP requests, optimizing them will ultimately keep their sizes down and increase the overall performance of your website. If you are not sure which format would be right for your images, take help of professional website designers in India.

Deactivate Plugins you don’t use –

Plugins are one of the key reasons for slowing down the loading time of a WordPress-hosted site. So, delete plugins that are not essential or that are no longer in use. You can easily identify useless plugins that are harming your website’s performance by selectively disabling them and measuring server performance. If you are still not sure what plugins are useful to you and what not, get in contact with website developers in India.

Conclusion –

In this net savvy and fast-paced age, users will continue to demand a richer and richer online experience. A little attention to fasten your website loading speed will go a long way because every one-second delay in your website loading speed is all enough to lose a lead.

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Amit Mishra

Amit Mishra, the co-founder of Media Search Group, loves to pen down about marketing and designing. Be it search engine optimization(SEO) tips and strategies, Social Media Optimization, Increasing Engagement, and Traffic Score, Web Design and Development, Mobile Applications, Conversion/Sales, he covers it all. Been in the business for a long time, Amit Mishra knows some of the best strategies on how to expand and grow a Business Online.

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