American’s love speed. We love fast cars, fast commercials, and fast food. In fact, the faster you go, the more impressed we are.
And as Chandler said to Monica…
As long as the job is done right, speed lets us get more done in less time. And this is no more true on your website than anywhere else!
If your website pages are slow to load, your performance is going to suffer. SITE performance, that is. (You can get your mind out of the gutter now!) Not only will you see high bounce rates of those who arrive on your site, you’ll also see a lot of potential visitors never quite getting there, leaving before the page comes up on their screen.
Shoppers have limited amounts of time. The longer it takes each page to load the more customers you’ll lose. At a bare minimum, it should take no more than two seconds for any page on your site to load.
Speed It Up
So how you do you improve speed? There are many things to consider, from your web server to specific plugins you might be using, and of course everything in between. But here are a few things to get you started:
- Optimize images. Make sure you are using the correct image format that provides the best resolution at the smallest file size.
- Streamline code. Much of what you can do on websites today takes far less code than just a few years ago. Look for bloated code that can be eliminated or reduced.
- Reduce third party tools and plugins. Any plugins you’re not using or that are unnecessary should be deleted.
- Select the right web host. Find a web hosting provider that can guarantee fast speeds. Shop around if you have to, because slow servers make for slow websites!
In the digital marketing, slow and steady DOES NOT win the race. Apply these fixes to make sure you’re putting your site in the position to win.