Why is my website is loading slow and how to fix it?
The loading speed of your website and the web hosting is very important since the slow response and loading of a website is one of the most common reasons that your visitors literally disappear in seconds. Indicatively, according to statistics, even 1-2 seconds of delayed loading leads to a loss of visitors up to 40%, 11% fewer page views and a 16% reduction in customer satisfaction.
Reasons it’s slow to load a website
Web hosting
Choosing a web hosting provider has to do not only with the lowest cost, but also with the quality of the hosting (server proximity, good speeds, no overloaded server, modern HTTP / 2 protocols & GZIP file compression etc).
Prefabricated websites from platforms such as wordpress, joomla, wix
Websites and e-shops that are built through platforms such as wordpress, joomla, wix etc have pre-installed many add-ons in the code (eg javascript and css frameworks), to meet the needs of all the websites they support. Your website, for example, may use only 3 javascripts and load hundreds of others that it does not need, so it will take a while to load.
Image File Size
In modern websites that are responsive, ie correspond to the dimensions of all devices (desktops, laptops, tablets, mobiles), there are multiple files of one image with different dimensions and weight, so that it loads a different image file on each device. For example, on mobile it loads a lighter file than on computers, thus increasing the loading speed of the web page.
Misuse or incorrect use of web page loading tools
These tools help in the way the website loads and in the use of the cache which stores a collection of data. These tools may not be properly configured on the server hosting your website, or they may not have been used at all.
You upload data from third parties
A website that loads a lot of data from third party sources (eg youtube videos, tripadvisor reviews, facebook like button, google map, click to call button, chat button, etc.) burdens its speed, as to load at 100% does not depend only on hosted server.
Fast websites have a significant advantage over slower websites which means that if your competitors are faster in this area, they will clearly have more and more repeatable traffic compared to you.
So you have to pay attention to the speed of your website and prevent slow loading or take the necessary measures to improve it, such as the following:
Reduce your data volume
Excessive use of graphics, multimedia, and images requires an HTTP request that delays the loading of your website for each item individually — especially when there are many. If you use Google Chrome, you can see how many HTTP requests your website makes and which items are responsible by right-clicking and clicking “Inspect” and then the “Network” tab. There you will see all the titles of the individual items, their size, and loading speed. Therefore, if an item costs you size and time, it would be good to reduce it or remove it from your website, with the help of a specialist web developer.
Use asynchronous loading for CSS and Javascript files
Scripts such as Javascript and CSS are usually loaded in two ways: Synchronous and Asynchronous. If your scripts load synchronously, they will load one at a time, while if they load asynchronously, they will load all at once, so no extra load time will be required. Web browsers, after loading a web page, scan it from top to bottom and if the load is synchronized, the browser will be stuck for a few seconds until it loads this or the next script. Therefore, asynchronous loading will help to load the web page faster.
Use a trusted web hoster
You may think that you are making money by using an extremely cheap web hoster, for example 2 euros per month, but usually even in this case, you get what you pay for. When looking for a web host you usually have 3 options: shared hosting, VPS hosting, and Dedicated server hosting. The first is clearly cheaper than the others but if you choose it you will share space, CPU memory, and RAM with other websites hosted under the same server.
With VPS hosting you will share a server with other websites but at the same time you will have more free resources. In the end, choosing a dedicated server hoster will not share the same server with other websites so you will have plenty of space and memory compared to the previous two options – as you have already guessed, this option is more expensive but worth the investment as it makes your website automatically faster.
Website Upload Speed Measurement Tools
Google Pagespeed Insights
Google has created Pagespeed Insights, a tool for assessing the loading speed of web pages and takes it very seriously in the ranking of web pages. You can enter the domain name of your website and display an analysis of it. If the result is less than 90% you should arrange for its immediate correction or reconstruction.
GTmetrix
GTmetrix is a free tool that analyzes the speed of your web page using data from PageSpeed and YSlow. You can enter the domain name of your website and display an analysis of it. If your website ranking is not A, you need to make the suggested corrections.
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