How to Fix the Slow Loading Pages Problem for Good

Have you ever wondered just how impatient people are? Well, 79% of consumers who experience slow website speeds leave a website and avoid returning. An additional 46% say that slow loading websites are what they dislike most about browsing the internet on mobile devices.

A large percentage of consumers expect site page loading speeds of 2 seconds or less and abandon any website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. This only means that if your website has slow loading pages, you are truly missing out. 

Slow loading pages mean lower ranks on the search engines, decreased conversion rates, and in turn, reduced revenue. A slow website impacts your ability to attract and retain customers in a significant way.

How Do You Know Your Page Load Speeds?

Google PageSpeed Insights is one of the best online tools that will help you figure out your page loading speeds. You’ll not only get to know your website’s current performance but get advanced tips about the latest top practices to help you enhance its performance. 

There are more tools out there that can help, but Google PageSpeed Insights is free. It’ll also work for both desktop and mobile versions of your website. The score runs from 1 to 100, and anything over 80 is recommended. 

How Do You Improve Slow Loading Pages?

In a world where second makes the difference, it’s clear that you need to make a few changes to your website to improve loading speeds. Your customers expect nothing less than fast loading pages, so we’ll show you how to speed up website pages. 

Optimize Your Images

One of the most significant ways to increase your site speed is by optimizing your website images. Loading images are one of the most taxing activities that affect your website performance. A major part of it has to do with the image resolutions while the rest has to do with the level of compressions you use. 

Use a Content Delivery Network

It’s vital for your website that you consider where your servers are located and the users visiting the website. The internet may be virtual, but not completely, because you need to consider the geographical scope as well. 

To make it easier to understand, a person living in Los Angeles would have an easier time accessing your servers in San Francisco. However, the same person would have a hard time accessing a server located in Chicago or as far as London. A CDN improves site speed by choosing the server that closes to a user.

A professional Content Delivery Network will offer you page speed optimization tools, dynamic caching, security features, and high-speed storage to further improve your website performance. Given that the world has become a global village and businesses are offering products and services worldwide, it’s advisable to have a CDN that has incredible global network coverage. 

Reduce Your HTTP Requests

Simple websites load the fastest. If your websites are simple with a plain HTML and minimal compressed images, your page speed is bound to be fast. If, on the other hand, your website has dynamic pages that have different content types and several HTTP requests, it’ll certainly be bogged down. 

To improve your slow loading pages, you must reduce the number of HTTP requests you have. Clean up your code as much as you can, and watch your conversion rate rise. 

Shrink Your CSS and JavaScript

One of the easiest ways to improve your site speed is by shrinking your JavaScript and CSS. You only need to address any inefficient code to reduce the white space and all the redundant code. The less code your website or website page needs to go through, the faster it’ll load. 

Use Dedicated Hosting

Shared hosting is essentially a cost-effective option, which is why most people choose to use it. However, when you use shared hosting, you are not only sharing servers but bandwidth as well with others. This means you get nor control over anyone using those resources and how they do it. 

The problem with shared hosting is the fact that it is one of the customers sharing with you experienced an influx of traffic, you’ll suffer as well. To improve your site loading speeds, one of the best things you can do is get an advanced dedicated server from a professional hosting company for your website. 

Get a Caching Plugin

If you don’t have one yet, a caching plugin can significantly improve your page speed. When users visit your website, the elements of the pages they visit are usually stored on a hard drive known as a cache. 

Once the user revisits those pages, the browser loads the page much faster using the stored data instead of sending another HTTP request to the server. With a caching plugin, you’ll speed up loading time for your repeat users, and it’s imperative to accommodate loyal customers. 

Change Your Website Theme

You may not know this, but your website theme may be affecting your page loading speeds. Themes with complex codes tend to be sluggish, despite a proper server configuration. Consider changing your theme and make performance your priority and not aesthetics. Run a demo and test your website speed using different themes to gauge which one works best. 

Fix Broken Links

Broken links affect user experience, and if they are on your JavaScripts, URLs, and CSS, they will undoubtedly affect your site speed. Most of the time, you’ll find broken links on image source files, and they are very easy to overlook. When you have a broken link, a 404 error message appears, creating a wasted HTTP response and slowing down your website in the process.

Ready to Make Improvements?

Having a fast website cannot be emphasized enough in today’s world if you want your business to succeed. Consumers want lightning-fast loading speeds, and with slow loading pages, all you’ll get is low traffic, low conversion rates, low sales, and in the end, low revenue. 

This is something you can’t afford, so strive to offer your customers a seamless experience by optimizing your page loading speeds. Our site has more information that can help you achieve this goal.