Four Reasons Why Your Website Is Running Slower Than It Should
You may not know why your website is running slow, but it is imperative that you find out. There could be many reasons why your website is low. Let’s examine four common factors that affect a website’s performance.
1. There Are Too Many Widgets or Plugins on Your Site
On average, a page size is around 1.966MB. However, Google says the best practice is to keep it below 0.5MB. So what do those MBs hold?
Plugins and widgets are additions to your site used to add functionality, either for you or your visitors. However, some plugins and widgets (and an overabundance of them, for that matter) come with an increased burden on your website’s performance. These are typically clunky or resource intensive plugins/widgets that have poorly optimized code. Even a small widget can make a huge difference in the performance of a website page’s load time — for instance, Google+ has been shown to increase your website's load time by up to 2 seconds.
The Solution?
The number one goal here is to decrease the load on your website. You can lower your loading time by reducing the quantity and the complexity of elements on your pages to an optimized size and format appropriate for the web. You will need to consider achieving your desired goal with fewer widgets and plugins (especially if they are hosted locally, which we do not recommend).
If you are unsure if you have too many widgets and plugins (or if there is a particular troublemaker in the bunch), there are a couple routes you can take. First, if you suspect that one of your plugins may be slowing down your site, run a few benchmarks with, and then without the plugin installed. If there is a significant change in loading speed, then you have your answer.
2. You Have Unoptimized Images
Images with no alt tag, featuring nondescript file names, or with large file sizes are all considered unoptimized, however file size is the only one of these factors that directly affects site loading speed.
If your images were created in Photoshop and not properly exported to a web-friendly size, they are generally saved as enormous files and carry fidelity that is completely inessential for a webpage. Too-large files are one of the most common causes of a slow site, contributing to the staggering statistic that 40% of people will abandon a website if it does not load in 3 seconds or less.
The Solution?
Optimize your images. Optimizing the images on your site is done by reducing your size. You need to resize an image, be sure to keep the ratio intact. When resizing, you can substantially decrease the file-size with minimal-to-no noticeable reduction in image quality.
However, resizing the image alone won’t optimize the image. Just because the code is telling the image to be smaller doesn’t mean that the image’s file size, detail, and resolution have diminished. To avoid this, make sure to resize the image before you insert the code.
The file type is also essential when you optimize the image. The most commonly used image types are PNG and JPG. Both will have specific uses. You will need to use a PNG when your image requires any kind of transparency (like a logo or overlay). These files contain more information, and are larger in size as compared to JPG files.
In contrast, a JPG is a standard file format for online photos that is best used for any imagery that you do not need to include transparency with. JPG allows for considerable compression with minimal fidelity loss, which translates to less load on your server and your page, and faster load times as a result.
3. No Content Delivery Network
The purpose of the content delivery network is to serve users of your website based on their location. A content delivery network is what allows users to connect to your site at a faster rate. 47% of users expect that website to load in 2 seconds or less, so this is the goal to be aiming for when you improve your website's speed.
Having a CDN will ensure that your website loads quickly due to the shorter distance it has to travel between the user and the server.
The Solution?
Do a little bit of web- (and soul-) searching and implement a CDN as soon as possible. You can also seek out professional website maintenance to ensure that your site is taken care of without requiring you to be hands on with every backend element of your page.
4. Having An Inefficient Hosting Service
A hosting service is an essential element you will need to display your website online. A hosting service will be the space where you build your website. When a user is looking for your site in a browser, the web host will provide your site to the user from their server.
Of course, some hosting services are better than others. Choosing a cheaper hosting service provider could lose valuable customers due to how slow your website will load. Anything slower than 1 second can lead to a 7% reduction in conversion rate.
The Solution?
When it comes to your hosting, you get what you pay for. Pony up for a reliable hosting company. Site downtime can cost you an exorbitant amount of revenue, and even a small percentage of downtime per month/year can result in thousands (or even tens of thousands) each year. By investing just a little more of your budget into proper hosting, you guarantee a fast load time and less downtime for both you and your clientele.
Your Site Is In Good Hands With Xaicode
Let Xaicode be your on-demand digital web team.
Our website maintenance packages help speed up your site and allow you to be up and running in no time at all. The only information you will need are your URL and DNS records.
In addition, you are guaranteed security and backups, as well as monthly web care reports to ensure your performance is up to date and trending in the right direction.
Sign up for our very own comprehensive care program: Xaicode Care. By adding Xaicode care, we will help make your website more accessible to users. Xaicode Care will streamline delivery to users across different locations with quality hosting and expert website maintenance.
