One of the most critical factors that play a role in the success of your website is its speed. Users not only want, they expect websites to be fast. Therefore, when a website takes too much time to load, it negatively affects your site’s UX (user experience), and when your UX takes a hit, your conversion rate does as well.
Seconds count when it comes to website speed. Not only do users frown upon slow websites, but so does Google. So if your site speed is slow, it can affect your ranking with Google.
With your conversion rate and your visibility on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) on the line, it’s imperative to find out where your site currently stands and work your way up from there. Keep reading to learn why your website may be slow and ways to improve the speed of your website.
#1. Images Are Not Optimized
Large images with non-descriptive file names and no alt tags are unoptimized images and can lead to slow web speeds.
Many people create images in programs such as Photoshop for the extreme detail and high-quality images they can generate. Unfortunately, that detail and quality can actually slow your website.
Another factor related to images that can cause speed issues is not assigning an alt tag to your image. Alt tags are short descriptions of the picture. Google uses these alt tags to understand what your images are.
Avoiding this issue is easy. Simply optimize your images! There are free tools available to optimize your images quickly and easily.
It’s also essential to choose the correct file type. PNG and JPG are the main types of photo files. Use a PNG if the image needs to be transparent or if you want it to be more detailed. JPG is the standard file type used online because they are smaller file sizes and load quickly.
#2. You Don’t Have a CDN (Content Delivery Network)
A CDN connects with your site’s server and transfers data very quickly. It ensures that users are accessing your website from a server in a nearby location, thus leading to quicker speeds because the data travels a short distance.
If you aren’t currently using a CDN, it could be in the best interest of your website to look into implementing one.
#3. Significant Web Traffic
Having a significant amount of people accessing your website doesn’t sound like a problem, but it can be. A website can handle a certain number of visitors before it starts to slow down, and that number is based on its bandwidth.
The bandwidth tells how much information the internet connection can handle in a specific amount of time. You may have heard of broadband, which is a larger bandwidth and will allow data to be delivered quickly to more visitors.
If you’ve noticed more traffic, you may want to contact your site’s host and update your plan to increase your bandwidth.
#4. Too Many Elements On Pages
HTML, images, stylesheets, scripts, videos, and other elements on your page impact the size of your page. When you have too many elements on a page, it will take longer to load.
Review the elements on your website and decide if they are necessary. For example, do you have several videos on your page, but only a few are getting clicks? You may want to consider removing those that visitors aren’t viewing.
#5. Lots of Ads
Ads can slow down your website like videos, content, and images. Third-party ads can also affect your speed. Not only will it slow down the speed of your site, but too many ads will annoy visitors.
Think about removing some of the ads from your website. If a page isn’t loading because of ads, a user may notice that they are waiting for ads to load and will leave the page. Limiting ads to two per page will help your page load better.
#6. Unreliable Web Host
You need a hosting service to get your website online. When visitors search for your website in their browser, the web host presents them with your website from their server.
Do you know that saying “you get what you pay for”? A cheaper hosting service can lead to slower loading times for your website. While you may end up spending more for a good hosting service, you can have the confidence knowing that your website will continually be accessible.
Let Kango Media Fix Your Slow Website Fast
You’re busy running your business. And you may not even have the skills required or the desire to ensure that your website is adequately optimized. We understand, and that’s where we can help.
The expert web designers at KangoMedia have the experience needed to design a website that wins customers. We will sit down with you to identify your needs and tailor a plan to fit your specific needs and goals.
Schedule your free consultation today, and let’s talk about your business!