Today, websites have become fundamental for businesses and projects. They communicate to viewers that you’re legitimate, professional and willing to meet your customers where they are. Of course, a poorly performing website can communicate the exact opposite. In particular, websites that are slow to load, insecure or hard to navigate can actually deter potential customers. With that in mind, the following will look at a few quick tips you can use to improve the performance of your website. The focus here is on WordPress websites, but many of the tips apply to other forms of websites as well.
Third-Party Code
When you use third-party features like a YouTube play box or a Facebook Page scroll, you’re bringing third-party code to your website. Often this code is well-written, but it’s usually designed for massive sites with crazy processing power. This means it could be slowing down your web pages. Look for instances where you can remove third-party code to help speed things up. Common instances include social sharing buttons, interactive maps (typically found in the contact us section but rarely used), chat widgets, and video embed features.
Reduce Unused JavaScript
JavaScript is fantastic; it can do so many wonderful things, but it can also slow your website down considerably. When JavaScript isn’t being used, the slowdown is completely unnecessary. Take some time to peruse and defer your JavaScript files. This can radically increase your load times and performance, particularly on mobile phones, which tend to struggle more with load times.
Optimize Photos
PNG and JPEG photos used to be all the rage, but in today’s digital world, where people want their images ASAP, you may want to consider newer generation file types. WebP and AVIF files, for instance, tend to require significantly less load time. It’s important to know that not everyone who is using your website will have stellar internet access. There are free online converters you can use to change the file format of your images and speed up your website. You may also want to question the number of images or videos you have. If you have analytics, you might be able to see that some of your videos or photos aren’t necessary.
Minimize Chaining Critical Requests
Critical Request Chains are pathways that determine which resources on your site are loaded with high priority. Reducing chain length and minimizing the download size of resources (or deferring the download of any resources you deem unnecessary) can improve your page load time.
Reconsider Your Hosting
Your host is going to end up influencing how fast your pages load and perform. Typically, lower-cost providers have slower speeds for data transfers from server to the webpage. There are also security considerations you might have in this department, depending on the nature of your business.
Reconsider Your Themes And Templates
When you install a theme, you’re given a ton of code. Sometimes, there’s a lot of junk code in the mix, particularly if your theme was free. Take a moment to research the theme you’ve chosen, paying attention to forms that discuss how fast or slow a theme is as well as if the code needs any tidying up. Some themes are known for being faster than others.
Reconsider Plugins
Too many plugins can slow down your site. Most use separate CSS and js, which can produce a code-heavy webpage.
The above information should help you spiff up your website so that your viewers can have the best possible online experience. If you’re unfamiliar with any of these concepts, know that there are YouTube tutorials and online guides for each of these steps. Alternatively, you can seek out professional help.
