Website Speed Optimization Strategies

Slow Website Speed

We’re living in a world where almost every business has a website. While the theme, content, and navigation are all critical components of a well-developed site, one thing many individuals overlook is the website speed. Since today’s businesses have to deal with the most impatient generation of all time, speed optimization is a necessity to outperform your competition.

What Exactly is Page Speed?

Page speed refers to the time it takes for web pages or media content to be downloaded from the host servers and displayed on the requested web browser. This time is generally measured from when a link is clicked until the requesting browser displays all the information from the destination website.

When considering the user experience and the performance of a website, the fundamental aspects that govern page speed are as follows:

  • The time taken to supply the requested information.
  • The accompanying HTML content to the browser.
  • The response of the browser to the requests to load the page.
  • The view that end-users see as the web page renders.

The most effective approach to increasing a website’s performance is to optimize page load times (website speed optimization) from the ground up. The load times and page speeds affected by server-side scripts, performance optimization plugins, and final modifications are only marginally improved, but the difference is evident.

How Slow is Actually Slow?

The oversaturated cyber world of the 1990s was sometimes referred to as the World Wide Wait; however, recent advancements in communication and networking technology have completely transformed how digital information is carried over the Internet. The question is, how slow is actually slow? Well, anything that takes longer than the blink of an eye (400 milliseconds) is considered slow.

Website Speed Optimization Strategies

Nowadays, everything comes down to speed. It makes no difference whether you have the most sophisticated and user-friendly website if it takes an eternity to load. Many factors contribute to slow website speed; here, we’ll introduce you to some website speed optimization strategies you can use immediately.

Audit Your Website

Before making any modifications, assess your website’s existing performance. To get you started on the right foot, here’s a free tool: Google Page Speed Insights. This exceptional tool will evaluate the Core Web Vitals on mobile (the default) or desktop and will let you know whether your website passed or failed. The idea behind this step is simple: the more information you have regarding the performance of your website, the better you will be able to pinpoint and make the necessary improvements.

Audit Your Website for Mobile-Friendliness

If you hired an experienced website developer to build or modify your website recently, the professional might have had the mobile experience at the top of their mind. However, before you invest your precious time and energy into thinking about how to optimize your website speed on different devices (both mobile and desktop), evaluate how well your website is functioning presently.

You can drop your URL into Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see whether or not your website is mobile-friendly. 

Prioritize Potential Fixes

If your website passed the speed test, congratulations. If not, it’s time for some necessary repairs. Make an effort to prioritize possible changes professionally, based on the concerns that are most important to your users. Work with Web Development Done Right to increase your chances of fixing everything at once. 

DIY Approach to Speed Optimization

If you’re someone who loves the “Do-It-Yourself” approach, you may be tempted to take on a website speed optimization project on your own. Assuming you’ve handled various website development projects before, you may wonder, after all, what makes THIS even more complicated? We hate to break it to you, but unless you’re an expert in site speed optimization, it can be trickier than expected.

If you have been searching for speed optimization strategies over the Internet, you might have come across some SEO guides or even YouTube tutorials. But before spending your valuable time, know these strategies are not as simple as they seem. However, if you still wish to do it yourself, here are some pointers to follow. Note that experts at Web Development Done Right are still here to help.

  • Use a caching plugin to serve up static HTML.
  • Optimize your images for a faster-loading website.
  • Benefit from the services of a managed hosting company.
  • Use a lightweight theme to cut down unnecessary load time.
  • Be reasonable with the number of plugins/extensions you use
  • Consider a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for global visitors.

Again, this does not include every suggestion for increasing a website’s speed. However, if you put these six site optimization strategies into effect, you should have a website that loads in a reasonable amount of time (somewhere between the 2-3 second or 400 milliseconds limit). This might not be the final catalyst that propels your website to the top of the Google search rankings (it does help a lot however), but it will go a long way toward ensuring that your website provides the optimal experience to your visitors.

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