People hate to wait – it’s a universal truth. Lines make us crazy, being put on hold is the worst, and waiting rooms make us cringe. So why would someone want to wait for a website to load? The real answer is that people shouldn’t – and won’t – wait for your website to load if it’s too slow: a quarter of visitors will abandon a web page in less than 4 seconds if it doesn’t load, which means that 1/4th of your website viewers will leave before they even get to see what you have to offer!
Fortunately, there are many tactics available to help you speed up your site. First – test your site to see where your load speed currently sits. If your site speed is lagging, check out some of the tips below to help keep it zippy:
Front-end Solutions:
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Reorganize and simplify website content and design to remove heavy widgets and duplicate material
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Optimize images and remove heavy Flash plugins for a lighter load time
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Consider a fully responsive website to keep your site speedy for mobile and tablet users
Back-end Solutions:
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Cache static content to reduce the number of server requests sent to your host
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Minify code to reduce file size and strip superfluous characters
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Utilize content delivery networks to remove major requests off of your primary host and onto a local server
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Consider a scalable hosting resource – like managed hosting services – to ensure that you have the ability to scale up website infrastructure when necessary
The below infographic from cloud hosting company SingleHop provides more instruction on how to speed up your site. In 2015, speed is integral to ensuring that a visitor converts – the key to keeping your customers happy is keeping your website fast!
