5 Best Ways To Optimize Website Speed

Unfortunately, there are aspects you have no control over, such as if visitors are using old browsers or have poor internet connections. However, your audience can still experience fast loading speeds if you optimize images, use only the most necessary plugins, and opt for a reliable web hosting service.

Optimize images

Your website’s overall look can say a lot about your brand, so it’s always best to use high-quality photos for a professional feel. Having said that, remember to compress images by using free web tools like TinyPNG and Caesium or an image compression plugin. Whichever you go for, keeping image file sizes below 120KB is a general best practice.

You must also pay attention to picture dimensions. While it’s natural that you want to add high-quality, large images on your website (especially if you’re a photographer), you shouldn’t shrink them with code. The browser will still load the original image, making the website load much slower. Instead, upload a smaller version of the image with sizes similar to the space they’re going to take on the website and add an option for visitors to view the larger image in a pop-up or separate page.

Image format also matters. Both JPG and PNG are great for web content. JPG, which can be compressed to tiny sizes, is the best option for photographs that don’t require much detail. Meanwhile, PNG is usually heavier, but it’s the perfect solution to showcase designs and images with text.

Another alternative is to use a lazy load plugin that adjusts the way embedded images and videos appear on your site. It loads content section by section as visitors scroll up and down a page, which makes your website load faster.

Lastly, it’s best to crop blank spaces in images and only keep what’s important. Not only will it look better on your site, but it will also make image sizes a lot smaller.

Use only the necessary plugins

The wide variety of supported plugins is one of the main reasons for using a content management system such as WordPress. While these extensions serve a wide variety of purposes, it’s best to use only the most relevant ones, like Google Analytics and cybersecurity add-ons. Also, numerous plugins can actually optimize your WordPress code and speed up your website, such as cache extensions.

Having said that, having too many plugins can negatively affect a website’s speed. As such, consider checking if there are any unused add-ons that have been integrated over time. You can turn them off or remove them entirely to speed up your site in a flash.

Use a content delivery network (CDN)

Web page response times are also affected by the geographical location of your chosen hosting server. For example, a New York-based website doesn’t load as quickly in Hong Kong as it does in the U.S. To avoid delayed loading, use a content delivery network (CDN).

Through a distributed set of servers around the world, visitors essentially open a cached version of your website near their location. It bridges physical boundaries, so that users don’t have to send their requests to your site’s main server and wait for content to load.

Choose web hosting wisely

Shared hosting is a popular option because it’s cheap and accessible. Still, its main disadvantage is that websites running on one server influence each other’s speeds. For example, bandwidth depends on the number of fellow server users.

As such, dedicated hosting could become a viable alternative over time. Users get a separate server for their websites, meaning they benefit from enhanced performance and security. Having said that, dedicated hosting costs an arm and a leg.

This is where virtual private server (VPS) hosting comes in. It provides every website with a separate virtual space within a shared server, combining the user-friendliness of shared hosting and the reliability of dedicated hosting for a more affordable price.

Subsequently, VPS hosting comes with improved capacity and processing power, ensuring a speedy website at all times. What’s more, VPS-hosted websites are more stable, especially because other websites’ traffic doesn’t interfere with how fast your website loads.

With a reliable VPS hosting provider like IONOS, you don’t have to worry about security risks either, thanks to the software’s firewall management and DDoS protection tools. Also, the provider’s servers run on SSD-based data centers to maximize website speeds.

Optimize your website for mobile

A website that’s lightning-fast on desktop may be running poorly on phones and tablets.
As 68% of potential customers may check your website on a mobile device, it must be optimized for smaller screens.

Mobile-first coding starts with designing a responsive layout. In other words, your website should show information differently on mobile devices than it does on desktop. Beginners who don’t know much about HTML or CSS can simply use a mobile-responsive theme in a website builder.

You should also implement larger fonts. While smaller letters are easy to read on desktop, they’re harder to see on cell phones. Also, the simpler, the better. So, it’s best to go with Serif and Sans Serif fonts in black color.

However, since mobile optimization is time-consuming, consider hiring a freelance web developer. Employing one can take the hassle out of optimizing your website for smartphone and tablet use so you can focus on other areas of your business.

There’s a need for speed in our ever-evolving digital society. Everyone wants everything to be readily available at the tap of a finger or click of a mouse, which is why having a fast website is more important than ever. By consistently optimizing website speed, anyone can reach out to a wider audience and outpace the competition.