If you want to increase your website speed and performance then this article will help you to make it fix by using GTMetrix. What is GTMetrix? GTmetrix is a free tool that analyzes your website loading time and page speed by using Google Page speed score and YSlow score.
With to help of WordPress free plugin we will reduce the page load time also reduce your page size. So, Lets get in to it.
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Now you have to go to ‘Settings‘. When you hover on settings then you will see ‘ShortPixel Al‘ in the list, click on it.
Now two tabs will appear on the screen ‘General‘ and ‘Advanced‘. You don’t need to change anything in the rest tabs.
Go to the ‘General’ Setting tab and make sure that all the setup is configured properly like the compression level should be ‘Lossless’ and WebP support ‘Checked’ and Fade-in effect ‘Checked’. Then click on Save Changes.
Go to the ‘Advanced’ tab. ‘API URL’ will be remain the same as configured automatically. Replace method ‘SRC’ & ‘Excluded URLs‘ should be the same as per default settings.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Shortpixel Al Advance Settings
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Now click on ‘Save Changes’ don’t do anything else. The API URL of the ShortPixel Al will take your images data and optimize your website images automatically.
Go to GTMetrix again type your domain URL and execute the test of page speed. This time you will observe that your Serve Scale Images error fixed and it reduce the time of page load and performance at the same time.
[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]The biggest factor contributing to the success of any business’ website is user experience (UX). A crucial element of UX is a fast-responding website. So how to improve your website?
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Research indicates that 47% of web users expect a web page to load in under two seconds. Moreover, 40% of web users leave a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load. And even a second delay in web page response times can cause a 7% drop in conversions.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Page load speed directly affects customer engagement, conversion rates, SEO, and brand promotion. Choosing the right web hosting provider and service plan will optimize website performance.
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.
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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.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]A CDN is vital to optimizing worldwide UX. Researchers have found that, on average, a CDN slashes website lag (latency) by 83% compared to websites without a CDN.
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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.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]A shared hosting server accommodates multiple websites, all of which share the server’s resources such as available bandwidth, CPU, RAM, and memory. If a website suffers from slow web page loads and response times, the first step is to upgrade to a more powerful hosting solution.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Dedicated server hosting will greatly improve website performance. However, this option comes at a relatively high cost. A more economical choice is a virtual private server (VPS) solution, which delivers most of the advantages of a dedicated server.
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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.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]What web server software does the hosting provider use? While Apache HTTP is widely used across multiple computing platforms, some hosting providers now rely on faster technologies such LiteSpeed Web Server (LSWS) or Nginx.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Another important consideration is the web host’s relational database management system (RDMS). The most popular DB engine is Oracle’s MySQL but the MariaDB RDMS-a variant of MySQL-delivers faster performance.
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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.
[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]A fast website is crucial in maintaining a positive user experience. Evidence suggests that users become distracted if there is even a one-second delay. Every second after that increases the likelihood the end-user will leave. This is why it’s imperative your website loads quickly. This article will briefly address a number of methods that you can use to speed up your website loading time.
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1. Reduce File Sizes
The amount of content that can be delivered in a discrete amount of time is limited by a finite amount of bandwidth. All things being equal, the larger the files on a site, the longer it takes for them to load. While large file sizes may not have much of an impact on users who use extremely high-speed connections (such as T1 or T3 connections), it will impact those running on slower hookups.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]The best way to reduce file sizes is to run your images through various optimization techniques. Some techniques include:
Compressing images via tools such as Photoshop and/or Compress PNG. There are several image compression tools out there that make it simple to make files smaller.
Resizing your image so it’s smaller. The smaller it is, the faster it loads.
Picking a file type appropriate for your image. Typically, you’ll choose between JPEG, GIF, and PNG. JPEG is great for quality in a small size, GIFs should only be used for thumbnails and as decorative images, and PNGs are excellent because their quality won’t degrade with re-saves.
Sometimes, you might need to consider eliminating some files. The less your website has to load, the better.
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After reducing file sizes, compress images on the server using HTTP compression. This will reduce the amount of bandwidth required to load content, thus improving the speed of your website.
One way you can compress files is with Gzip compressing. Gzip can compress HTML, JavasScript, XML, CSS, fonts, and just about anything you render on your site. Gzipping can be enabled on an Apache server using the mod_deflate module in your root .htaccess file and adding a filter for each file type that your site delivers.
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3. Caching For Improving Website Loading Time
If a website requires a webpage load every time there is a unique visit, then every file that you have on the page needs to be downloaded individually. This includes everything from the HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and any other assets your site provides. This can lead to slow load times for a particular webpage.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]The best way to prevent this is to use the caching function most browsers have built-in. Doing so will speed up the response time of a page on subsequent visits.
In addition to this, you can let browsers know to serve a cached version of a webpage by adding Expires Headers. These headers tell the browser which content is static and which content is dynamic. This is a great option to cut some of the load time for repeat visitors.
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Too many calls to the server can lead to significant slowdowns of your website. Sending any request to a server requires full communication, including a request and response, before the page can be rendered. To increase website loading speed.
Here are a number of ways you can reduce HTTP calls.
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Use CSS Image Sprites
Creating CSS image sprites is one easy way to reduce the number of server calls your website receives. Instead of loading 20 individual images to a site, sprites load one large image containing all the necessary elements in it so it can be zeroed in using CSS.
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Reduce Your HTTP Redirects
If several 3xx response codes appear on your website, you are likely sending users to get information from too many locations. Avoid doing this, even if it is for SEO purposes.
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Fix Broken Links to Files
Anytime your site sends instructions to a server to look for a file that doesn’t exist, a 404 error will appear. Too many 404s can increase your page load time.
Take the time to fix any 404s you come across. Doing so will significantly improve your website and website loading speed.
