Simple and Easy Tips to Increase Website Speed

When you start a website, you put its design and content on a very high priority; after all, that is the main purpose of your website – attracting visitors and grabbing their attention.
But, what is also important is that this content and design should not negatively affect your website speed.

Learn HOW TO INCREASE WEBSITE SPEED in 5 simple Steps

Your website loading speed is a very important factor, playing crucial role in search engine rankings, user satisfaction and thus, customer conversion rates. Time is precious.
Therefore, nobody likes to wait for more than a certain limit. And in fierce competition on the internet, if your website doesn’t load very fast, you may lose your visitor in a matter of seconds.
Research has shown that a slow loading website could have following effects.

•  A website will lose 25% visitors, if it takes more than 4 seconds to load and lose 35-40% visitors if it takes more than 10 seconds.
•  52% of visitors close the websites that load slow and don’t visit them again.

Here’s the best 5 very simple and useful tips for you to increase website speed.

5 Best tips to Increase Website Speed.

1. Use Optimized Images Only

Just like you cannot run fast carrying a heavy load, so does your website. With large images, it is bound to load slowly. This problem can be easily sorted out by using simple image optimization techniques, without any quality compromise.

•  Always use an image conforming to proper display dimensions on the website. Do not try to “fit in” images by shrinking or enlarging them by coding.
•  Always use JPEG format as preferred choice for photographs. Use PNG format for all images, such as icons etc.
•  Use CSS effects for shadowing and other visual effects wherever possible, instead of images.

You can also use Kraken, it is a great tool to get your images optimized. More resources: tinypng, compressnow, jpeg-mini

2. Use Proper Font

Just like images, unnecessary fonts can also hinder your website speed.

•  Never use more than 2-3 font styles in a single webpage. Excessive fonts mean excessive coding, avoid it.
•  Do not use bigger font size, unless absolutely necessary. Also, try to make do with commonly used fonts available rather than going for complex fonts.
•  Prefer use of simple and low line weight fonts as far as possible.
•  Use custom font in place of graphic based text.

3. Use Proper Coding Technique

Since every element in coding has its own effects, therefore each of these element should be properly placed. Some important tips are

•  Keep CSS files at the top – As your purpose is to display your website design exactly the way you want it to look, therefore CSS files should be loaded first. CSS files are faster to load and also serve the purpose of providing user with interesting and useful contents, before anything else.
•  Keep JavaScript at the bottom – JavaScript files contains some widgets for user interaction like comments, and also takes comparatively more time to load. Therefore, they should be loaded last.
•  Keep Codes minimum – Why waste time loading anything irrelevant, so try to keep everything minimum by including only absolutely necessary elements. Avoid every bit of anything extra, keeping it “short and sweet”.
•  Use Compressed Files – Compressed files requires less memory than uncompressed files and using them can have a huge impact on website loading time, reducing it by up to 70%.

You can use online tools like CSS Compressor and YUI Compressor, to minify coding. UseW3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache plugins for wordpress website.

4. Uninstall Unnecessary Plugins

Your website loading speed will definitely slow down with additional plugins on your site. Some plugins are absolutely necessary, but still you can resort to following minimizations.

•  Identify the unnecessary plugins, then either uninstall or switch them off.
•  Always opt for integrated or built-in plugins instead of going for third-part plugins. For example, if you have a WordPress website, using built-in social plugins will greatly reduce your website size and improve your website speed. Use P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) to check stat & usage of plugins in your wordpress. 
•  Check my article about Basic WordPress Plugins you need after installing wordpress.

5. Choose Proper Server Location

The location of the server which is hosting your website also affects your website’s loading speed. The site takes more time to load if the users are situated at far distant places. While choosing a server location, follow these steps.

•  Identify – where do most of your website’s visitors come from? Which geographical location? Which country?
•  Always choose a web hosting provider whose servers are located at a place where most of your website’s visitors come from. For example, if your website is intended for Indian users, make sure to get web hosting in India. You will get znetlive hosting at flat 30% off by using this coupon codes. I would suggest you to go either with Hostgator or ZNetlive, both are best indian web hosting provider.
•  Consider CDN(Content Delivery Network) if you were not using managed hosting. Don’t forget to check Best CDN Comparison Guide.

Keep Testing your website:

For analyzing the page load speed of your website, you can use online available tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom and keep doing the changes recommended by them. These are great tools, easy to use, and free.
Even if you don’t have any coding knowledge, still you can easily apply these simple techniques or ask your web developer to apply them.
A faster loading website will definitely increase traffic on your website, increase reader satisfaction, improve retention and conversion rates, and ultimately result in big business gains. 

Any suggestion regarding increase website speed ? Let me know your thoughts by commenting below.