A Beginner’s Guide to Website Performance

Interactive Transcript

spk_0 In the time it takes you to read this sentence, your website visitors have already abandoned

spk_0 your website and chosen your competitors site instead.

spk_0 That's how long it takes to lose them forever.

spk_0 If you've ever had to wait for a webpage to load, you know how frustrating it can be.

spk_0 Websites these days are complex and often filled with images, videos and scripts.

spk_0 This means they require more time to download than simple HTML pages from the good old 90s

spk_0 and early 2000s.

spk_0 But even worse is the fact that so many of these modern sites are also poorly designed.

spk_0 They're packed with features but suffer from slow performance because they don't understand

spk_0 how people use them.

spk_0 There's no excuse for subpar website performance at this point.

spk_0 Not if your site is well managed by someone who cares about what their visitors experience

spk_0 every day.

spk_0 If you need help improving your website's performance, follow these tips.

spk_0 But first, a few important questions.

spk_0 First, what is website performance?

spk_0 Website performance is the speed at which your website loads in a visitor's browser.

spk_0 It also includes how responsive your site is and how easy it is to navigate.

spk_0 Second, why does website performance matter?

spk_0 A slow loading website will frustrate both visitors and Google.

spk_0 This will lead to a decrease in your rankings in Google for your target keywords.

spk_0 It's also important because today's users have become impatient with slow loading sites.

spk_0 If they see yours loading too slowly, they'll leave it behind and find another one with better

spk_0 performance in less time.

spk_0 There are three key areas where website performance matters.

spk_0 User experience, SEO and conversion rate.

spk_0 Let's dig in further and see how website performance impacts these three things.

spk_0 Number one, user experience.

spk_0 Website performance will impact your brand perception.

spk_0 Research has shown that a slow website can actually make visitors leave your site

spk_0 without viewing a single page.

spk_0 Google has found that a one-second delay in website loading time can decrease conversions

spk_0 by up to 20%.

spk_0 And if the site doesn't load at all, they're not going to stick around.

spk_0 It's also important to remember that your visitors aren't always on high-speed internet connections like you are.

spk_0 A recent survey by speed test found that the average mobile download speed worldwide is about 56 megabytes per second.

spk_0 While that may sound really fast, keep in mind that is an average.

spk_0 Many developing countries still have underdeveloped internet infrastructures.

spk_0 A recent study by IDB found that only 33% of schools in Latin America have sufficient internet bandwidth,

spk_0 less than half of those reported on average in OECD countries.

spk_0 There's even a massive gap in high-speed internet services between urban and rural areas in the United States.

spk_0 As of 2016, 39% of the US population did not have access to high-speed internet services.

spk_0 That means many people worldwide are still using slow internet speeds.

spk_0 If you live in one of these areas or are expecting visitors from them,

spk_0 making your website load faster will be even more crucial.

spk_0 Website loading speed directly impacts Google rankings.

spk_0 Web performance is a key factor in SEO as it makes or breaks your site's speed and performance.

spk_0 Google uses page speed as a ranking factor, so if your site takes too long to load,

spk_0 you can watch your rankings take a nasty tumble.

spk_0 It's even more important for mobile sites, which require extra optimization to improve loading speeds.

spk_0 Slow websites get left behind by the competition.

spk_0 Simple as that.

spk_0 Even if your website is designed beautifully, has great content and offers quality products and services,

spk_0 slow loading times will eventually hurt your rankings.

spk_0 Number 3.

spk_0 Conversion rates.

spk_0 Website performance will make or cost you money.

spk_0 Website loading speed has a strong direct correlation to conversion rates and sales.

spk_0 Check out the difference actual milliseconds can make in your website's conversion rate.

spk_0 This is according to CloudFlarer.

spk_0 2.4 seconds leads to a 1.9% conversion rate.

spk_0 3.3 seconds leads to 1.5% conversion rate.

spk_0 4.2 seconds has under 1% conversion rate.

spk_0 And anything over 5.7 seconds reduces it to 0.6% conversion rate.

spk_0 Here's the kicker.