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5. Optimize Your Dynamic Content to Improve Website Loading Time
Minify
While a blank space within CSS and JavaScript files may appear to be empty to the human eye, each blank character must be read and processed by the browser engine. In cases such as these, make sure to minify by reducing the number of blank characters in files. Doing so will decrease the amount of time it takes a web browser to render content.
There are several free tools you can use to minify your files:
Some sites automatically convert HTML into an in-site scripting language. As you can imagine, the time it takes to convert HTML can slow down your website. It’s better for your website if your content is delivered as raw HTML.
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CSS at the Top/JavaScript at the Bottom
CSS should be placed near the top of your page. This ensures the page loads right away and is rendered properly.
JavaScript can take a while to load, so you want it near the bottom of the page. This way it runs after the rest of the page loads. With CSS near the top, this will make sure users at least have content while the rest of the webpage loads.
If you are using a small amount of JavaScript, avoid calling it in a separate file. Instead, to reduce HTTP requests, include JavaScript code directly on the page.
Note: if you intend to use any popular JavaScript libraries, use a CDN to deliver your content to take advantage of the fact that many people will already have these downloaded in their browser caches. This will significantly reduce page load time.
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Writing well-designed query database calls can have a significant impact on the time it takes for content to be delivered to your site. Poorly written queries can have a pronounced negative effect on page load time. This is particularly true for sites that have quite a bit of traffic and/or deliver a large number of products.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]While database optimization is a large topic, here are a few quick tips.
One of the most common mistakes made by developers is to use a wildcard query to retrieve results. Take, for instance:
“select * from table_name”
A large table can slow you down quite a bit. If you don’t need every field, request individual keys from the table, like so:
“select field1, field2 from table_name”
Other ways you can improve performance include making sure that the database is properly indexed, reducing correlated subqueries, and avoiding temporary tables.
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7. Hosting Provider
A website is only as fast as its weakest link, so choosing a good web provider and plan may prove to be a crucial factor in delivering your site at optimum speeds. If you’re using large central providers such as AWS, you may wish to use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).
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8. Use a CDN to Reduce Latency
Physical distance from the server can increase the time it takes for a server to respond to an HTTP request. By using CDNs, you can place servers in different locations around the globe, which will reduce load times for people in different regions.
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Final Notes
This is only a small sampling of different techniques one can use to speed up a website. Each one could easily be covered in more detail. However, you may wish to use this piece as a checklist of techniques you can try if your site has slow response times.
Not sure if your website is running slow? That’s where Airbrake’s Performance Monitoring comes in. Our developer-centric Performance Monitoring software gives you the tools you need to make sure your app or website is running smoothly and quickly. With Performance Monitoring, you’ll have access to requests and response times, Apdex Score, error occurrences, and so much more. Try Airbrake Performance Monitoring today with a free 30-day trial where you’ll get unlimited performance events, error monitoring, unlimited users, and unlimited projects.
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Website speed is much important now a days. And check here in this article how to improve the website speed of your site.
Page loading speed is more vital now than it’s ever been, as the rising number of mobile devices makes a speedy site not just “nice to have” but absolutely essential.
Page load speed has always been an important consideration when creating websites. But as more consumers are spending time researching products and services on mobile devices, they want to be able to complete tasks and make purchases quickly. A fast site is a key part of that. But how fast does your website need to be? And what’s the impact on your bottom line? In this article, we look at these questions and try to find some answers with our deep dive into website speed.
First, let’s cover the basics. When we talk about website speed, we’re really talking about load time, which is how quickly you can get the information on your server rendered correctly on a user’s device. Load times are measured in seconds and milliseconds. According to Google, if pages have a loading time of more than one second it damages the user experience. Google admits that a sub-one second page load time is a massive goal, and the variety of network types and speeds for accessing mobile content makes the issue more acute.
Before you can improve your site’s load time, you need to establish how fast it actually is. Fortunately, there are free tools available that help with this. Google Developers offers a website tool that includes information about where your site speed is good or bad, broken out between mobile and desktop. Just plug in your URL and you get a quick assessment of how your site loads both on mobile and desktop interfaces.
It uses a simple traffic light system so you can see how your site is doing and provides recommendations for areas you should fix or should consider fixing. Along with this, you get a snapshot of how your site will look on a typical mobile device, which allows you to address areas like menus and logos that take up too much space. Google’s mobile help site also provides a number of tips on improving the mobile experience to help you reach the goal of a one second page load.
Using these tools, you can determine your site’s load time. Which takes us to our next step — finding out how fast it should be. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]
How Fast Does Your Site Need to Be?
The speed you should aim to achieve depends in part on what sort of site you have and what page you’re loading. Take, for instance, an ecommerce site. Generally for ecommerce, the page users land on first need to load much faster than the final pages of the buying process. That’s because visitors willingness to stay on a site increases along with their investment in that site.
Simply, the longer someone is on your site (say, completing a purchase), the more willing they are to stay, and less likely to be affected by load speed. The best way to determine how fast your page should be is to look generally at what other sites are doing. After all, it is a user’s experience across the internet as a whole that sets their expectations for what is fast and slow. Moz pulled together some data on this and this is what they found:
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]For your highly trafficked pages, any landing pages, and any internal pages that attract an unusual amount of inbound traffic, we’d recommend aiming to be in the top 10% of pages on the internet, with a load time of about 1 second. This correlates with a finding that half of all web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less. Of course, these guidelines should not be taken as law because a number of other factors play into the importance of load times. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]
If you have qualified traffic landing on your site, for example, an internal page is ranking well for a recurring long tail keyword search, load times are less important because users are pre-qualified – they’ve specifically sought out your page. They’ll likely wait an extra second or more for it to load. On the other hand, site speed is absolutely critical for traffic where the user is poised to click away. This would include highly unqualified traffic, like traffic from PPC ads (especially if you’re bidding on keywords). Which brings us to the question of: what’s it going to cost you?
