Necessary Steps for Website Speed Optimization

If you keep a close watch on the industry trend, you would have seen a number of case studies showing benefits of a faster loading website. It all started from a crucial announcement made by Google when it clearly declared that faster sites will be given a ranking advantage over their slower counterparts. But the question is how fast is fast enough? To be honest, even a second matters when it comes website page speed. Various case studies support that users wait from 3 to 5 seconds for a website to load, depending upon what kind of a website it is. Stating it in figures - more than 47% web users expect a web page to load within 2 seconds, and rest do not show patience for more than 3 to 5 seconds. It increases the bounce rate.

What to do if your website is not loading quickly?
Optimizing your web pages is a continuous process. There will always be room for improvement. However, a set of specific actions is crucial to ensure optimal performance. Professional website speed optimization services can help figure out the necessary steps and implement the same to improve the performance of a website.

Following are some of the biggest things which have a wider impact:

• CDN – Content Delivery Network 

Using a content delivery network to host media files can do the magic. CDNs work by distributing your files across a network of servers around the world, thus reducing the load time.

• Caching 

Browser caching, especially with WordPress sites, can have a significant impact on the speed of your website. By installing caching plugins, you can cut down the page load time and boost the performance of your website.

• Database optimization 

Poorly or un-optimized databases can increase the page load time. Normalizing and de-normalizing the databases and using Indexes can help maintain the website’s optimal performance.

• Web hosting 

Servers are used to store databases and web applications. Also, these are computers which are used to store and run software.  While shared servers or hosting is considered cost-effective, it has limitations. It can be an important factor behind the poor performance of your website. Dedicated hosting is a practical answer to this problem.

• N+1 query problem 

Many applications get affected by this problem. It results in excessive number of queries rather than one complex queries to database. This can cause a website to load slower than usual. By reducing the number of queries to databases, you can cut down the load time.

Conclusion

Web page speed has a significant impact on user-experience and behavior. Therefore, it is mandatory for website owners to pay attention to ways which aid in website speed optimization. A wise step can be hiring professional website speed optimization services to find and resolve issues which lead to increase in page load time. While some issues may be managed by a non-technical, some problems require an expert handling. This is why working with a full-fledged web agency is recommended. Moreover, efforts towards improving your website’s speed are worth your time and money.