spk_0 It is at least 5 times more expensive to acquire a new client compared to retaining your existing

spk_0 customer.

spk_0 This is why it's actually much more profitable to keep your existing customers than find new ones.

spk_0 So, with the costs of acquiring new customers being so high,

spk_0 it's in your best interest to make sure that your site loads fast enough.

spk_0 Because once they leave, it will be way harder to get them back.

spk_0 So now that we've established why website performance is so important,

spk_0 let's take a look at how to test your website's performance.

spk_0 There are many different websites speed test tools that you can use to test your site performance.

spk_0 All of these tools essentially do the same thing.

spk_0 But have some variations in testing standards and ease of use.

spk_0 GT Metrics is a free website speed test tool that will help you understand where your site

spk_0 stands in terms of speed and responsiveness.

spk_0 The test takes less than a minute to complete and it measures the load time of a single page of

spk_0 your website, one at a time. It also tells you how your site performs on mobile devices,

spk_0 including iPhone and Android. And you can test from multiple different servers located around the

spk_0 world. Though many of the best features are locked away behind the pro version of the tool,

spk_0 you can still get a ton of valuable and actionable information from the free version of GT Metrics.

spk_0 My favorite feature is the waterfall chart, which breaks down every single file that is loaded

spk_0 on your website so you can pinpoint the exact problem. Of course, this isn't unique to GT Metrics.

spk_0 I just like the visual interface. GT Metrics is my personal choice for the best website speed test tool.

spk_0 It's a tool I'll be using throughout this website optimization guide.

spk_0 Google PageSpeed Insights is a website speed test tool that helps you identify quick fixes to

spk_0 improve your site. It tells you where you need to cut down on the amount of HTML, scripts, and even

spk_0 images on each page. The interface can be a tad overwhelming for new web developers,

spk_0 though Google has made some good strides in simplifying it in recent years.

spk_0 Pingdom provides a website speed tool that provides insights on load time, reliability,

spk_0 uptime, mobile friendliness, and other key metrics. It also provides recommendations for how to fix

spk_0 any issues you find. It is part of a much larger suite of performance monitoring tools for websites.

spk_0 You can even install Pingdom's monitoring tool directly onto your WordPress site to help you

spk_0 measure performance from within the WordPress dashboard. And yes, there is a Pingdom extension

spk_0 in the form of a bookmarklet. Next, let's take a look at the website performance metrics that

spk_0 these tools use to analyze websites. Website performance metrics are used to measure the load time

spk_0 of web pages. They are usually reported as the average number of seconds it takes for a page to render.

spk_0 The most important website performance metrics, according to Google, are what they call the core web

spk_0 vitals. These web vitals will evolve over time, but as of this recording, these are the targets

spk_0 to focus on. LCP or long contentful paint, FID or first input delay, and CLS, cumulative layout

spk_0 shift. Let's talk about the LCP. LCP is a content performance metric that assesses the perceivable

spk_0 loading experience for users. In its simplest form, LCP determines how long it takes for the largest

spk_0 content element on your page, like a hero image, headline text, and so on, to become displayed within

spk_0 a visitor's viewport. The first input delay, or the FID, is the measure of time between when a user

spk_0 initiates an input, like hovering over a website link, clicking on an element or typing in text,

spk_0 and when the website responds to that input. As a website becomes more interactive, FID becomes one

spk_0 of the most critical website performance metrics, because it affects how fast visitors can complete

spk_0 tasks, like purchasing or signing up. And finally, the CLS, or the cumulative layout shift, gauges a

spk_0 website's visual stability during a page load. To put it another way, CLS measures the unexpected

spk_0 moving of web components while the page is being generated. The aggregate score of all the layout

spk_0 changes on your site is then quantified as a whole. Google web vitals includes CLS as, quote-unquote,

spk_0 page stability. Now, aside from the core web vitals, there are a few more website speed test metrics

spk_0 you'll want to optimize for. While not technically included in the quote-unquote core,

spk_0 these secondary web vitals will definitely impact the core web vitals. First up is the TTFB,

spk_0 or Time to First Bite. It's the time between pressing enter on your keyboard and getting the

spk_0 first piece of page data. TTFB is particularly important on mobile devices with a low-quality

spk_0 internet connection. Next is the FCP, or the first contentful paint. The FCP metric measures the time

spk_0 from when the page starts loading to when any part of the page's content is rendered on the screen.