As we have seen, that depends on a number of factors. But there is a pretty clear relationship between load time and bounce. Google recently published a report showing the likelihood of abandonment the longer someone has to wait:
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”] [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]This makes perfect sense – the more time users spend waiting, the more likely they are to leave. This is also visualized in the following graph from KISS Metrics: [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]
This is especially true on mobile networks, where load times are longer due to lower quality network connection. It’s hard to put a dollar value on this relationship, but Amazon tried back in 2007. With A/B testing, they found that every 100 millisecond delay resulted in losing 1% of sales. Another study in 2013 found that splitting load times in half from 15 to 7 seconds, and then again from 7 to 4, and so on, improved conversions, but had diminishing returns.
And finally, yet another survey from Gomez.com and Akamai.com found that a 1 second delay in load time would lead to a 7% drop in productivity. Obviously, the dollar value of these statistics is going to be different for everyone, but if you think about other techniques to optimize websites where a gain of even half a percent is a huge success, it starts to put the importance of speed into perspective.
Hotlinking is when you display an image on your website by linking to the same image that’s on another site. It’s a technique that lets you have big, beautiful images on your site, but avoids storing them on your server space. The thing is, whenever a web browser wants to load your web page, it has to go to an external source to get the image. That means more DNS lookups, which is slow. It also means you’re consuming bandwidth from someone else’s site, and the owner of the image can swap it out for something else at their own discretion.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]And it happens all the time. It would be pretty embarrassing to have something like this show up on your homepage: Hosting your own images is an easy way to cut out external links. Other sources of multiple DNS look ups include:
Social share buttons
Embedded YouTube videos or Twitter feeds
Google Web Fonts
Less look ups mean a faster site, so stop hotlinking! [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]
Google Developers very kindly has a whole section full of ideas for how you can speed up your website. One was is to install PageSpeed modules. PageSpeed modules are a series of modules that you can install for either Apache or Nginx that do a huge number of tiny tweaks to make each page on your site run faster. Each PageSpeed tweak is run as a filter, and you can turn these on and off as you see fit.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]PageSpeed filters help your site by:
Optimizing caching (e.g. outline CSS and JavaScript)
Minimizing round trips (e.g. CSS/JavaScript combining and flattening)
Prioritizing visual content (e.g. load above the fold stuff first)
Optimizing browser rendering (e.g. convert JPEG to progressive image loading)
PageSpeed modules provide a lot of technical speed boosts to your site in a really easy-to-implement way. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]
3. Reduce HTTP requests
80% of a web page’s load time is spent on HTTP requests. HTTP requests include web pages, pictures, and files – basically anything that’s stored on the server. Therefore, one of the best ways to reduce your load time is to cut out some HTTP requests. There are dozens of ways to do this, so we thought we’d cover some of the easiest.
A CDN is a collection of servers spread all over the world. They speed your site in two ways.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]First, a CDN brings files closer to your user. For example, if your user is in Singapore and your servers are in Michigan, there’s going to be a big delay. But if you use a CDN, then it’s going to be like having a server in Singapore. Much faster. Second, CDNs shrink file sizes, so they load quicker. There are lots to join, but some of the most popular include CloudFlare, MaxCDN, Akamai (if you’re an enterprise company). [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]
HTTP requests generally work like this. The web browser requests some information, and then the server sends it. That’s one HTTP request. But what if you want 10 things? Normally the web browser would request individually 10 things as 10 unique HTTP requests. It’d be like making a list for the grocery store and going taking 10 individual trips, one for each item. Very inefficient. A keep-alive header lets you keep the connection between the server and the web browser open, so you can send files over all at once, speeding things along.
Browser caching is when you save static components to a browser for future use by marking how often they need to be updated. Imagine, for example, a company blog page. You can’t cache the content, since you change the words every day or week or whatever.
However, let’s say that you have a logo on the same page. You can cache the logo, since you only update it every couple of years. So you mark the logo, telling the browser that it only needs to check for updates maybe once a year. That way, when a user is loading your blog page, their browser already has the logo read to go, and can concentrate on loading other stuff like words and images.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]There are caching tools out there to help you, but a lot of it is going to come down to you maintaining your site manually. The good thing is that you’ll find a lot of stuff doesn’t change that often, so once you mark it, you can pretty much leave it. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”] [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]
5. Optimize your images
Humans are visual animals. So it’s no wonder that pictures have become a huge part of designing a website. Sadly, we often forget that the mobile networks have to download our big, beautiful hero images, which can spell disaster for load times. Fortunately, there are many ways you can streamline your pictures. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]
Size your images: when you upload an image (say, for a blog) the image is going to load to the largest possible size, and then resize to whatever it’s supposed to be. So if you upload a 1024×768 picture for an image that’s going to be resized to 300×200, it’s going to load all 1024×768 pixels of information before it resizes it. Upload the image you need.
Compress your images: most of your users won’t be able to tell the difference between a 100% image and a 70% image. But they will be able to tell the difference in load time. You can use the free tool compressor.io to easily compress your images without losing quality.
Progressive rendering: we’rebig fans. Give your users something to look at while they wait.
We know, we know – users shouldn’t have to click more than three times (allegedly). But if you bring everything as close as possible to the user, you’re probably looking at fewer, larger web pages. And larger pages are slower. You want to think carefully about the trade-off of one more click and smaller pages. Something else to think about is the user experience of having giant, scrolling web pages that go on and on.
Shorter pieces that are more to the point might drive your site a little better than one mammoth pile of information. If your pages are exceptionally long, we suggest you revisit your information architecture and see where you can group content together. Remember: the ideal page size is about 30KB.
