Nowadays, when everything is online, having an online presence when you are running a small business is the key to success. But you can't just have a website that is not optimised correctly and doesn't run smoothly, it will defeat its purpose. Having a smooth-running, functional, clear and aesthetic website will help you create a great first impression. That is because people want to have quick results and a great visual experience. If you have a cluttered and chaotic website that is taking an eternity to load, people are just going to close the tab and forget about your business. The speed of your site will not only affect the overall user experience but it will also have a big part in your search engine optimisation.
Get Better Hosting
What you need to realise before stating everything is that choosing the right web hosting will dictate how well your business is doing. If you choose the cheapest one, it is likely that you are going to end up with a website that will take an eternity to load. Even though it can get a bit overwhelming as there are so many options out there, make sure that you are choosing your provider accordingly. Another thing that you can look for are ones that have a way of upgrading if needed as your business is growing. Having a fast website will attract more customers.
Have A Caching Plugin
Another thing that not a lot of people pay attention to, but is super important is caching plugins. Caching plugins can drastically reduce the loading speed of your website. You have to ensure that you have the right caching plugins on your website so it is running as efficiently as possible.
Get a CDN
Content Delivery Network, also known as CDN, is a way you can have your site load much faster simply by having it load the content from the closest server to your visitor. By choosing this you will utilise the network and all of your website copies will be stored across the world on countless servers. It is also a great way you can ensure that you have optimal loading speed.
Optimise Your Images
One of the most common reasons why a website is taking an eternity to load is because the images on it are not optimised. A lot of businesses will want to use the best quality picture and it can cause the site to load slowly as it is not optimised for what you have put on it. Another common reason is that there are just too many pictures on your website. When you have a website that is filled with unoptimised images it can also mean that the entire website is not engine friendly. That is why you should make sure to have the best SEO agency behind you to ensure you don't have issues like this.
Change The Code
Another very common reason why you have a slow website is having a code that is unclean. If you think that your website code is too heavy for what you have, meaning that you have a lot of blank spaces, empty lines as well as other unnecessary elements, you can make a website code inspection. Having an unoptimised code or simply you have unnecessary things on your website will drastically slow down your website.
Not All Plugins Are Useful
Something that a lot of people don't realise is that you don't need to have a bunch of plugins and they are not all useful for your website. Some will actually kill your loading speed instead of helping with it. Make sure that you are avoiding the unnecessary ones and that you are using only those who are ensured to have optimal performance. Another thing that should look out for is lighter versions of the plugins so they don't weigh down your website. On top of all that, always make sure that you are removing any plugins that you Are no longer using for your website.
Don't Have Too Many Redirects
Having too many redirects will often cause websites to take a lot longer to load. But they are still a great way you can help people find more relevant sources instead of leading them to a broken page. When you are leading people to broken p[ages, they will leave your website. That is why you need to see if there are any unnecessary redirects to your website and remove them. That helps the website run smoothly and fast.
Don't Have Too Many Adds
There is nothing that people hate more than having a bunch of ads pop up while they are trying to use your website. Every time someone is clicking on your website those ads and pop-ups will need to take time to load. That is mainly because the server will have to communicate with other servers just to load up the ads and pop-ups. The best solution for this is simply to stick to a normal number of ads you will put on your website.
Ensure You Have No Missing Files
Even though this sounds like something that doesn't happen a lot, it actually happens quite often. If there is a missing element or a missing file your website will take much longer to load because it is trying to access the missing files. After some time, it will just pop a 404 error which means that the file can’t be found. This is easily fixable, all you need to do is restore your website and fix the missing file.
There are endless options when it comes to making your site better, but before committing always ensure that the site is fully functional before releasing it for people to use. Checking for any mistakes and allowing enough time to test everything will ensure that you have a smooth-running website that has visual appeal and with that, you will be able to gain more customers.
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Small business website development company, Arjantech Solutions is a top small and large scall web design company in Toronto, Ontario & Canada.
More often than not, owners work tremendously on their content and do not focus enough on the hosting of their site.
This is the most common mistake that comes in the way of the business goals.
