We’ve all been there. An ad for the exact product you're looking for has caught your eye – but when you click through to the company’s website, it takes too long to load. Before you’ve even had a chance to say, “This sucks”, you’re onto the next exciting thing.
As a consumer, poor website performance can be annoying. However, as a small or midsize business, it could be devastating. And it’s probably happening right under your nose.
The margin for error is tiny, with potential customers expecting websites to load in about two seconds. Any longer, and you could lose over three-quarters of your audience.
So if you're thinking of setting up your own website, or you're suffering with slow load speeds, read on to find out exactly what you can do to prevent or fix your problems.
Why does website performance matter?
The days of grand shop window displays designed to tempt you to loosen your purse strings aren’t over – they’ve just moved online. And now there’s even more to consider than just the design, like load speed and site user experience. The user experience is critical to consistent conversions, and it starts with that first click. Getting it right could be what separates you from the competition.
Here are 5 reasons you need to start prioritising your online presence and speed performance:
- User retention – if your site is too slow to load, your audience is unlikely to give you a second chance. Plus, over half of scrollers prefer a beautiful webpage to a basic one.
- Brand credibility – 75% of people judge a company's credibility based on its website design and user experience alone. And if you don't have your business address, contact number, or email clearly visible, potential customers might second guess hitting 'checkout'.
- Organic SEO – maintaining a well-functioning, fast-loading website is the first building block to improving your organic SEO.
- Digital marketing – a website should support the user journey with the right information and CTAs – whether that's on landing pages, blogs or contact forms.
- Customer service – 83% of consumers cite customer service as the most important factor when making a purchase.
Set up your site for success
Knowing you need a high-performing website is one thing. But building and maintaining one is another story – and it can be a little overwhelming. If you’re feeling a little lost for what to do next, we don’t blame you. We’ve broken down the next steps to help you get off to a great start.
Choose a reliable web hosting provider
You wouldn't build a house without laying the foundation. And when it comes to building a website, your web hosting provider is the first layer of cement to build your fantastic website on. There are countless hosting platforms on the market, but to find the right one for you, you'll need to discern what type of web hosting you need.
- Virtual private server (VPS) hosting – this provides your business with a private, customisable server, often a more affordable and scalable option.
- Cloud hosting – access web-based applications and services via the internet using the cloud.
- Managed hosting – this looks after all of the servers for you, so you don't need to worry about a thing.
- Dedicated hosting – lease an entire server, not shared by anyone else. This tends to be more flexible than shared hosting and gives you full control.
- Shared web hosting – unlike dedicated hosting, multiple websites will share the same server. This is typically favoured by small businesses.
- Colocation hosting – lease space from a colocation provider while you supply your own server, storage and networking equipment.
Integrate the right tools
Once you've decided where to host your site, it's vital you also have the right tools to optimise it for speed and performance. Google Analytics and SEMRush can help you understand how your website is running and what elements you can improve.
Design your site with performance in mind
It's time for the fun stuff – designing your website. Whether you're doing it yourself, have an in-house designer or outsource a contractor, it isn't just about picking out a colour palette and deciding between Ariel or Montserrat. Your final designs must also take performance into account.
- Optimise images, videos, and animations to make sure they don't disrupt the user experience, as large image and video files can reduce the load time and overall performance. Instead, run your visuals through a compressor like VEED or TinyPNG. Ideally, you're looking for a 2000 x 1500 dimension.
- With over 50% of web traffic coming from phone users, you should optimise your web design for mobiles. Use a responsive design that automatically adjusts your layout for different devices.
- Consider the user experience to support the customer journey to conversion. For instance, include a navigation bar and leave out irrelevant information.
Enable browser caching
If you've never heard of browser caching before, here's the TLDR – it's a process that temporarily stores resources in web browsers. When enabled, a user's browser will store more of your website data each time they visit, decreasing load time. And the quicker your site loads, the better your chances to create conversions.
Use a content management system
Do you actually need a CMS? In short, yes. A content management system allows you to create and manage your website's content without writing a single line of code. It's vital to maintain the quality and clarity of your website while also protecting against security breaches.
How to cope with performance issues
So you've got your website up and running and you want to keep things going smoothly. To do this, you'll need to stay on top of maintenance. It could be time to make some changes if you're experiencing:
- Slow load times
- High bounce rates
- Low search engine ranking
- User complaints or feedback
- Poor performance metrics
Performance measurement and analysis
Rather than checking your bounce rates every 2 seconds, performance measurement and analysis tools can continuously monitor your website's success. Try using:
- Google Page Speed Insights
- GTmetrix
- Pingdom
- WebPageTest
- SEO Site Checkup
- Uptrends
These can identify potential bottlenecks and help you set future benchmarks.
What can I do to improve website performance?
Reduce HTTP requests
When a user visits your site, their browser can make hundreds of HTTP requests, slowing your website's performance. Optimise your site from the backend by minimising and compressing these requests when they start to pile up.
Enable browser caching
If yo skipped this step when setting up your website initially, it's not too late. You can still enable browser caching once your site is live to keep your load time within the desired 2 second mark. Try following this handy guide to get yourself set up.
Check server response times
If we haven't already hammered it home enough, you should know that the website load speed matters. So, checking server responsiveness should be a regular feature on your to-do list – and it's relatively simple with Dev Tools if your browser has the option:
- Press the F12 button
- Select 'Network', then 'Doc'
- Reload the page to see the result
- Hover over the Waterfall and look for the 'Waiting' to show server response time
- Et voila
Identify poor-performing plugins
You've probably got more than one plugin operating at the same time. And while the quantity of plugins shouldn't affect your website speed, their quality could. If you run a WordPress site, here's a surefire way to identify and fix your problematic plugins:
- Run a speed test
- Make a copy of your site in a staging environment
- Review the list of the slowest WordPress plugins
- Deactivate all your plugins
- Reinstall your plugins one-by-one
- Delete the slow plugin
- Find a faster plugin replacement
- Confirm that loading speed has improved
Fix broken links and redirects
If a user is navigating your website and clicks on a link titled ‘blog’, they expect it to take them to a blog. They’re going to be disappointed if they end up on a product page, ‘about us’ section, or page 5 of your secret diary. Broken links and unwanted redirects can interrupt the customer journey and frustrate them into abandoning your site altogether.
Implement lazy loading
Rather than immediately loading content when a user clicks on a page, lazy loading means your website's content only loads when a visitor actually needs it. This can ultimately help to speed up loading times and improve your site's performance.
Test and monitor performance regularly
Test, test, test, and then test again. Monitoring your website’s performance isn’t a one-time thing. Factor in regular performance tests to your site maintenance routine, taking into account web traffic, user experience metrics, and software updates.
Get up to speed with Fasthosts
Building and maintaining a good website is a huge time commitment. As a business owner, you just don't have that time to spare.
That's where we come in! We've been delivering top-quality website management and IT support for over 2 decades. So, if your site is slowing you down, we can help.
Our Website Builder gives you all the tools you need to build a unique website for your brand, with no design or development experience needed. Choose from a huge number of templates and plugins, as well as optional AI tools to help you get started.
Our January sale is packed full of deals to get you online! Until 31st January, you can get Website Builder for just 50p/month for 6 months, Professional Email for 50p/month for 12 months, and a domain for £1. Grab these deals now because once it's gone, it's gone!
And if you need any help with our products or services, give us a call on 0333 0142 700 or message us via live chat.