Animations (including GIFs) can be used to explain something in a way pictures and words can’t, and background videos are fantastic for telling a story and engaging your users. We think both are great. But they’re expensive in terms of load time.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Use them sparingly to save your site from getting bogged down. Also, make sure they have a natural stopping point. For your background video, have it stop so it’s just an image after 1-2 loops. Better yet, you can have your video play on desktop but appear as a still image on mobile. For your GIFs and animations, a few loops should be plenty to get your point across. These are big ticket items for load time, so spend carefully. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]
8. Minimize your font selection
Every time you use a custom font – or even one of Google’s – it’s going to increase your load time. System fonts are fastest, but obviously these aren’t right for everyone. If you do opt for a custom font or a web font, try and reduce the variety of fonts and weights that you use.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Also, pick one library and stick with it. For example, if you do decide to go for Google Fonts, then stick with that. Sure, it’s going to increase your load time vs a system font, since the web browser has to complete more DNS look-ups. But for each new font you add from Google Fonts, the speed difference is negligible. However, if you decide to combine fonts from two sources – for example, Google and Typekit –then that’s now more DNS look-ups the web browser has to make. The result is a slower load time. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”0px|||||”]
9. Simplify, simplify, simplify
Don’t get caught in the ‘look at all the cool stuff I can do’ trap. No one cares that your layout is the most creative ground-breaking use of CSS ever. Does it help the user? If not, then cut it. You need to be ruthless when you’re evaluating your website. Every animation, embedded video, social share, picture, and advertisement need to be critically examined for how it helps the user.
Look at Quick Sprout’s blog for a fantastic example. It’s simple. It’s basic. There are some images, there are some links, and there are some screenshots. But every single element is obviously there to help the user. Their austerity gets results– the Quick Sprout blog loads crazy-fast.
Plugins are so easy to implement that we tend to forget that they’re really quite heavy. Technically, it’s because the plugins have to make multiple calls to various servers, and that takes a while. It’s like if you had to go to the supermarket for 10 things, but could only take one thing at a time. So while they’re good to have, think carefully about each and every one.
Most personalization – featuring products that someone’s looked at before, recommended products, a customized home page etc. – requires a database lookup, which is going to take some time. It’s a small change, but again, over time these changes add up, so think carefully before you add that detail to your page.
Before you start battering down the doors, we are big fans of responsive design. It’s a great way to get a killer mobile experience while maintaining only one body of content. However, there is a flipside: namely, that there’s lots of extra code and technical weight that drags down load speed.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”] Responsive sites are almost always slower than their mobile counterparts, which again is going to be a problem for e-commerce companies. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]
13. Fix your internal pages
As David Hsieh recently pointed out in a webinar, social media and other referrals mean that it’s not all about home page optimization anymore. Increasingly, users are bypassing homepages and ending up deep in a site, landing on blog pages or product pages. So optimization needs to extend all the way through the site, rather than be a front-loaded all-out effort on your home page or landing page
Ultimately, there’s no absolute figure for how fast you should be. Google says we should all be aiming for a one-second page load, which would put your site in the top 10% of sites on the web. B But speed can also be seen as relative. That is, it doesn’t matter how fast you are so long as you’re fast enough for your user. For example, a blog about different types of duck feather duvets, or something else equally niche, might tolerate a slower load time due to more qualified users seeking them out. Likewise, a site relying heavily on keyword-driven PPC instead of long tail SEO would likely need a faster load time for its less qualified users. What we do know is that over half of all users require a site to load in two seconds or fewer or they’ll leave, and both Walmart and Amazon have reported that faster load times have had a direct impact on their conversion rates. [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_post_slider posts_number=”5″ include_categories=”2″ bg_overlay_color=”#0C71C3″ _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][/et_pb_post_slider][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][et_pb_social_media_follow _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center”][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”facebook” url=”https://www.facebook.com/Gotmenownrp” _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#3b5998″ follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]facebook[/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”twitter” url=”https://twitter.com/Gotmenow3″ _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#00aced” follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]twitter[/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”linkedin” url=”https://www.linkedin.com/in/gotmenow-soft-solutions/” _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#007bb6″ follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]linkedin[/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”instagram” url=”https://www.instagram.com/gotmenow_soft_solutions/” _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#ea2c59″ follow_button=”off” url_new_window=”on”]instagram[/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][/et_pb_social_media_follow][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]
Using WebP image format can reduce the image file size to more than 50% comparing with other image file type. For websites that using many images,using WebP image format will certainly boost the websites speed performance.
I also do some experiment to convert JPG and PNG images to WebP format. This JPG and PNG images I took by saving images fromMedia Player Classic(K-lite bundle), I don’t know anything about image compression or image format. To convert images to WebP, I am usingffmpegcommand line for Windows, and the result is:
PNG and JPG to WebP conversion reduce more than 60% in file size
Another experiment, I’ve done with this website NetworkReverse.com by changing all the posts images to WebP format. Fortunately, all images from this website posts are hosted in Google (bp.blogspot, ggpht,lh?.googleusercontent) and can be converted to WebP image format just by modifying the image url address. The result?
In this experiment I am usingGoogle PageSpeed Insight both Mobile and Desktopand the famousGTmetrixto test the website performance before and after conversion. The most significant thing I really impressed is the boost improvement in loading time (GTmetrix), it is almost a half from before conversion to WebP. Another thing is the Total page size, it is decrease more than 300KB, 25% smaller than before.
Unfortunately for now, WebP image format is not supported by all browsers yet. But most modern and widely used browsers already support WebP format. I’ve read some articles explaining about using a fallback image for browsers that doesn’t support WebP format. That will be my next experiment . Check thisBlogspot Image to WebP Lazy Loading Converter.
Anyway, if you are using blogspot and have your images hosted on bp.blogspot.com, you can try the trick from this video below to convert your images to WebP format by modifying url address andimprove your blogspot website speed performance.
Are you experiencing high bounce rates, low conversion rates, and other undesirable website metrics? While there are a multitude of different reasons as to why your site isn’t performing, one of the most overlooked reasons is site and page load speed.
