How to Speed up your Website for More Online Sales | Sales Layer

How to Speed up your Website for More Online Sales

Vero Gascó · February 03, 2020

Table of Contents

Why is website speed important?

The website speed or page load speed is the time it takes for a web page to load and run on a device, and is a determining factor in the performance of any website and hence its results in terms of traffic and conversion.

The time it takes your website to load each page influences two consequences for your online business:

The ranking of your website in Google: A slow website can lead to a lower ranking and thus, less traffic.
User experience: A slow loading speed can lead users to abandon the page out of impatience. 79% of online shoppers say they would never return to a slow website.

Factors that cause a website to load slowly

Common causes that slow down website loading speed include:

Too many style sheets
A lot of plugins
Too many redirections
Very bulky images
A lot of different text fonts

How to check your website performance

You can easily apply tests to see how long your webpages take to load. Results may vary by browser and testing modes.

Tools for measuring your website speed

Is there an ideal page load time?

According to Google, the maximum loading time for a website should be 3 seconds. Users are increasingly demanding, with many expecting a website to load in 2 seconds or less.

How to speed up your website

Choose a powerful server

Shared hosting: Cheapest but worst performance.
Virtual Private Server (VPS): A mix of shared and dedicated resources.
Dedicated hosting service: Best performance but most expensive.

Show impressive but optimized images

Optimizing image files is crucial for website agility. Use JPG format and reduce dimensions appropriately.

Use a flexible website template

Choose a template that suits your ecommerce platform and is responsive to all devices.

Limit the number of plugins on your website

Analyze which plugins are necessary and which add unnecessary load.

Add a plugin to clear (and keep) cache

Clearing cache improves performance and speeds up loading for returning users.

Reduce your HTTP requests

Minimize the number of items to be downloaded by combining files and removing unnecessary elements.

Expand your network using other platforms and a CDN

Using a CDN increases website loading speed by ensuring data requests are handled by the nearest server.

Conclusion

Improving your website's loading time is key to optimizing your online store. By performing a speed check, you can gather valuable data to enhance performance and drive traffic and conversions.