spk_0 Next is TBT, or Total Blocking Time. TBT is the total time that it takes for a website to respond

spk_0 to a visitor's input. More specifically, TBT measures the amount of time spent being blocked by

spk_0 specific scripts and code. And then finally, we have the overall full page load time.

spk_0 Load time is the average number of seconds it takes for a given page to render completely.

spk_0 This can be anywhere from 1 to 2 seconds for fast websites to as much as 15 to 20 seconds for

spk_0 slow websites. If your website is even slower than that, and you don't really have a website,

spk_0 you have a digital parking space with your name on it. Okay, hopefully that wasn't too overwhelming

spk_0 for you. But now that we've gone past the website performance metrics, let's take a look at some

spk_0 others, a website user experience metric. There are a number of metrics you can use to measure your

spk_0 website's user experience. The most important metrics are bounce rate, time on page, and conversion

spk_0 rate. These should not be confused with content performance metrics like TTFB, LCP, and CLS.

spk_0 Those metrics show how long it takes for content to load. User experience metrics measure

spk_0 how long an individual piece of content is engaged with during a given time frame.

spk_0 First, let's look at bounce rate. Website bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who

spk_0 leave your site after viewing just one page. It's calculated by dividing the number of single

spk_0 page visits by the total number of visits to your website. For instance, if you have 1000 total

spk_0 visits and 800 of them are single page visits, that means that you have an 80% bounce rate.

spk_0 And your average page speed has a major effect on website bounce rate. One important thing to

spk_0 know about website bounce rates is that while they can be helpful for Google Analytics,

spk_0 they don't tell the full story for measuring user engagement because they don't quantify

spk_0 engagement with individual pages or sessions. Next up is session duration. Session duration is the

spk_0 length of time a user spends on a particular session. This metric can be used to find out how

spk_0 productively visitors are spending their time on your site, as well as how effectively they're

spk_0 interacting with it. If the time on page metric for each visitor is too short, it could mean that

spk_0 you need to create a more compelling website. This is because shorter visits might indicate that

spk_0 your visitors were unable to find what they were looking for and quickly left. The average time someone

spk_0 spends on a webpage varies depending on the type of content, but research shows that the average

spk_0 is dropping across the internet. If your session durations are below average or people are bouncing too

spk_0 much, then you need to investigate further and find out why. And finally, we have the conversion rate.

spk_0 Conversion is the successful completion of an action you want your website visitors to take,

spk_0 such as purchasing something or signing up for your email list. If you're not getting conversions,

spk_0 it's most likely because people are bouncing too much. You can improve conversion rate by increasing

spk_0 page speed, reducing the number of steps it takes to complete a desired action, improving your

spk_0 website's clarity and much more. Alright, now that we got everything outlined in advance, let's take a

spk_0 look at how we can improve your website's performance. This is the only guide you'll ever need to speed

spk_0 up your website. I think, hopefully. Set number one, reduce the size of your page by getting rid of

spk_0 code bloats. There are many reasons why you should reduce the size of your webpage. It reduces

spk_0 website load time, increases website performance, maximizes website engagement, improves the user

spk_0 experience, and trims the code bloat. Code bloat is a term used to describe the amount of code

spk_0 that's needed to make a website work. Simplifying your code can help reduce load time and also make it

spk_0 easier for you to maintain your site. Code bloat can be very damaging because it takes up more space,

spk_0 slows down your website, and even causes bugs or security vulnerabilities.

spk_0 Picture yourself driving to work in the morning. Now imagine all the different roads you can take to

spk_0 get there. They all take you from and to the same place, from home to work. But which roads you choose

spk_0 dictates how long it will take you to get there. Picture this illustration every time someone tries

spk_0 to visit your website. Now there are many ways that web developers can reduce code bloat.