First, let’s get the terminology down.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Site speed is how long it takes for your webpage to load from website hosting servers to the web browser that’s requesting the page. Page speed is slightly different, as it’s how long it takes for a page on your site to load after a link directing to it is clicked.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]While load speed is increases bounce rates and creates a poor user experience, it also affects your appearance in search. Google’s John Mueller even says it’s one of the most important factors in search visibility for the upcoming year in SearchEngineJournal’s recent podcast interview.
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[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]You can find these metrics on your Google Analytics dashboard, or using a site speed tool.
In Google Analytics, go to “Behavior” on the left menu and click “Site Speed.”
To see site speed: Choose the first option “Overview.” From this page, you can see the average page load time, average server connection time, and other metrics on a broad scale. You can break this view down by browser, country, and page. Keep in mind, this report just shows averages, but what’s cool about this is you can view different time periods. By doing that, you can infer what changes caused slowdowns in the site.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]To see page speed: Choose the second option under “Site Speed” on the left menu – ”Page Timings.”
In this view, you are able to see how each individual page loads. This report shows how the speed compares to your site’s average load speed, and you can even break it down by load time in seconds, bounce rate, page views, and more.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https://blog.gotmenow.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Speed-up-your-PC.jpg” alt=”improve site speed” title_text=”improve site speed” align=”center” _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”][/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]To see an overall report on all of your site’s pages, Google Search Console recently updated their dashboard to include a Speed Report. This is currently an experimental tool on the dashboard, but it will showcase which specific pages have errors and are loading slow, moderate, or fast.
As for site speed tools, Google has PageSpeed Insights, which gives a very vivid diagnosis on how long it takes for the first contentful paint to load, the first meaningful paint, and other speed data. It provides screenshots from the initial load and also provides very actionable opportunities based on the insights from the test.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]WebPageTest is another tool for a quick overview of your site’s speed. This tool allows you to pick a device and a location to test from, and will provide a report that presents the site’s total load time, the load time for first contentful paint, speed index, and additional nichey data.
Now you’re probably wondering what a good speed to have is… however, every site is different. Obviously a simple single page site is going to load a lot quicker than a robust site full of animations, scrollytelling effects, and high quality retina visuals. It also depends on the server fetching the data, and other factors that you can’t actually see as a user. So if we’re talking about a good user experience, all excuses aside, anything longer than 3 seconds is too long – Google said so. And that’s still about 2.5 seconds too long, as Google also says users only want to wait about the length of a literal blink of the eye… 400 milliseconds. That’s asking a lot, though.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]So, how do you get to a load speed that’s under 3 seconds? As you probably understand by now, a lot of factors go into this number. For site load speed, there’s not really an easy fix. To do this properly, you’re going to want to have your developer look into a few things…
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Remove old and unused code, themes, databases, apps and anything else that’s cluttering the backend of the site;
Optimize site wide assets, like your logo, items that appear in the footer, badges, etc.;
Reduce the amount of http/s requests, as the more files there are, the more requests are run and the longer the load takes;
Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML files, because like I said, the less code the better.
Page speed is a little more fun (well… fun for me). You’re going to have to do some digging to figure out what needs to be optimized. Start by going to that “Page Timings” report in Google Analytics. Ask yourself these questions:
What pages are the slowest? How slow?
What pages have the highest bounce rates? And the lowest bounce rates?
If bounce rates are high (at Electric Enijn, we like to see bounce rates under 40%), but the time spent on the page is also high – what’s keeping users on the page? Could that be slowing down the page?
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Gather all of these insights all in one place and start looking at the pages on your site. Sometimes the answer is obvious, like the page has a lot of images, videos, and different fonts. But maybe the page looks the same as others, and it’s still a lot slower. This is when you’ll have to look a bit further into what makes up the page. If there are old scripts, font families, or anything else being pulled onto the page but not actually being used, take them out. We recommend using Google Fonts, which are also optimized for page speed. The same goes for plug-ins, tracking pixels, and any type of widget, similar to what you would want to look for sitewide to improve site speed.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]As for images and videos on the page, try and shrink their size. One tool we often use for compressing PNGs and JPEGs is Tinypng. If they can’t be optimized any further, you might have to try lazy loading them in. This isn’t the best practice for SEO, but hey, site speed is SEO, too!
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[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]After optimizing your site to improve load speed, keep testing it and see if your metrics improve. If it doesn’t seem to be loading faster, it might be a deeper issue if your CMS or hosting platform. A lot of WordPress sites, for example, are weighed down by excess themes, scripts, and plug-ins, but the deeper site speed issue tends to be the hosting platform. While the promise of “unlimited” bandwidth, email accounts, and cloud space are appealing, what you should really be looking for from your site host is a high uptime, no less than 99%. Many self hosting CMS’ can offer unbeatable uptime, like Shopify promises 99.98%. We’re big fans of wpengine, which will monitor for bad plugins and ensure your website stays compliant.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]I recommend you check your website’s site speed by digging into your Google Analytics or using one of the speed tests to see how your website is performing. While 3 seconds is ideal, your site is probably hovering around 15 seconds – and this wait time increases a user’s probability of bouncing by over 123%. While it’s important to get this metric down, it’s more important that you do it properly by keeping both your site’s structure and user experience in mind.
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Is the Website Loading speed really that important?
You must remember the beginning of the Internet, the connection through modems and slow websites. Luckily, that time is behind us and the websites are getting faster and faster. Website loading speed is very important for the user experience. Therefore, the page loading speed has become an official ranking factor from a search engine perspective. The upper page load limit is up to 2 seconds, and the ideal one is about 0.5-1 seconds. In this post we’ll write some tips onhow to improve website loading speed.
Tips on How to Improve Website Loading Speed
There are a bunch of online services where you can check the speed of your site for free. Even Google offers free online servicePageSpeed Insights. All you need to do is to enter the site’s url which you want to analyze, and wait for a few seconds:
Full-resolution images can take a long time to load. Images that have not been compressed causes slow loading, especially on mobile devices. No image should be over 100kb and you should never upload images directly without optimization and resizing.
