Making your website faster

Rarely do you stop to think about the speed of a loading website, unless the speed is painfully slow. Images that load seem to take forever to display in the web browser and a sluggish user experience can frustrate potential customers and cause them to leave your site quicker than they arrived. While a beautiful website full of high quality images and fancy animations may look great, these elements can quickly slow down a page if not handled correctly and have a potential negative impact on results.  In this article we explain this situation and provide you with guidance and best practices for how to avoid the risks and enjoy an engaging website.

Why should I worry about website speed?

There are two main reasons why you should be aware of your website loading speed. First, it can provide users with a negative website browsing experience which can result in lost leads, and secondly, it can affect your rankings on Google making it more difficult for people to find your website!

Is page speed important for SEO?

Optimized for people

How often have you found yourself attempting to load a slow website, only to get frustrated, give up and try another website instead. Now imagine that happening to the customers on your website. Think of all the possible leads and conversions you may be missing. A speed optimized website is a great platform to market your company in an age of short attention spans and strong business competition.

Learn how to write for both search engines and people.

Optimized for rankings

Did you know that Google considers website load speed a major factor in how it ranks websites? Within the last year, this key factor has started to play a heavier role in how well your website ranks against the competition. Google has even developed a tool, “PageSpeed” to help website owners find out how what kinds of factors are contributing to a slow website. Check it out at https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/. If your website score is below 60/100 consider getting an expert review.

So what can I do to improve my website speed?

For the best chance of success, website speed planning and implementation can be part of an effective website strategy from the start. When you’ve decided your website needs a face-lift, or even a complete takedown and rebuild, choosing an online marketing company (like FirstPage Marketing) that is skilled in efficient and effective website development and design is the best choice.

That being said, not everyone is in the market for a new website. So here are a couple items that you can adjust on your website to improve the speed.

Photos, photos and more photos

When uploading images, the size of the image can dramatically effect the speed of your website. A photo directly uploaded from a digital camera, or a digital poster made in Photoshop can easily bog down a page if it is not compressed. Consider compressing your images by uploading them to an online service such as https://compressor.io/ before placing them on your webpage. Compressing an image can easily reduce the file size of the by up to 75% which results in faster load times for your website.

Code improvements and optimization

In most cases, the code structure and resources that work together to render a website can be improved to make them more efficient.  Code adjustments can allow the web server to deliver files in a way that prioritizes speed performance.

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Hosting Provider and Speed

Choosing the right website hosting provider can dramatically effect your website speed. An experienced and reputable hosting provider that has a fast connection to the Internet can ensure that customers will be able to access your website quickly and help contribute to an overall positive user experience for potential customers and leads.

Keep in mind there are many other ways of managing and planning for speed within your website so that you can be certain you’re not losing out on sales and conversions due to a sluggish experience. For any questions you might have regarding improving your website speed and website marketing, contact FirstPage Marketing at 1-800-676-4393.

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