Google PageSpeed Insights Is Your New Best Friend
Before we proceed any further with the causes of slow loading websites, it’s important to know how your website is currently performing. Luckily for us, Google has created the perfect tool for analyzing web performance – Google PageSpeed Insights.
Take the time to run a scan of your website, how does it stack up? This should be the starting point on the road to optimizing your website’s performance.
Why Is My Website Slow – WordPress Websites
One of the most common things prospective clients with existing websites ask us is, why is my website slow? Although there are many factors that affect a website’s performance, there is also a list of usual suspects bogging down a website.
You Are Doing It Wrong – Image Optimization
When it comes to optimizing a website for speed and performance, the golden rule is “control the factors you can control”. Many times factors such as server response time are beyond your immediate control (especially if you’re website is running on shared hosting from companies such as GoDaddy and Hostgator).
With that being said, no matter what type of hosting you have – there is never an excuse for not optimizing your images. Sadly we see this all too often on “award winning websites” built by the local competition. It doesn’t matter how beautiful a website is if all your users leave before it loads.
With the push towards HD quality images becoming standard on many websites, optimizing your images for web use is no longer an option. Too often we see images that are:
- Too large in size for web use
- Too high in DPI/Image quality for web use
What this equates to is a website that takes too long to load. With the rise of mobile devices and responsive web design, fast loading images are more important than ever.
Your Web Hosting Is Coming Up Short
In our blog post, “Finding the best WordPress Hosting” we discuss in greater detail why WP Engine is the best option for hosting your WordPress website.
Hosting is without a doubt the most important factor when it comes to things like website speed, performance, and security. Through slick marketing campaigns, cheap cut-rate shared hosting is often bundled with the domain name registration process.
Cheap shared hosting is adequate for non commercial use, it’s time to thinking about increasing your monthly hosting budget from $5/month for your businesses website. After all your website in many cases is your digital store front.
When it comes to hosting your website the old saying, “If it seems to good to be true, it probably is”, comes to mind. No matter the provider, cheap hosting has a few universal characteristics
- It’s a security risk for WordPress websites
- It takes forever for your website to load
- Technical support is unresponsive and difficult to get in contact with
Why Does Website Load Time Even Matter?
Hopefully if you have read this far, you understand the value of a website that loads quickly. Still some of you may wonder, “why does a fast website even matter?”. Truth is if your website is nothing more than a passion project or digital business card, page speed is not make or break. If you depend on your website to act as a lead generator for your business, a slow website could be costing you thousands of dollars in lost revenue each year.
Is your website slow and take forever to load? Contact us for a free no obligation website performance consultation. Whether you hire us to fix your website, or decide to go it alone – we will give you a report on what can be done to improve your website’s performance today.