Luckily, there is no need for high level of development skills for this, and you can easily reduce the size of your images, without any quality degradation through a number of free tools and plugins, if you have WordPress website. Images can be edited and loosely compressed using Photoshop/Illustrator and with many other free online tools.
Also, there are many tools and plugins for WordPress users that will automatically compress your images as you are uploading it to the website, likeWP Smush.
2. Remove Render-blocking CSS and JavaScript files
CSS & JavaScript files are very important for your website, because they control how your site will look and function. Render-blocking CSS and JavaScript files prevent your page from fully loading until they are processed.
You should avoid and minimize the use of blocking JavaScript and CSS files. If you have a lot of small CSS files, try to put them into one CSS file if possible. To remove Render-blocking Js you can make JS Asynchronous or preform Defer Loading of JS.
A CDN can speed up your site by serving static files such as images, CSS, Javascript and other static files. A CDN will store your website’s static files (CSS, JavaScript, images, fonts, etc.) into a non-centralized file system around the world, and when user from another country visits your website, CDN will serve the files from the closest server to user’s location.
4. Enable the Website Compression
Website Compression can reduce the size of text-based files that the browser has to download and you’ll be surprised with results after enabling the compression.
The most popular compression tool for HTML, CSS and JavaScript text-based elements isGZIP. The configuration depends on your server. For Apache web server you’ll need to put some configuration rules into .htaccess file. For WordPress users there are always suitable plugin, checkWP Super Cache.
5. Cache Your Website
Server Rendering time can really slow your website, but when your site is cached properly it can reduce your website’s loading time. Caching makes websites extremely fast, which leads to better SEO scores. Browser caching allows pages to load quicker as users navigate through the website by telling the browser how long to keep files stored. There are two very popular plugins for WordPress users: W3 Total Cache & WP Super Cache.
6. Minify HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Minifying HTML, CSS and JavaScript involves removing redundant text from a file, such as unnecessary text, data, white spaces, comments, characters, etc. t is recommended to perform minification just before releasing into production, as developers wont be able to read/edit them easily.
Removing redundant formatting, code comments and unused code will enable very fast loading time. There are plenty of free tools you can use to minify your files manually or automatically:Minify for CSS & JavaScript minification,JSCompressfor JavaScript minificaton, etc. As always there is W3 Total Cache for WordPress users, but this part can be a little advanced for beginners.
We live in a world of instant gratification. Hungry? Order some fast food. Run out of an essential product? Amazon has a 2-hour delivery option. Short on time? Send a text message. Need information? Why wait?
Things that took previous generations weeks to accomplish can now complete in a matter of minutes, and, like it or not, we have become intolerant of waiting. The truth is, we expect our resources to support this impatience. It’s no different online.
In fact, did you know that:
A 1/10 second delay can reduce conversions on your website by as much as 7%.
As initial page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds, the probability that a visitor to your website will leave increases by 32% (and 90% as you approach 5 sec)!
Think about the last time you encountered a slow-loading webpage. What was your response? If you’re like most of us, the information on that page became less important with every passing second. Did you stick it out or bounce? If you stayed, did it negatively affect the way you perceived the page or business?
Website page speed is essential to your customers’ satisfaction. Additionally, did you know that Google utilizes site speed as a ranking factor in its search algorithm?
Sluggish page speed on your website could be weakening every point in your sales funnel. In other words, a
In a nutshell, page speed is the measurement of how fast the content on your website loads.
The most common way to evaluate page speed is via Google’s Page Speed Insights. While not exhaustive, this resource provides a great snapshot of your website’s performance. It provides data on a couple of important, user-centric speed metrics like first contentful paint, or FCP & first input delay, or FID (see definitions at bottom of page) and offers helpful suggestions to help your page load faster.
What Is a Good Page Speed?
Because we are using Page Speed Insights as our foundation, it is important to mention their recommendations for page speed load time (in terms of FCP).
< 1 second = Fast
1 second – 3 seconds = Moderate
> 3 seconds = Slow
In line with this, Google’s Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller recommended aiming for a page that loads within 2-3 seconds.
Furthermore, Martin Splitt, Developer Relations at Google, answered this way: “Just make sites fast for users. That’s what it boils down to.”
“We don’t really have a threshold to give away, but basically, the recommendation I would say is: just make sites fast for users, that’s what it boils down to.”
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How to Increase Page Speed
There are several actions you can take to improve your page’s load time with varying degrees of technicality.
If you aren’t very technical (and use WordPress) and would prefer to install a plugin to help with page speed, here are a few we recommend.
Paid: A performance optimization and caching plugin like WP Rocket paired with an image optimization plugin like Imagify
Free: A plugin to optimize HTML, CSS, and JavaScript like Autoptimize + a caching plugin like WP Super Cache
Beyond that, here are some ways to increase your page speed, from most technical to least.
Reduce or Defer JavaScript
Minimizing JavaScript code on your website will increase page speed by eliminating what is known as “code bloat.”
If you simply can’t avoid Javascript, adding it after the “above-the-fold” content is rendered can provide a smoother load and help improve customer experience. As the top content is loaded first, the user will be able to view and engage with the website while the browser finishes loading the Javascript code below.
Compress HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Use GZIP, a software application for file compression, to minify your CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files.
Redirect Properly
If you have to do redirects, avoid doing them in the backend of your CMS (ie. via a plugin). Your site will be faster if you do redirects in the .htaccess file.
Leverage Browser Caching
Caching improves and speeds up browsing. Once you’ve downloaded an asset, it lives on your computer, for a predetermined amount of time. To enable browser caching you need to edit your headers to set expiry times for certain types of files. More on that here.
Optimize Images and Video
Reducing the size of an image or video and using the right format for the job (for example, PNG’s for graphics, JPEG for photography) can go a long way in improving the load time of your webpage. There are a number of tools that allow you to do this manually and several plugins that can help automate the process.
