How to Improve Your Website Speed

According to Hobo, a website should take between 1 and 2 seconds to load completely. The same source also claims that 53% of websites are abandoned if the website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, with a 2-second delay resulting in 87% bounce rates in some cases. With this in mind, it’s never been more important to make sure that your website is loading and performing quickly and smoothly. 

It’s all about enhancing the user experience (UX). This aids in customer retention and an improvement in leads and sales. In this article, we’ll explain how you can improve your website speed, whether it’s always been slow or a brand new issue that you need to overcome. Here’s how to improve your website speed. 

Optimise the images on your website

It’s not completely obvious to those who aren’t in the marketing or website development industry, but optimising images present on the website is a quick and simple way of improving website speed. This is because images often take the most time to load, with particularly large images being bigger when compared to HTML and CSS files. 

However, the load time can be reduced through image optimisation. Typically, this involves reducing its resolution and/or its dimensions. It can also include making images smaller, as larger ones will often take far longer to load. Reducing the file size is also a quick way of optimising images to ensure a quicker website load speed. 

Keep the number of HTTP requests to a minimum

Normally, a website or a webpage will require a browser to make several HTTP requests for multiple elements of the website, such as images, scripts and CSS files, to name just a few. Often, dozens of these requests are made when just one website page is loaded. An HTTP request involves making a round trip to and from the server that hosts the resource. 

When this happens, it can add to the overall load time of a website page. To keep this process as short as possible, the number of elements or assets a page has needs to be kept to a minimum. If you aren’t sure of which HTTP requests are taking the most time, a website page speed test should highlight them for you.

Utilise browser HTTP caching

A browser cache is a temporary storage location where copies of static files are saved. The browser does this in order to load recently visited websites and website pages more easily and quickly. As a result, a copious amount of data is saved from the server and needs to be transferred to the browser. This is what can slow down your website speed. 

A website developer will be able to instruct browsers to cache elements of a website that don’t change all that often, such as drop-down menus, consistent imagery and more. This will dramatically reduce the amount of data the server needs to transfer to the browser, therefore resulting in a quicker and smoother website speed.

Limit the use of external scripts

Scripted website page elements can be loaded from elsewhere, often a third party. Those elements can include anything from external commenting systems and CTA buttons to CMS plugins and lead-generation pop-ups. If a website page has those third-party elements embedded within it, those aspects need to be loaded and reloaded every single time that website or website page is clicked on. This can slow down the overall performance of your website, depending on the size of the script. By removing those external elements, or refraining from using them at all, you’ll enhance the overall speed of your website. 

Minimise redirect usage

A redirect is when a website visitor clicks on a webpage and is then forwarded to a different page. Redirects can impact the website load speed dramatically, especially if there are several redirects programmed within it. In order to reduce the website speed, it’s recommended that redirects are either completely removed and new website pages created, or that they’re greatly limited to just one or two. Sometimes, it’s necessary to have redirects, but think carefully before programming them in, especially if more than two are needed.

Choose a digital marketing agency to manage it for you

By enlisting the help of a digital marketing agency, they’ll always be on hand to monitor your website, and part of that monitoring and management includes optimising the speed at which it loads. You’ll be able to shift your focus back towards your business, without having to worry about your website’s performance. 

Here at Kumo, we have a complete team of marketing specialists who are dedicated to propelling our clients into the spotlight, and much of this includes ensuring a website performs quickly and smoothly to enable an unrivalled UX. If website speed is a problem for you, seek out professional help from Kumo. 

At Kumo, we offer a full range of digital marketing services to clients across the UK. Based in the heart of Nottingham, our expert team specialises in SEO, PPC, content creation and website design for businesses across the country – each designed to elevate your brand and make it stand out. Curious to find out more? Contact our approachable and professional team – we’re ready to help.