Insights / Branding
It is no secret that websites are vital for businesses. They play a factor in establishing a positive or negative impression of your products and services. Therefore, a website should always strive to be user-friendly, intuitive, and simple to use. But oftentimes, when it comes to building a website, designers tend to get caught up in things such as website layout, content, or design. One aspect of that that is often overlooked that keeps websites operational and fast is performance optimization. Website speed is a vital component of an effective website; it leads to increased user engagement, higher conversion rates, and a high SEO rating on search engines too. In this article, we are going to share with you the techniques on how to optimise your website performance.
What Affects Website Speed And Why Is It Important
According to research, a user will wait anywhere between 1 and 3 seconds for a website to load before losing focus. If information is not displayed by your website before this time frame, it is likely that they will just close the window. Faster websites will improve the overall user experience, have higher conversion rates, and rank higher in organic search results. A slow and inefficient website will in turn damage your brand and cost you more money, so it is crucial to increase the speed at which your web page loads. But before we go over the techniques for optimising your website's performance, we first must understand web performance optimization and some of the most common reasons that cause a website to be slow. Web performance optimization refers to how quickly a user’s web browser is downloaded and displayed to the user and the study of how to improve it. Factors such as:
- Large image sizes
- Traffic volume
- Bad network connection
- Excessive widgets or plugins
- Outdated browser
- Poor server
are common reasons that slow down your website's speed, Although they are common, they are not the only ones that cause a website to load slowly. There are a plethora of options you can take to improve your website's performance, but before that, it is highly recommended to first test your website’s load time before you begin troubleshooting.
Optimise Image Sizing
Graphics and images are one of the core elements that makes up a website so it is no surprise that web designers make extensive use of its visuals. But, the load time of your website can be drastically slowed down if the images in the website are not compressed. Compressing images reduces the resolution of the graphics allowing the website to run smoother. Websites occasionally use images with x2 or x3 resolution, to ensure optimal display. However, by doing that, you are merely wasting bandwidth and making visitors wait longer than they have to. This becomes even worse if they have a sluggish data connection that further worsen the user experience. Use tools like JPEGmini or Kraken.io to reduce the size of the images while retaining similar quality.
Web Font Performance
What is a web font? A web font is any font or typeface loaded from a web server because it is not installed on a user’s PC. Web fonts like Google Fonts have a disadvantage because they add extra HTTP requests to external resources, which affects the rendering speed of your website. Web fonts can also be rendered-blocking; use fonts that prioritise browser support; keep characters to a minimum as much as you can; and choose styles that are only necessary for your website. Nevertheless, the advantages of using Google Fonts are that it allows for more consistent branding across all platforms and mediums. Web fonts are scalable and zoomable, so regardless of resolution, they can be easily viewed on PC’s tablets and smartphones. The use of web fonts also benefits the readability, accessibility, and design of the website. Here are some examples of a web safe font from Keycdn.com you can fall back to across Windows and MAC:
You can see a full list of web safe fonts at cssfontstack.com.
Web Caching Optimization
Web caching is a technique that stores a version of your data in a temporary storage so it may be retrieved quickly when needed. There’s many benefits to enabling browser caching, it lowers latency, increases load time and consumes less bandwidth and reduces the overall workload of the server. The primary drawback of this system is that there will always be two versions of your website coexisting. This can be resolved by clearing a section of the cache when fresh data is being imported. It is recommended to use dedicated web caching software to store your website’s data passing through the system.
Database Optimization
There is always something that can be optimised, and that includes the database on your website too. Whether it is clearing old tables or creating indexes for more efficient access, The goal of database optimization is to maximise the speed and efficiency of the data received. Database engineers, analysts, and administrators all collaborate to improve system efficiency by using a variety of techniques and methods. The core of optimization is performance enhancement by using proper design that addresses functional needs. Queries are a way that is used to collect huge amounts of information in a much faster way, too. The information will then be used to optimise the data and retrieval times of their servers using statistical analysis and system traffic monitoring. By doing this, you will maximise the potential of your server while having a thorough understanding of the data structure and the impact that certain actions have on the database’s performance.
Limit The Number Of Widgets And Plugins
Plugins are one of the most common features used on websites. However, it is also a feature that is often overused. Plugins are functions that are typically utilised in content management systems or any other pre-built website platforms, such as WordPress. Additional and extra features, like statistics or company insights, are made available to designers through plugins. However, plugins are not features that are free, and they also add additional load to the JavaScript and CSS files because plugins need to process every page request. Therefore, it is recommended to review the number of plugins and determine if each of them has its own purpose. Remove ones that are pointless; that can significantly ease up the load speed for your website.
There are countless adjustments you can make to your website’s performance optimization to further enhance your visitors' user experience. The tips here are only the tip of the iceberg. If you have any trouble navigating through the vast ocean of website design, go ahead and contact a website agency to get yourself started and understand how to make your website even better!