spk_0 You can use images wisely, host videos externally, delete comments, reduce HTTP requests,

spk_0 don't use external web fonts, and delete unnecessary plugins. Let's look at how to do each of these

spk_0 one by one. First, use images wisely. There is no exact number of images that you should aim to

spk_0 include on your pages and posts. Each time you upload an image, simply ask yourself one question.

spk_0 How does this image benefit my visitor? If you can't answer that question, don't use the image.

spk_0 Next, host videos externally. Videos can take up a lot of space, and often there's no guarantee

spk_0 that the person watching your video will have the bandwidth to stream in. Instead of hosting videos

spk_0 directly on your website, which will be using your web host server storage and bandwidth,

spk_0 it's almost always better to host it externally and embed it into the page.

spk_0 Upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo and place the HTML embed code on your page.

spk_0 All major website builders make it easy to do this. Next, delete comments.

spk_0 Comments are a very useful way of fostering healthy discussion on the entire

spk_0 they're usually more toxic than wrapping your lips around a car exhaust pipe and taking a deep breath.

spk_0 Now, while comments have been shown to provide some SEO benefit, in fact, I've even seen it myself

spk_0 with my cancel Netflix post, it's not usually worth the loss in webpage speed. As can be seen in

spk_0 the story of Mighty Bites, allowing comments on your blog posts does slow down website loading times.

spk_0 And the more comments there are, the worse it gets. I can personally attest to removing website

spk_0 comments to improve page speed. Unfortunately, I didn't do a comparison of the data when I made

spk_0 the switch, so it'll have to remain anecdotal. Sorry. The bottom line is this. Comments slow down

spk_0 page loading times. They generate additional database calls, which can result in the increase of

spk_0 up to 50% in server load time. It's generally best to just remove commenting from your blogs and move on.

spk_0 Next, reduce the amount of HTTP requests. HTTP requests will make your site load slower. Unnecessary

spk_0 integrations are the most common source of too many HTTP requests. They can be defined as unnecessary,

spk_0 because they take up more space on the page and slow down loading times while providing very little

spk_0 value to the user. The worst offenders are built in integrations which come with some themes or

spk_0 plugins. These integrations work well for people who want them, but they can't be turned off or

spk_0 deleted if you don't want them. And these integrations take up loads of space and slow down page load

spk_0 times. Here's what it looks like when a website has too many HTTP requests. Just from a quick glance

spk_0 at the URLs from each request, we can see HTTP requests from Google Analytics, Google Maps, Google

spk_0 Fonts, Facebook, Hotjar, Talk, Twick, Hey Oliver, LiveLeeds, Yandex, Polyfill, Visual Website

spk_0 Optimizer, X.AI, and something called your website, Yikes. It's no wonder that this webpage

spk_0 takes 9.6 seconds to load. And the worst part is, these are nearly all unnecessary marketing

spk_0 gimmicks that actually make the website's user experience worse. Next, make sure you don't use

spk_0 external web fonts. One of the top offenders in dragging website loading speeds is web fonts.

spk_0 Companies like Adobe, Google, and Typekit host thousands of fonts for the web. Website builders

spk_0 integrate their APIs to include these fonts in a super simple drop-down of choices.

spk_0 Like one of my favorite page builder plugins, Elementor. Web fonts will increase the number of

spk_0 HTTP requests that your website makes because it has to load several different files from external

spk_0 sources just to display text. This can be a huge drag on page load times. It's also really

spk_0 frustrating for people who are just trying to read your site. To make matters worse, many web

spk_0 fonts are only available in specific formats like .eot or .tdf, which not everyone can access.

spk_0 But the thing is, fonts are cool. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to make your brand feel

spk_0 unique and stand out from the crowd. So what should you do? If you're already speeding up your

spk_0 website by using many of the strategies mentioned here, you likely can afford to have a little bit of

spk_0 fun with some fonts. But if you're obsessed with ludicrously fast loading times like I am,

spk_0 then simply use some of the common system fonts in your design. System fonts are the fonts that

spk_0 come pre-installed on your device. Sure, they're not as pretty. But the boost in user experience

spk_0 far makes up for that, in my opinion. I've used them right here in my own website. Next, delete

spk_0 unnecessary plugins. It's best to keep plugins to a minimum. Only install plugins that are absolutely

spk_0 necessary to your site's functionality and don't detract from your site's user experience.

