How to Improve Your Website’s Loading Speed?

The faster your website loads, the longer visitors tend to stay. Extended visitor engagement can lead to better search engine rankings, improved conversion rates, and increased customer satisfaction.

Optimize images

If the site has large images, downloading them can slow down the website speed. Adequately compress the image before uploading it on your website theme. Use a better-suited format file for the image (JPEG for photographs and PNG for images). TinyPNG or ImageOptim can help decrease the size of the image.

Enable browser caching

Browser caching stores cacheable site’s static files on the user’s machine. When a user revisits your site, their browser will not have to reload files it has already loaded. Set an expiry date or a maximum age in the HTTP headers to implement browser caching.

Minimize HTTP requests

Every file requested by your browser will add an HTTP request. This includes server requests for an image, javascript file, stylesheet, etc. The more requests you have, the more time the site will take to load. Reduce the number of HTTP requests by bundling multiple files using CSS sprites, and combining CSS and JavaScript files when possible or necessary.

Use a content delivery network (CDN)

Content delivery networks like Cloudflare and Amazon CloudFront distribute static files worldwide on their servers. When a user visits your website, your site’s static file will be served rapidly from the nearest server. The faster the file server, the quicker the page will be loaded.

Optimize CSS and JavaScript

Minifying CSS or Javascript files helps remove whitespace, comments, and other extras while reducing file size. Tools like UglifyJS for Javascript and CSSNano for CSS can help load Javascript asynchronously so it does not affect the rendering of the webpage.

More tips on optimizing PageSpeed

Apart from these, here are some other things you can take care of to make your website load faster.

• Reduce Server Response Time: Test out server settings and make sure you keep the software up to date.
• Implement Lazy Loading: Lazy loading involves deferring the loading of non-critical resources at the time the page is served. Implement lazy loading using Javascript or plugins.
• Optimize Web Fonts: Keep the number of font families and weights to a minimum. Use modern font formats such as WOFF2.
• Enable Compression: You can compress your website’s files using Gzip or Brotli.
• Regularly Monitor Performance: Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix can regularly check your website’s performance.
• Choose Lightweight Themes and Plugins: If you use a CMS like WordPress, then go for lightweight themes and plugins.
• Optimize Database Performance: Clean your databases, delete unwanted comments, post revisions, etc. Use database optimization plugins to take care of this automatically.
• Use Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs): Use SVGs except when using large files like icons and logos.

For a professional support, you can also contact a website design and development service to get help. A reliable software house is a key element of a successful cooperation. 

Summary

Whether working with website design and development services or on your own, you can use the mentioned tips to build a fast website. Try to reduce image size, enable caching, limit the HTTP requests, and use CDN to make websites faster. Also, keep your website in check and maintain a clean code to improve speed continuously.