With so much competition online nowadays for internet traffic, you need to be proactive with your web design. That means not only having an easy to navigate website and excellent content, but you also need a website that loads quickly. Let’s face it, people are impatient. They won’t stick around more than a few seconds for your website to completely load. If your page is full of large graphics and other delayers, you’ll probably notice a higher bounce rate since people will be clicking away quickly. How can you make sure new website visitors are able to load your content quickly? Here are 5 ways to make your website load faster!

1. Change Your Images

The bulk of website load times comes from images. This is simple math. The more images you have on your website, the longer the page will take to load. Because you’ll likely need to have some images on your page, you can use different image sizes and formats that reduce the size of the image without compromising on quality. Using JPeg or WebP file types instead of Png, for instance, is one easy way to make a big difference in load times. Don’t forget about reducing your image resolutions, as well. If your frame is only 800px wide, odds are you don’t need your images to be over 3000px wide, right?

2. Remove Old Plugins

If you’re using a tool like WordPress to build your website, it’s easy to add new plugins whenever you need a new feature. These plugins can add up quickly, and they might impact your load times if you’re not careful. Review your current plugins and uninstall any that you aren’t currently using! On that note, you should also always research new plugins before installing them on your WordPress to ensure they function well!

3. Configure Your Expires Headers

Your computer stores information about websites you visit so you can easily load them. These stored files come with an expiration date known as expires headers, and this is usually set to 24 hours. You can set this to either never time out or to expire after a greater period of time. Setting this isn’t complicated, and it means your users won’t have to reload your website every time they visit.

4. Review Your Hosting Plan

A lot of new websites opt for the cheapest hosting package available. While this makes sense and isn’t necessarily a bad thing, shared hosting packages are known to be slower than dedicated hosting. Having a VPS or Virtual Private Server means great uptimes and faster response times. When you used a shared hosting plan, your website is hosted on the same server with dozens of others, and this can affect your website performance. If you feel like you’ve tried everything and nothing works to speed up your load time, your hosting package might be to blame.

5. Consult a Professional

When in doubt, consult a professional. Your load time can make or break your website. It impacts your SEO and page ranking, and it impacts your new users. Having a qualified web designer like web design Perth review your website can be valuable when fighting slow load times. Having a responsive website design will ensure you’re in good standing with your performance.

Improving Load Times

One of the most important metrics that affect your page ranking is your website load time. How long does it take for your website to fully load when people click on your site? If it takes more than a few seconds, you run the risk of losing those visitors before they even fully arrive! These steps above should help you fight slow response times so you can create the best user experience!