The results of website speed optimization are numerous – from enhancing UI/UX to boosting SEO and conversion rates. Investing in a fast platform is the key to unlocking these potential benefits.
If you are a web developer looking to maximize the speed of your platform, here are five key ways to quickly optimize it. By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your site will be running faster than ever.
Table of Contents
Image Compression
When it comes to web posts, images and videos make up a notable chunk of the payload and often take longer to load than HTML and CSS files, which is mainly due to their larger file sizes.
If you’re seeking to reduce the time it takes for images to load, photo optimization can be a great option. It generally involves decreasing the resolution, compressing files, and decreasing their dimensions. The good news is that there are numerous tools available for free that can compress photos and optimize their size. The best part is that most of these tools don’t require any editing skills to use.
Reducing HTTP Requests
To display content, major web browsers must communicate with online servers, with each connection requiring a data exchange round trip, which may add on to the total processing time. Additionally, when files are loaded from various sources, any issues in one of the hosts can create disruptions during page rendering, or even worse – prevent it from loading altogether.
Minimizing the number of assets downloaded on each webpage can help avoid common performance issues. Testing the speed of the page can assist in discovering which HTTP requests are creating lag time. For instance, if it’s images that are taking up the most loading time, developers have the option of exploring faster image hosting solutions, such as Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).
Using Lazy Loading Technique
Deferring the loading of content that isn’t immediately necessary on page load – known as ‘lazy loading’ – is a great way to help manage bandwidth. Rather than loading off-screen images right away, they are only loaded when the user requires them.
You might have already encountered lazy loading in action, and the process typically unfolds like this:
- You land on a page and start scrolling through the content.
- At a certain point, a placeholder image has been intelligently replaced by the true image.
- Suddenly, the placeholder image is replaced with the actual file.
Utilizing the ‘loading’ attribute on images and iframes, modern browsers offer this functionality natively, yet if you’d prefer, there are also external libraries for your convenience. Some popular solutions include:
- LazyLoad: A highly adaptable library for deferring the loading of images, videos and iframes, no matter how much content you have.
- Intersection Observer: While not a library itself, API is included as part of current web browser implementations.
- lazysizes: A fast, packed with features library that can save your loading times with its capabilities, with support for pictures, iframes, YouTube videos and more.
- unveil.js: An easy-to-use library for lazy loading photos with unified support for both regular and responsive formats.
- Echo.js: A compact, single-library specification designed solely to optimize the loading of JPEGs.
Leveraging a CDN
CDN systems store content at multiple, geo-distributed locations. Rather than connecting to the hosting server, which could end up in a long-distance transmission with more networks involved, requests are sent to the closest CDN server. Profiting from the benefits of CDNs is an efficient way to optimize your platform.
Leveraging a CDN will enable you to exploit the benefits of distributing your page content among multiple nodes, enhancing caching and greatly reducing the time it takes for users to access your website.
Enabling Browser Caching
Accelerate page loading times by using browser caching to your advantage. This process enables web browsers to save a range of elements, like stylesheets, pictures, and JS files, meaning no need to reload the total page each time someone comes back to it.
To maximize the efficiency of your website, you can use caching plugins such as W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket. These tools are highly proficient in enhancing page speed as they apply caching and preloading techniques, creating overwhelmingly speedy load times.
More Options to Consider
If the methods mentioned above don’t achieve your goal of speeding up your site, there are a few more options to contemplate:
- Opt for a performance-optimized hosting solution
- Minify CSS, JS, and HTML
- Eliminate non-essential plugins
- Use asynchronous for your CSS files
- Reduce redirects
Time and testing may be necessary to implement these strategies, yet they are not particularly demanding. It is important to be mindful, however, that if your online pages take longer than expected to appear, then it is likely that your users will lose interest. This can have a damaging impact on your business’ future perspective if key prospects walk away due to slow speeds.
