Do you have a website that looks great but is extremely slow? Site speed affects how Google will see your website. If it is slow, then you will not rank as high as you would like, and that’s not good for business. Here are 3 ways to help your website load fast for your visitors.
- Hosting Plans
- Optimizing Images
- Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Hosting Plans
One of the biggest site speed issues is where your website is being hosted. Some website hosting companies are GoDaddy, Siteground, and Flywheel. Some hosting companies can be cheap, but slow. You want to make sure that your website is on a hosting plan that best suits your needs. If you are an online store, make sure it is secure and can handle the workload of online transactions. If you don’t get a lot of visitors, you can go to a lower tier hosting package.
Optimizing Images
Optimizing images for your website is to make sure that they are appropriately saved for the web. This means that making sure the images don’t have unnecessary information which enlarges the file size. When your images are large in data, that is more information that your visitors have to download to see your website, slowing your site down. Also, if you or your web designer is using Photoshop for these images, that program allows you to “optimize” for the web. Make sure you take advantage of those options. If your website was built on WordPress, there are multiple plugins that will further optimize your images. I tend to use Ewww Image Optimizer for websites that I design and build. You also want to make sure the images you use are the size they need to be. If your image shows up on your website as 100×100 pixels, make sure it’s that size and not 1000×1000 pixels. If they are, your website has to reduce the size to fit your site and that takes up processing power and slows down your website.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A Content Delivery Network (CDN), is a network of servers distributed throughout the world in which they store copies of your website, so when someone goes to visit your site it will load up the nearest copy. This will make the website load faster, giving your visitor a better user experience. It also adds another layer of security to your website. One such CDN service is Cloudflare.
These are just 3 ways that you can do to speed up your website. As a business owner, I can understand that you may not have the time to allocate for this yourself. Valentine Web Design can help speed up your website by using these steps along with other methods to make your website run fast and smooth.
If you would like to hire Valentine Web Design to get your website up-to-speed, contact me via email or my contact form here. I also use these methods on all websites that I design and build to ensure my clients are getting the best service and results possible.
