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In today's fast-paced world, people have grown accustomed to rapid responses and expect the same from all aspects of their lives. If your website takes too long to load, each passing second increases the likelihood that a visitor will abandon it. Many factors contribute to a website's loading speed, and most of these technical details can be difficult for the average person to understand or address. That's why Zebralove Web Solutions is here to help!
Are you concerned that your website's load times have slowed down? Take advantage of our Website Speed + Mobile Review service. We'll assess your current website speed score and identify any opportunities to improve its load time. As well as review your website on multiple devices and offer suggestions on possible improvements.
Some of the factors that effect your website's load time...
Large images are a common culprit for slow website performance. It's easy to inadvertently upload images that are larger than necessary, especially with the high-resolution cameras on modern smartphones. Typically, website images only need to be around 2400 pixels wide, but photos directly from smartphones often exceed 4000 pixels.
In addition to the image dimensions, file size is also an important factor. We recommend keeping images under 2MB, but smartphone photos tend to be 7MB or larger straight out of the camera. As web developers, part of our job is to optimize your uploaded images, resizing and compressing them to ensure they don't bog down your website.
As a solo website manager, I highly recommend using an image compression tool like TinyPNG to reduce the file size of your images. This will help your web pages load faster for a better user experience.
While the ubiquitous .jpg format has long dominated the online image landscape, a new contender has emerged - .webp, a novel image format developed by Google. The beauty of .webp lies in its ability to seamlessly incorporate transparency and animation, features that previously required the use of specialized formats like .png and .gif. Remarkably, .webp images can be heavily compressed without sacrificing quality, transparency or animation, making them an increasingly attractive option for web developers and designers.
Converting all the images on your website to the .webp format can seem like a daunting task. However, if you're using a content management system like WordPress, you can download plugins like SmushPro that will automatically convert your images to .webp for you. Or you can utilize a tool such as CloudConvert to convert your images manually.
Every time your website connects with a third-party site like Google, it can slow down your load time. If your website has a commercial theme, it's likely making numerous calls to external sources. The advantage of a custom-built theme is that your developers can control and limit these external calls as much as possible.
Of course, it's impossible to eliminate all external calls - for example, using Google Analytics requires sending data to Google. But there are still many things we can control to minimize the number of outside calls your site makes.
Website hosting services vary in quality and performance. The more websites hosted on a single server, the slower the server's response times tend to be. Hosting providers can implement technical optimizations to enhance website load speeds, but not all providers take these steps.
At Zebralove Web Solutions, we custom develop websites and take the time to thoroughly optimize them for speed before launch. We run comprehensive speed tests and make any necessary improvements to achieve the fastest possible load times. However, the rules and best practices for website speed can evolve over time. That's why we recommend having your website reviewed every few years to ensure it continues adhering to the latest standards and loading as quickly as possible.