spk_0 Unfortunately, lazy web designers will often install a plugin to solve every little problem

spk_0 that comes their way. Even when much of the functionality that is provided by a plugin can be

spk_0 accomplished using simple HTML and CSS. In one of my crazier web design case studies, I rebuilt a

spk_0 website that had over 32 plugins, clogging up their website, and reduced it down to 12.

spk_0 Here's the before and after of their website redesign. The result was a much faster website

spk_0 that loaded like a dream. The client couldn't be happier. Oh yeah, I also did it for less money.

spk_0 So, step one was to reduce your co-blow and we talked about many different ways to do that.

spk_0 Now step two is to optimize your images. Images that are not optimized can be extremely troublesome

spk_0 for website performance. Here are some quick tips to optimize images for your website. Choose

spk_0 the best image format. Which image format is best for your website performance depends on what

spk_0 you're using the image for. JPEG is best for photos with large amounts of color and high contrast.

spk_0 JPEG reduces the file size but introduces some data loss. PNG is best for images that are drawn

spk_0 or text. As it does not introduce compression on drawn objects. JIF is good for short animated

spk_0 sequences because the file format only supports 256 colors. WebP is an up and coming format and

spk_0 you'll start to see it more often but it's not quite mainstream yet. I wouldn't worry about it for

spk_0 now. An SVG is your best option for vector graphics and icons if you're an advanced designer.

spk_0 It scales up and down without losing sharpness and quality and the file size is much smaller than

spk_0 PNG's. Next, set the correct image dimensions. Finding high quality free images for your website

spk_0 can be a major pain. That's why a lot of new web designers and bloggers make the mistake

spk_0 of downloading images at their largest size and then uploading it to their site without doing

spk_0 any image optimization. Example. Let's say I want to download this cute monkey image from unsplash.

spk_0 If I download it at its original size and dimensions, it will come in at a whopping 4,928 by 3,264.

spk_0 That's infixels. Anything above 1280 by 720 is considered high definition. If I want to go even

spk_0 higher quality to ensure I look good on higher resolution displays, I can do 1920 by 1080 or 1080p

spk_0 or I can do 30A 40 by 2160 aka 4K. But I don't plan on displaying this monkey image across the

spk_0 entire screen. I only want to display it in my blog post and since I know the width of my blog

spk_0 post content is about 1000 pixels, I know my image width doesn't need to be anything more than that.

spk_0 Anything above 1000 is simply wasted space and resources. But I like to leave a little

spk_0 buffer room just in case I decide to use the image in a wider context in the future.

spk_0 So I would now use a simple photo editor, I prefer Photoshop, to resize the image from 4928 by 32,

spk_0 64 to 1280 by 848. This will make it a lot easier for your website to automatically resize the

spk_0 image to be responsive on all devices. The amount of code work has been reduced. But there's still

spk_0 one more critical step you must take before that image is ready to be uploaded to your site.

spk_0 Compress every image. It is important that images are compressed before they are uploaded to your

spk_0 website. This is the easiest and simplest way to speed up your website's loading speed.

spk_0 You know all those fancy beautiful free stock photos that we just talked about? They're massive.

spk_0 There are a number of ways you can compress and optimize your images, but here's the simple method I

spk_0 use. Using Photoshop to reduce the size of images. Depending on the version of Photoshop you are

spk_0 using, this might look a bit different. I'm subscribed to the Creative Cloud version of Photoshop,

spk_0 which is like $10 a month, so it is constantly updated for free. Now let's assume we've already

spk_0 resized the dimensions of the image. Now it's time to compress the size. Go to File,

spk_0 Export, then Save for Web. Again, the flow of this might be a bit different for your version of

spk_0 Photoshop, but it should be in the same general area. Then choose your image compression options.

