Your Website May Slow Response Speeds
Uncompressed web page files such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Javascript (JS) files can slow page load times. Large, unoptimized image files also impede web page load speeds.
Many eCommerce websites use third party scripts for cookies, advertising, analytics, social networking, and apps. Delays in load times occur when a browser detects a third-party script, loading data from multiple databases sourced from hidden party servers. Thus, it’s best to keep third-party services to a minimum.
Another means to improve a website’s load times is to enable browser caching. This will improve response times for returning visitors.
Does The Hosting Provider Offer A Contact Delivery Network (CDN)?
To optimize load speeds to users worldwide, ensure the web hosting provider offers contact delivery networks (CDNs). Without the benefit of a CDN, a website’s content is sourced from just one server serving global visitors from all continents.
For example, if a visitor from New Zealand accesses content hosted on an origin server in Europe, inevitably, response times will lag. A worldwide CDN has points-of-presence (POPs) spread around the globe, routing website requests to the nearest CDN POP. Reducing the physical distance between a responding server and a requesting location greatly decreases load and response times.
Web Hosting Plans Matter
The type of web hosting plan a business uses will impact user response times and UX. A shared hosting plan, while the least expensive option, is also the least robust in terms of performance, security, and flexibility.
Optimizing Servers For Speed
When considering web host providers, part of one’s due diligence is to evaluate the storage devices they use. Find out if their servers deploy solid-state drives (SSDs). Faster and more reliable than legacy hard disk drives (HDDs), SSDs achieve greater speed through more efficient data throughput and much faster seek times. Moreover, SSDs are an eco-friendly choice as they use less energy than HDDs.
Testing Websites For Speed
Free online tools are available to test a website’s speed. Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights or the Pingdom Web Site Speed Test to determine any possible chokepoints. These tests grade websites and note what elements can be improved.