15 Oct Increasing the Speed of Your Website
Website speed has become one of the more influential factors for any website. Since the Google Caffeine update (which has been released around 2010), this search engine has started incorporating web page loading speed into its ranking algorithms. Also, another thing that is important is the common psychology of a modern age man which tells us that people no longer have the time to wait for slow-loading websites. It is relatively logical: since we live in fast times, waiting for a slow site to load can be quite a hassle and can force potential visitors to go back to the search engine and go for the next choice.
Since having visitors is a very important thing for the majority of websites, the webmasters should consider speeding up the sites that they run, if they are not already loading at their full potential. Here, I will present a few options that are worth considering for improving the loading times of web pages.
Choose A Fast Server
Having a fast and reliable hosting with a reliable provider is the crucial step towards having quick loading times. It is very simple: no matter how much you optimize a website, if the server on which it is hosted is slow, then there is nothing you can do about it. The only solution is to choose a different server. The reasons for slow hosting could be that the server machine simply does not have enough resources or, if you are hosting with free or shared hosting, that other websites on the server are using the resources that your website needs.
Either way, the only solution to this problem is to change the hosting option and choose your next provider wisely based on valid reviews. You can go for some more expensive options, like cloud or dedicated hosting, which will provide you with ultimate hosting services, or you can choose a VPS hosting solution, which is a tad cheaper, but still very reliable when it comes to having your own resources. If you do this, you will ensure that your website will always be up and running, and that it will be fast enough to satisfy even the most impatient visitors.
Keep The Code As Simple As You Can
The next thing that can cause problems with web page loading times is the code that is implemented within the page itself. There are many different ways to code a webpage and, naturally, there are better and worse ways to do it, while still achieving the same visual result. While an average internet user will not see the difference visually between a ‘good’ and a ‘bad’ code, the difference can be felt in the page performance. Bad and complicated codes will influence the loading times greatly, because there will be more things to work with.
So, in order to solve such problems, the code has to be kept simple, but functional. Strive to organize it is such a way that it does everything that it needs to do with as little coding as possible. If you use a CMS (Content Management System, like WordPress or Joomla), then it is easy for your code to spiral out of control. Review the code often and omit lines that are unnecessary. Also, utilizing as few plug-ins as possible will go a long way towards improving the loading times, as each plug-in adds to the resources that the website has to use. All of this can be a little tiring, but it has to be done to increase your speed, feel free to take a break and do something for yourself that can increase your productivity.
Allow Your Website To Be Cached
Allowing your website to be saved within the cache memory of a visitor’s browser is a neat little trick that will make your website appear fast. What this does is that it stores a static version of your webpage onto the visitor’s computer, so that each time it is opened from that moment on, it will be opened from the visitor’s computer. This way, the basic element of the website will be loaded much, much faster. If you run a CMS, you can utilize caching plug-ins, like WP-Cache, or, if you code using PHP, there are other ways you can use them.
So, to conclude this article, all I have to say is that the website speed is becoming increasingly important, both from the aspect of SEO and the aspect of visitors becoming increasingly impatient. Be sure that your website loading speed is quick enough, because, if it is not, your numbers will suffer greatly. I hope that we have given you advices that will help you improve your website, and if you apply them we are sure that you will have faster loading time.
