If a website takes more than a couple of seconds to load, most online visitors lose interest. Also, Google considers it a ranking element because it values a positive user experience.
Consequently, having a fast loading website is crucial in addition to having quality online design and content. Otherwise, you can say goodbye to a considerable part of your conversions and traffic.
You can find out if your website is slow by measuring the time it takes to load. The PageSpeed Insight app can help you with this.
Thereafter, you can start looking for the causes if your website load time is more than 2-4 seconds. In this post, we have listed some possible causes why your website is slow.
10 causes of a slow website and methods to fix it
1. Choose a reliable web hosting solution
The process of improving website speed begins long before you create a website. Applying any of the strategies below is just as important as finding a reliable web host. It acts as a framework for your Internet presence. Because of this, relying on a low-cost hosting provider is not the best option for your website.
The secret is to choose a reputable web hosting company that provides a scalable, secure, and fast hosting service.
2. Choose a server that is local
Let’s understand this instance with an example. When a visitor located in the US accesses a website in the US that is hosted on an Indian server, the browser must first load the website and then travel a considerable distance back to the user’s device . Naturally, the website will load slower the further away you are.
Setting up websites using local servers is the key to this problem. In other words, a US visitor must access a website hosted on a US server.
3. Image and video optimization
Uploading photos that unnecessarily add weight to your web page is one of the main causes of slow website load time. According to research, unoptimized images can take up to 68% of the weight of the entire website.
Inserting small, high-resolution images increases the time it takes a website to load by using more bandwidth. Always check your file size to avoid this problem and try to keep it below 1 MB. It is also important to consider the format of the image because a large format image will take longer to load. Instead of using the PNG or GIF format, choose an image format such as jpeg.
4. Do not use flash content
You would like your website visitors to have an interesting experience as a business owner. The user experience can be enhanced by using flash content to create visualizations, animations, web page elements, and other interactive content. However, the website will most likely become slower and bulkier.
Reduce the file size of such content or try replacing it entirely with HTML alternatives to give your visitor a great experience and fast page load.
5. Improve Javascript
We are all in favor of attractive and well-designed websites as Internet users.
JavaScript is a piece of computer code that improves the usability of a website and makes it more attractive to visitors. However, if not optimized, it can contribute to poor upload performance. promoting render-blocking JavaScript.
The JavaScript that renders the blocks of a page slows down a website by preventing it from fully loading. Delaying the loading of JavaScript until the user can see the rest of the page content is a suggested workaround for render-blocking JavaScript.
6. Don’t leave CSS unimproved
Like Javascript, CSS is a language that you can use to design the pages of your eCommerce website. However, if the CSS is not optimized for a while, it can prevent other components from being seen during navigation, which will slow down the loading rate of a website. Combine many external files into one, or combine some of them to avoid this.
7. Choose a CDN (Content Delivery System) service
A CDN is a standalone setup made up of many servers located in various regions. Storing duplicate copies of your site on multiple servers helps with superior performance and accessibility so that users in distant areas can still access your site effortlessly.
Although using a CDN is not a must, it does improve the user experience, especially if you have users from all over the world.
8. Avoid unnecessary HTTP requests
Using multiple CSS, Javascript, and image files results in a large number of HTTP requests, making your website bulkier and slowing down page loads. In this case, the browser will notify the server with multiple requests if a large number of visitors visit your page at once. Therefore, your site would become slower as a result.
The solution is to reduce CSS, Javascript, and other image files on your website.
9. Reduce Ads
Advertisements are a fantastic way to increase visits to a website. Too many ads, such as interstitials, pop-ups, and other push downloads, can cause your website to experience a backlog of HTTP requests.
Using advertising only when necessary is one way to preserve a positive user experience without affecting the flow of purchases on your website.
10. Upgrade your server
Increased website traffic translates to more users. However, in certain circumstances, it can cause the website to load more slowly because the hosting server may only be able to handle so many requests at a time. A higher volume of requests indicates that the page will load more slowly, which will hurt your traffic.
Using caching and CDNs, as well as updating your server, are some solutions to this problem.
Conclusion
The user experience of a website is closely related to how fast it loads. Therefore, unless you are willing to sacrifice potential visitors and sales, improving the loading performance of your website should be your main concern.
Start by considering the causes listed above to determine the main reason your site is loading slowly. After that, take your time to repair each one.
Host.co.in offers the best quality web hosting solutions that come with great uptime and superior loading speed. We make sure your website loads fast. With our hosting solution, you won’t have to worry about a slow website, allowing you to improve your business.