In modern business, the speed of your website is crucial. Not only because of your customers but because of Google as well. Nowadays, people won’t wait more than a few seconds to reach your website. That is the reason why Google states that website speed is a significant factor for optimization. If you have troubles with such issue, these five ways will help you improve your website speed.
1. Move website to a better host
In Australia, you have plenty of choices if you want to move your website to a better host. The most popular and cheapest type is shared hosting. It is excellent for starters since you get your site online very fast for a low fee. However, there are also upgraded versions. VPS (virtual private servers) are much faster, which is a lot better option for e-commerce websites. Finally, a dedicated server is the most expensive because it is your own physical server. You pay a server rent and a system administrator to maintain it. Do your research and choose the best Australian web hosting for your needs, whether you need shared or reseller hosting.
2. Optimize the size of images
High-quality images are vital for a successful website. E-commerce business is impossible without great product photos, images, and even infographics. However, there is a small problem. Images are large, and once you have too many of them, they slow down your website. Ruining the quality is not the solution, but reducing the size certainly is. There are various tools you can use to compress your photos. There is also an alternative to use HTML attributes to adjust image size, but for that, you will need professional help.
3. Reduce the number of plugins and widgets
Plugins and widgets are crucial parts of websites nowadays. They work similarly as add-ons and have many specific functions. As a result, you will have a more functional website with a lot of different options. However, the situation is the same as with images. Once you have too many plugins, they tend to decelerate speed and decrease website performance. The best way to solve such a situation is to decide which plugins and widgets are essential for your website. Leave those and get rid of all others.
4. Use a content delivery network
CDN (content delivery network) is an expensive way to enhance the website speed, but very useful at the same time. This is a set of web servers. It is distributed among different geographical locations which provide web content to users. Once you choose to host your website on a server, all user requests are sent to the same hardware, which further leads to an increased process of each request. On top of that, when users are physically far from the server, it also increases the load time. Content delivery network redirects user requests to the nearest server. This way, your website will work much faster, and the content will be quickly delivered to users.
5. Monitor your mobile page speed as well
Testing your mobile page speed is paramount. Nowadays, Google index those pages first since there are many more mobile users than desktop ones. That is the most significant reason for monitoring mobile speed. If it is not loading as fast as on a desktop, the ranking of your website will decrease in the organic search nevertheless. Hence, measure and minimize server response time, avoid redirects, measure round-trip times, and optimize CSS and JS files.
Website speed is one of the essential factors for high rankings on Google. High ranking also means more visits to your website. Start fixing this issue (if you have it) as fast as you can and get those ranks back. You should do a speedtest after optimizing your site to determine what to work on.