Why a Fast Loading Site is Important

Site speed is just one aspect of web design, but it is extremely important for both SEO and user experience. There are many things that can affect a site’s loading time, and it is important to try to make your site as fast as possible.

How Site Speed Affects UX and SEO

Of course, not much is needed to explain how site speed affects user experience (UX) on your website. People do not have the patience for slow-loading sites and get frustrated when they have to sit there doing nothing while waiting for a webpage to appear.

However, site speed definitely affects SEO as well. Google also want its users to have a pleasant experience, which is why it will push faster-loading websites to higher positions in its search results. Websites that take a long time to load also have higher bounce rates, meaning that people leave the website soon after entering a web page from Google, which also affects SEO for the worse.

Following are four factors that affect your site’s loading time.

Your Web Hosting Service

Not all web hosting services were created equal. If your site is hosted on a shared server, it can slow down your site’s speed. There are many other factors involved as well, such as how up-to-date and sophisticated the servers are, the temperature in the room they are located in, and whether cloud hosting is used. It is important to find a web hosting service that you can trust and, if possible, to get a dedicated server for your website.

Plugins and Themes on Your Website

Plugins and themes may slow down your site. The more plugins you have installed, the longer it will take for your site to load. Themes can also come with a lot of extra baggage that can slow down your site. Try to eliminate unnecessary plugins, and whenever installing a plugin or theme, make sure to research its reviews to see how it affects site speed.

Third-Party Advertisements

Advertisements can also slow down your site, especially if they are hosted on your site from third-party sources, such as Amazon or eBay. Ads that flash, switch back and forth from one image to the next, and pop up can slow down your site. If you see that your site is loading slowly, try to simplify your ad selection.

Fonts, Colors, and Tags

Another thing that can potentially slow down your site is if texts are highlighted in various colors and fonts (such as bold, underlined, etc.). It’s okay to make some of your text bold, scripted, or highlighted, but don’t overdo it. Try to keep your text simple, without making it too messy.

How to Check Your Site’s Speed

Google has a free and very useful tool called PageSpeed Insights. You can use it to check your site’s loading time for both desktops and mobile devices. It will analyze your site, indicate issues that are slowing down your site, and give you ideas on how to fix it. No site will be perfect (all green), and if you get some issues (yellow), or even a serious issue (red) or two, you do not have to panic. However, if you see that you are getting a lot of “reds,” you should try to fix some of the issues. As a general rule, if some of the issues are technical and you don’t know what they mean, don’t try to fix them yourself. Instead, contact your professional web developer to see what they can do for you.

If you need any help in improving your site’s speed feel free to contact us.