Top Ways To Increase Website Speed In 2020

Aug 5, 2020Jul 21, 2023 admin

With the introduction of the latest technology, we have become impatient. We expect it is to find the piece of information we are searching for in seconds. Our requirement is fast-loading websites irrespective of the device we are using, and if they fail to load fast, we leave it and move on to another.

The discussion over “how to increase website speed” seems to take a new turn altogether with the launch of the AMP project by Google. All website owners are focusing on website speed optimization and take down the page load duration.

Why is Everyone So Concerned About It?

Because the page load time is one of the crucial factors, which concludes whether a visitor will discover more on the website or leave it, over 83% of searchers expect a website page to load in 2 to 3 seconds or even less. Moreover, 40% of them find it a waste of time if a webpage loads in more than 3 seconds.

Due to reduced page loading speed, you lose on potential organic traffic, which ultimately results in low conversions and ROI. According to an article published by TRUCONVERSION, delay in page load time has the following impacts:

Just a 1-second delay in web page loading results in 11% lesser page views, a 16% reduction in visitor’s satisfaction, and a 7% decrease in conversions.
79% of online shoppers who face a problem with website performance would not return to buy again.
The conversion rate can be improved by 74% if you increase website speed from 8 to 2 seconds.

Hang on… It is not only your overall conversion or Returns on Investment that gets affected by a slow web page loading speed, but it destroys user experience, brand reputation, and Search Engine Optimization.

We have statistics as evidence of our above statement. Check them out below:

Approximately 46% of the people who have a poor user experience due to slow website speed actively share their expertise with their near and dear ones.
Poor load time of a web page develops a negative image of your brand in the eyes of around 44% of visitors.
Considering the words of Google, the web page speed is a prime factor of the landing page experience, which significantly affects the Google AdWord Quality Score.

Keeping these stats in mind, you can understand that delay of just a few seconds during page loading can incur you a substantial loss in organic traffic as well as potential sales. Additionally, it can be multiplied several times if you don’t rectify it as soon as possible.

Therefore, you must conduct a website speed test to know its actual performance as a higher page load time not just keeps visitors happy but also reduces the bounce rate.

How To Speed Up WordPress Website?

Here are 4 easy-to-follow steps to cut down a few seconds from your WordPress website’s loading time. We promise that the following tips would help you reach a mass audience with the higher search engine rankings and pull in more sales and conversions.

1. Image Optimization

Images are a vital element of any website. They help shoppers to imagine the actual product or on-site experience. To be clear, they influence the buying decision of any customer.

The home page of your website must have high-quality pictures to draw attention, but you must know that HD images can reduce the website speed. If you are not showcasing them in full size, you should rightly scale them to decrease the page load times. For instance, there is an image of actual dimensions 1000p x 1000p and is uploaded at 100p x 100p; then, it is required to load 10 times faster than necessary that ultimately speed up your WordPress website.

3. Select a Simple and Uncomplicated Website Theme

Activating an uncomplicated website theme can help a lot in website speed optimization. A simple web design minimizes the number of HTTP requests that your website requires to complete a load cycle.

An HTTP request is generated for all the distinct elements which make up the website, including image, CSS, JavaScript files. When the number of items on the website is reduced, the number of requests also sinks, affecting load times.

A simple website theme has the added advantage of enhancing the User Experience for the shoppers. Such web designs are consistently reviewed and rated as more appealing than visually intricate designs. When a web page has too many things, a user finds it difficult to navigate and find the appropriate information they are looking for. As a result, they become frustrated and leave the site. But there is no such problem with the clean and sorted webpage themes.

3. Enable Caching

It’s a customer behavior to first research a product or service before actually buying it. Commonly, customers visit your site multiple times during their research phase. Therefore, make sure you enable caching as this would significantly reduce the page load time for returning visitors.

Once your website is ready for caching, customers will back up your website’s elements on a hard drive in temporary storage or cache. The next time they visit the same website, their browser will load the web page without sending all previous HTTP requests to the server.

4. Fix Broken URL’s on the Website

Broken links can be there in your content, images, JavaScript, and CSS links. Though they won’t affect the speed of your site if they are present in the content, broken links in CSS, images, and JavaScript URLs can make the website frustratingly slower. So, don’t forget to scan your website for such aspects and, if detected, fix them as quickly as possible.

Final Words

These Four tips are just a few of multiple ways you can speed up a WordPress website. We listed them because they are some of the easiest ones to do by yourself. But it is advisable to speak with a professional web developer who can recommend additional steps to increase website speed.