5 Reasons Why Your Website Is Slow
According to Google, a website is deemed ‘admirable’ if the content can load in 1.5 seconds or less. This can be a struggle if your site is loaded with content, text, videos, and flash drives. A survey taken by Gomez.com says that nearly half of all web users expect a page to load in two seconds, any additional second could mean missed opportunities.
Below are the top five reasons your website might be bogged down, as well as some helpful tips to prep your website to be as fast as possible. Unsure of your website’s loading speed? Use Google Webmaster Tools to check.
Page Size
Text, photos, videos, widgets, and links can weigh heavily on your site and increase your loading speed due to the fact that the browser has to configure each item. By rescaling image and text sizes to a manageable dimension, you can boost web page loading speeds. There are also online tools available to compress your videos and images. Text compression is usually set as a default feature by most hosting companies to increase loading speeds, but it is good to check with your web host to be sure.
Total Third Party Objects
Be aware of how many third party objects and links you are supporting. Social buttons can act as a hindrance if they are causing too much of a strain on the request and receive patterns. Also, try to avoid, or at least minimize using page redirects. This will prevent unnecessary web detours and save upload speeds.
Static vs. Dynamic Content
Static web pages load much quicker than dynamic pages and should be used whenever possible. The fixed content enables a much faster load time, and prevents continuous interaction between the site and the server, which could slow things down.
Flash Drives and Ad-On’s
Flash drives are famous for overloading and sometimes crashing web pages. It’s best to avoid flash driven sites all together, but if necessary try to only use them for video, tutorials, banners, and headers in moderation.
Cached Objects
Web developers should consider caching to be their best friend. This will dramatically shorten your website’s loading speed.
By examining all parts of your web page you can assess what could be slowing down your site. Google Webmaster Tools can give you performance history to better help you diagnose when and where you are lacking speed. With just a few adjustments you can have your website loading at record speeds!