Is page load time affecting your business?
Remember the notion: Time is money? Indeed every second of it can decide your business’ success. With everything running at a fast pace you cannot afford to be laid back and neither your website. As your company’s website is the most important marketing tool especially for online stores, a slow one will not do any justice to your business. Who has the time to sit and stare at the screen when your website is trying to load? With so many options available, the person will quickly switch over to another similar website. Thus, your website needs to be quick in order to fetch customers. It generates brand awareness, sales, etc., for your company, a slow one might push your potential and even current customers away instead of attracting them. The market is robust you cannot expect brand loyalty at expense of someone’s time. A delay of few seconds (preferable loading time is less than 2 seconds) may cost you your customer and one such bad experience communicated further may adversely affect your business.
There are many online tools available that can help you know the speed of your website, compare it with other websites and further tell on areas where it can be improved.
How to fix page load issue?
Your website contains various elements that reduce the speed of the website. Though it contains some essential features but then there are many unnecessary things that cause delay in page loading. The key here is to simplify, compress and keep your website clear of unnecessary issues.
Simplify the design
The more add-on features like flash, style sheets, etc. the more HTTP requests shall be made to open each element that will require longer time. Thus, reduce the scripts, plug-ins, compile multiple pages, use CSS instead of images wherever possible, etc., and your page rendering becomes quicker.
Correct Image size
Images are the most critical part of your website. You need to use correct size images that are not too heavy and take lesser loading time, if there is a need, compress them. Oversized images with large pixel resolution may offer great quality but they may take much longer time to open. So you need to compress them. Also, JPEG and PNG image formats are preferable over TIFF or BMP.
Cache Plugin
The first time you open a website, all of its elements have to be loaded. A cache plugin in your website saves it to the browser cache and next time the user opens up the website, the previously saved data will open up instead of generating the whole page again. This saves a lot of time of regular visitors.
Updated Server:
To optimize the speed of the website host it through latest server. Running it through the latest version can greatly help in increasing the speed.
External CSS
There are two types of CSS style requirement to access your page; one is through external file while the other is inline styling. External File CSS is more preferable as it stores the code in HTML head tag and thus the information is loaded before the page is rendered.
These were few tactics that can greatly help reduce page loading time. You need to discuss it with your web developer before developing your website or updating it so that your website functions productively. A website with less rendering time can reap you great benefits.