spk_0 The majority of your pigs can be saved in the JPEG low format. If you need to have a transparent

spk_0 background, then make sure to select PNG8. Quality is set on a scale of 1 to 100. I usually never go

spk_0 above 5 to 10. You'll notice that 90% of the quality is preserved anyway, and it's worth losing

spk_0 that 10% for the drastic savings and file size. Then click Save. Name your new image, click Save.

spk_0 Keep it simple and relevant, so it'll be easy to search for later. And finally,

spk_0 bask in the glory of your results. Do you see that? The original image clocked in at a whopping

spk_0 3.8 megabytes. The new compressed and totally optimized version? Just 60 kilobytes. That,

spk_0 my friend, is how it's done. Like I said, compressing your images is the number one way to quickly

spk_0 speed up the performance of your website. Step 3. Use Caching. Note, there are many different

spk_0 forms of caching, and it can be pretty complicated pretty quickly. But this is a beginner's guide,

spk_0 so this is going to be a very basic rundown of some useful caching strategies.

spk_0 Okay, with that out of the way, caching allows a website to retrieve resources from a local

spk_0 cache so that it doesn't have to use up resources from its server. Caching is beneficial because

spk_0 it allows the browser or device to use content that has already been stored rather than loading it

spk_0 fresh every time. This speeds up paid loading time considerably for users accessing your site.

spk_0 It also reduces the strain on your bandwidth, which will allow your site to host more visitors

spk_0 without risking congestion. One of the most powerful ways you can optimize website loading

spk_0 speeds is by utilizing caching. There are many different types of caching available,

spk_0 depending on what your needs are. Let's take a look at a few. HTTP caching. HTTP caching

spk_0 allows you to minimize the number of requests a user's browser makes to your server by using

spk_0 HTTP headers to cache resources sent from the server. This is generally seen as one of the most

spk_0 powerful ways to optimize your website performance because it can reduce bandwidth usage by up to 80%.

spk_0 Page caching. Page caching is another type of caching where only specific resources are cached

spk_0 instead of all resources. By caching the HTML of a web page, visitors can load that page without

spk_0 connecting to your server and downloading all of the components on your website for that page again.

spk_0 Browser caching. Browser caching refers to the caching that occurs in the user's browser.

spk_0 This allows resources like images, video files, and CSS JavaScript to be cached on the local hard drive

spk_0 so that when users return to your website, they're able to load pages faster.

spk_0 And finally, server caching. Server caching is a type of caching that occurs on the server

spk_0 where your website is hosted. This will serve static files to your visitors so they're able to

spk_0 load your website faster. Okay, step four. Eliminate or defer render blocking CSS and JavaScript.

spk_0 If your website is not very large, deferring the loading of CSS and JavaScript can be a very

spk_0 effective way to optimize performance. Differring scripts basically means rearranging the order in which

spk_0 the scripts are loaded on a web page. Oftentimes, this can easily be accomplished by placing scripts

spk_0 in the footer of your site. Scripts that are deferred will only load if required, which reduces the

spk_0 initial page weight required for loading. You can also use a plugin to defer scripts. This allows

spk_0 you to load scripts when necessary without delaying the load time for other aspects of your website.

spk_0 Okay, how to find and eliminate render blocking CSS and JavaScript.

spk_0 Just an important note. If you don't know what you're doing here, you can easily break some features

spk_0 of and content of your website. Make sure to test for moving or deferring JavaScript files one by

spk_0 one so you can easily undo the change if your website breaks. Okay, first navigate to the

spk_0 structured tab in your GT metrics report and click on reduce unused JavaScript. This will show

spk_0 you what JavaScript files GT metrics believes are either unnecessary or can be deferred to load later.

spk_0 Next, remove or defer each file one at a time then test your website. If you're using WordPress,

spk_0 this process is a lot easier. You can use a popular cash plugin like WP Rocket or hummingbird

spk_0 to defer JavaScript files. If you're not using WordPress, things can get messy real quick.

spk_0 There are a number of ways to defer JavaScript, but they will all involve coding. This is for

spk_0 advanced developers only. If you don't want to get involved in that stuff, I highly recommend you

spk_0 simply delete as many of the offending plugins and scripts that are using this JavaScript.