Consider “lazy loading” as well to defer the loading of images and videos that aren’t currently needed on the page.
Consider a Different Hosting Provider or a Content Distribution Network
Make sure you choose a web host with a solid track record. Putting a fast website on a slow server will result in slow load times, no matter how optimized.
Content distribution networks (CDNs) are networks of servers used to distribute the load of delivering content. As such, they provide users faster, more reliable access to your site. Cloudflare is generally considered to be the best option in this field.
Speed Up Your Web Presence With PHOS Creative
Page Speed is a metric that can always be improved upon and requires regular monitoring and support. As it is so important to Google and your customers, it’s useful to partner with someone you can trust who has a successful track record in this arena.
At PHOS creative, our development process is built upon a custom framework intelligently designed to make websites fast, responsive, secure, and easy to manage.
Definitions
Bounce Rate – The percentage of visitors that open a website and leave before spending a significant amount of time.
First Contentful Paint – The point in the page load when the visitor can first see something (text or image) on the screen.
First Meaningful Paint – The time it takes for the main content of a page to become visible.
First Input Delay – Measures when a visitor first interacts with a page to the time they receive a response. Essentially, a measurement of the first impression of your site.
Website Conversion – a visitor to your website completes a desired action, such as contacting your business or making a purchase.
Whatsapp is most trending chating app now a days but it’s in news for last some time for spreading fake news. Whatsapp is using all possible ways to stop spreading fake news and spamming. However it can’t be said that whatsapp marketing is legal or illegal because now whatsapp officially providing API to companies.
But for sure spamming is illegal and now whatsapp has started banning your number if you do spamming. There’s so many tool for bulk whatsapp messages in market. You can send thousands of whatsapp messages in a click with whatsapp marketing software. So many bulk whatsapp sender tools are available in market now a days. For more details related to whatsapp bulk sender.
WhatsApp marketing platform appears to be legal. While Whatsapp does not come in to the category of permission marketing like that of SMS and Email, it’s possible to expect the service to adopt the same sooner or later. Until then, anyone with a phone number saved in his mobile phone may do Whatsapp Marketing. While their marketing platform relies heavily on brand marketing, WhatsApp appeals to marketers because they can reach their target demographic on a personal basis by sending information one on one.
The catch is that you have to a have a somewhat relationship with your target user or you can get blocked. You also have to be very careful with how much information you send out. Unlike social media site, WhatsApp does not encourage you to flood the market with information and branding.
How to improve Core Web Vitals and page load speed
It became a very important topic when Google began baking this into their core ranking algorithm in 2020. Long ago, they said “The web should be fast.” When Google speaks, it is important to listen – if you wish to prosper online. Although improving page load speeds can result in better rankings, the other equally important aspect to address is Visitor Experience.
There are few people who enjoy watching rust form, and slow to load web pages engender similar feelings… At the same time, through 2016 the average web page size continued to grow, now at 2.33 Megabytes.
An increase in load time usually results in decreased revenue for e-commerce sites – Amazon say 100ms extra load times costs 1% in revenue!Conversely, making the site faster improves revenue…
Website visitors subjected to your slow loading website are far less likely to return, directly impacting your website’s success – and not in a good way!
Other indicators that should be positively impacted are bounce rates, visitor retention times, repeat visitor rates.
As part of all my small business web design packages, page load speed optimisation is addressed.
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How to Improve Website Performance?
When you start considering how to improve website loading speed, there are multiple elements to examine. Having a plan of attack helps immensely. The following strategy is how a freelance NZ website designer should approach the task;
Benchmark – run performance tests on any/all of the services listed below. Copy and save the results. This will be the base measurement against which you judge the results of the improvement work you will do.
Caching – assuming you have not yet installed a caching system, that is the next step. If using WordPress, start with the $39 WP Rocket Cache because it delivers better performance than it’s competitors. *
Plugins – Godaddy produced the P3 Plugin Profiler to determine what plugins are hogging resources. If you have any greedy plugins, either find a light-weight replacement. Deactivate and delete plugins that are not mission-critical.
Image Sizes – make sure they are sized correctly and compressed appropriately. Specify image pixel height and width so that text content can flow around the image space before images load. Use a “lazy load” plugin to only display images as they enter the viewport. (Some caching plugins include lazy load)
Home Page: are you opening a basket full of recent posts, top 10 posts, posts from various categories, comments, featured pages? That is database-intensive content which quickly adds up in terms of total database requests.
When you are making changes, it is important to check at each stage that what you have just done had a positive result. Fortunately, the web offers a plethora of measurement services. It is important to remember that there are lots of variables, such as;
Because of this, results do vary between the various measuring services. Don’t worry about the inconsistencies, just focus on the overall load speed trends. Here are the most popular testing platforms;
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Pingdom: performance checks from multiple locations; http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/
GT Metrix: a free website speed checking system by a Canadian hosting company: http://gtmetrix.com
Dotcom Tools: website load speed tests across multiple countries: https://www.dotcom-tools.com/website-speed-test.aspx
Web Page Test: http://www.webpagetest.org
Sucuri Performance: performance checks from multiple locations; http://performance.sucuri.net/
There is no disputing the dramatic benefits that a good caching system can deliver.
User of the popular WordPress CMS system are spoiled for choice with caching plugins. W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache and Quick Cache are three I’ve used extensively.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]These days, as part of WordPress tech Support services, I use WP Rocket Cache on all sites I build and/or provide website maintenance services on. I purchased a Developers Licence for WP-Rocket in order to provide it to all clients.
For non-WordPress sites, caching systems may also be available, depending on the CMS you are using. Even if that”s not possible, there are still many opportunities to minimise load times! Implementing Gzip file compression can usually be done in the .htaccess file, and you can certainly tackle image file sizes!
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Plugins – Impact on Page Load Time
Not all plugins are beneficial to performance. A plugin has a quantifiable impact on page load speed, page file sizes and database requests. Indeed, some add hundreds of lines of code to every page, and trigger high volumes of database requests. This can cripple “shared hosting” web servers, and some hosting companies have banned such plugins.
