Websites get complex and bigger with each passing day. This leads to slower loading of websites and ultimately a decrease in sales conversions.
The average online shopper expected a website to load in just four seconds in 2006. Over the years, notable technological innovations have made it difficult to meet an online shopper’s expectations. Today, an online shopper wants a website to load in just two seconds. Considering that a website’s load time is so important, even Google has started to factor site speed into its algorithm when ranking websites.
If your website is performing poorly, users won’t even think twice about abandoning it. Here are some things you need to do to optimize your website speed.
Moving to modular
If it is possible to combine two CSS classes and use less code to get the same result, you should do it instantly. This would make the code modular. However, this may not be necessary if you are using basic HTML and CSS. On the other hand, following this advice becomes essential if your website is in the complex world of JavaScript.
Minimize HTTP and dependency requests
Dependency requests have been the main reason behind slow loading speed of a website. Any kind of additional request adds bloat and a new layer of complexity to the download and analysis process. Calling images from a stylesheet also counts as a request. Therefore, you should limit the use of alternative optimization methods such as SVG or sprites.
If your website is large, you should consider using a Content Delivery Network (CDN). It would eliminate any kind of slow server connections, reduce bandwidth, and improve global availability.
Write more readable and intelligent code
The code being written can also be the reason for slow loading of a website. CSS inefficiency or bloated JavaScript can affect load times in unimaginable ways. Therefore, instead of writing the path to a chain of selectors, you should use the smallest uniquely identifiable selector.
Simple HTML maintenance
To write more agile CSS selectors and keep bloat to a minimum, one will have to write efficient HTML codes.
Resetting CSS will lead to redesign of all common elements. This means that even if you’re not targeting the extra div, the extra div will most likely slow things down because its padding and margin will be reset to a minimum. The problem wouldn’t be serious until a dozen divs are reset.
Compress images and text
There are several tools that can help you compress the text and images that you are using on your website.
A website that loads slowly interrupts a visitor’s browsing experience. In addition to file size, there are other reasons such as low server memory, data flow, site layout, etc. that affect the performance and speed of a website. So the bottom line is that you need to monitor your website performance at regular intervals as it makes the difference between generating and not generating income.
If you have no idea how to optimize your website loading speed, you can contact an expert web development company.