spk_0 So much simpler. Step five, choose a server closer to your visitors. Choosing a server close to the

spk_0 geographical location of the visitor is important for website performance. The closer your

spk_0 web server is to your visitors, the faster data can be delivered to them. It's also critical for

spk_0 local SEO, as Google will prioritize websites with better user experiences and loading speed

spk_0 equals a better user experience. The only real way to know where a server is located is by asking

spk_0 the web host before you sign up with them. There are other methods, but they're far more advanced.

spk_0 I don't even know how to do them. If you choose dedicated hosting with a company like Cloudways,

spk_0 you'll be able to pick between a number of Cloud hosting providers who offer servers all around

spk_0 the world. You can also use a CDN for international visitors. A content delivery network or CDN

spk_0 is a geographically distributed group of servers that work together to provide faster

spk_0 delivery of website content. Most website hosting providers will offer a CDN as part of their

spk_0 website package. Using a CDN will allow website pages to be served from the closest possible

spk_0 data center to the visitor rather than from your website server. This can reduce load times for

spk_0 website visitors by up to 50% and reduces bandwidth costs. Each website visitor will only need to

spk_0 download the files they need from the server that's closest to them. Most CDNs are premium services

spk_0 with a wide variety of costs. Cloudflare does offer a free version of their CDN service,

spk_0 but it's mainly limited to security benefits. If you have a lot of international visitors,

spk_0 particularly if you have a multilingual website, a CDN will help your website content

spk_0 load faster for them. This can increase the amount of traffic you receive from overseas.

spk_0 A CDN will also remove the stress on your servers by hosting content on servers internationally.

spk_0 This means that your server will have less work to do and be less likely to fail because of

spk_0 overuse. Step 6. Avoid 301 redirect chains. Redirect chains are caused when a 301 redirect

spk_0 sends a visitor from one page to another page on your site, and then another and another. It

spk_0 just keeps going. Redirecting more than once will cause unnecessary delays in page loading.

spk_0 The simplest way to avoid this problem is to keep 301 redirects to a minimum.

spk_0 When you do use them, make sure they only redirect once.

spk_0 Step 7. Choose a fast content management system. A content management system, or CMS,

spk_0 is an application that lets you manage your content. The CMS might be as simple as a text editor

spk_0 or as complex as a platform like WordPress with custom widgets and plugins.

spk_0 A more common and simpler term for CMS in the context of web design anyway is website builder.

spk_0 So it matters what website builder you use. Why? Because not all website builders are created equal

spk_0 when it comes to website performance. The top three fastest website builders, according to

spk_0 Weebly. No, this is a surprise, aren't you? And the reason I love Weebly. And the three slowest

spk_0 are Jumla, Craft CMS, and at the very bottom, no surprise, Wix. If you're using WordPress,

spk_0 make sure you choose a page builder plugin that is as lightweight as possible.

spk_0 Fortunately, most of the major page builder plugins have invested massively in performance upgrades.

spk_0 There isn't much of a discernible difference between them at this point.

spk_0 Step 8. Get better website hosting. If you're not getting the speed that your website needs to

spk_0 be functioning properly, it might be time to upgrade your website hosting. Great web hosting

spk_0 isn't expensive. It's a well worth the investment if the high speed of your site converts more

spk_0 visitors into customers. A fast site means a higher ranking on Google search. It also means better

spk_0 support for more devices and browsers. I see far too many small business owners cheap out on

spk_0 website hosting and suffer the consequences. Take your time, do your research, and choose web

spk_0 hosting that's right for you. And that's it. We've reached the end. Website performance is a

spk_0 critical part of your website's user experience. Website LowDeeSpeak can impact the success or

spk_0 failure of an online business. So it pays to take care in how you manage your site resources.

spk_0 In this website performance guide, we reviewed some tips for making sure that your site loads

spk_0 as fast as possible while keeping users happy at all times. We've highlighted the most important

spk_0 considerations that you should make in order to optimize your site for speed, along with some

spk_0 tips on how you can improve loading time without sacrificing content or usability. Give these suggestions

spk_0 a try and let me know how it goes.

A Beginner’s Guide to Website Performance

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