The worst culprits are invariably broken link checkers and related content generators.
PLUGIN PROFILER
Use Godaddy’s P3 Plugin Profiler to determine which plugins on your site are burning up the most resources. The pie-chart graphics show clearly;
% of resources consumed by plugins in total
% of resources consumed by each plugin
Should any plugin be consuming a much bigger wedge, consider the alternatives.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Two for One Plugins: In some cases, a plugin serves a dual purpose, allowing you to achieve a couple of desirable outcomes without increasing consumption of resources. An example might be a social widget that offers both Like buttons and Follow links to your social media business pages. multiple purposes.
Be very careful of Jetpack – it is the Swiss Army knife of plugins but is very resource-hungry!
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Lite Plugins: unlike beer, the “Lite” version is often full strength without the weight of competing plugins. Sure, it may also be the Free vs the Pro version.
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SECURITY PLUGINS
Some security plugins include features that you don’t need to run all the time. For example, the respected Wordfence plugin offers Live Traffic logging which is a bit resource hungry. Turn it off if you don’t need it. The scanner has options for image file scans and ultra-sensitive modes – run those once, and then deactivate them to reduce resource consumption.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]I usually run two security plugins, but care has to be taken that the complement each other and not generate conflicts that increase the time it takes pages to load.
If one of your plugins is a Web Application Firewall (WP Ninja or Block Bad Queries), don’t use another plugin that also has a WAF – or deactivate its WAF function.
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HEARTBEAT CONTROL
The WordPress Heartbeat API can sometimes generate high server loads, negatively impacting performance. that slow things down significantly. If you suspect that’s happening, there is a Heartbeat plugin that can minimise this issue.
A great way to trash page load times is uploading images straight from your camera or phone. Your website software probably does not work like social media sites, here images are automatically resized and compressed.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]That said, CMS systems like WordPress do have tools available to help you. Every image on the entire site should be optimised to improve website performance. Background images can be awfully big and inserting a 1400 x 1000 pixel image that is not adequately compressed is going to kill your website performance.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]In general, JPG images offer the best performance and these should:
be reduced to the maximum size that they will be displayed at
be compressed by at least 10% and in most cases 30% still offers good image quality
have its dimension specified in the page/s within which it is displayed
This plugin adds an extra setting in the Media Settings section that can be adjusted to a maximum image size. Setting it to 250 Kb allows even large 1500×680 banner images to be loaded. When correctly compressed, these are mostly under 200 Kb.
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Basically, you cannot upload an image the exceeds the maximum permitted image file size
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Batch Processing existing Images in Bulk
There are good plugins for automatically processing images across your website.
SHORTPIXEL
My go-to tool is the Shortpixel plugin – https://shortpixel.com and I extend the default limited number of image with a 50,000 Image Processing Plan for $30. The plugin can be installed with the same API key on multiple sites and the 50k Image Plan can be shared across all those sites.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Site-wide batch processing of previously loaded images is easy;
configure the plugin settings for glossy or lossy compression
set the maximum image size etc
set it to work.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]The plugin will backup copies of the original images, and the hundreds / thousands of previously generated thumbnails can also be batch-processed.
Shortpixel does a wonderful job of optimising and compressing your entire image library!!
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WP SMUSH
This tool allows you to reduce image file sizes, improve performance and boost your SEO using the WordPress Smush API. It analyses new images on upload and will compress them on the fly as/if appropriate. After installation, images can be processed in bulk;
The PRO Version delivers better performance…
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Optimise ALL Images: Use WP Smush to work through all images in the site / media library.
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PERFORMANCE TESTING TOOLS
Where you see a recommendation in GT Metrix or other load speed results relating to “optimise images” you could examine the list to see if there are any very large ones that you can process. The only option is one by one, which is why a fully automated batch-processing tool is a godsend!
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Note: GT Metrix give you a link to a compressed version of the file under each image that can/should be reduced. That is very helpful with PNG files as they can be awkward to compress…
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Click the “See optimised version” to open the compressed file
Right click the image and select “Save as” and make sure the name is identical to the original version
Use your FTP software to upload the optimized files to the original folder
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]Specify Image Dimensions: Also examine each image you have added on the page to see if any are being scaled to fit. In Firefox, right clicking an image shows such details;
Each image that is being scaled should be resized to the correct dimensions. Some design themes are not efficient at displaying images, so if there is a site-wide issues with images being scaled, you may need to consider a better design theme. In general, mobile-responsive design themes are engineered specifically to process images in a way that reduces page load times across all viewing devices.
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Retina Ready Images:
Not everyone understands that this is Apple marketing at work. It’s a gimmick, where only enabled devices might theoretically show a photo-realistic image… Loading retina-ready images onto the average website is verging on stupid… Yet some website designers will tell you its essential. On the average website’s traffic logs, you will see that Apple visitors make up less than 6% of total visitors. Of those, a very tiny percentage actually have retina-ready devices!
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Home Page – Constrain Complexity
Bear in mind that the Home page is the single most important page. It is where most visitors touch down!
When planning how to improve website loading speed, remember that a fast Home page is crucial to keeping a visitor’s attention long enough grab their interest. Achieving a compromise between highlighting site content and loading it as fast as is possible is the conundrum.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]More often that not, less is more… Keep it closer to 1Mb than 2Mb, have it load in less than 3 seconds… To achieve that, trim numbers in terms of posts, comments, slideshows, tags, categories, featured pages & posts, top post lists etc.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.10″ _module_preset=”default”]External content can slow things down significantly;
Don’t load the Facebook Statistics for your Fb Business page, only show the Follow buttons
Same goes for Tripadvisor etc
If you are running Ads, check what impact your suppliers code is having
If you are loading external fonts and icons, see if your caching plugin can cache them
