If you run a website or blog, you’ve undoubtedly felt the pain, horror and annoyance of waiting for a page to slowly load. Even worse than having to wait yourself is realizing that your visitors may be facing the same problem – which means you could lose traffic before you ever really get it. You could have the most gorgeous website with the best graphics around, but if it’s not loading, it’s not going to get you what you want.
Images: Make sure each of your images is only 65% of its size, not 100%. Large images can seriously slow down your site, but you don’t have to get rid of them right off the bat. Try reducing their size first. This is especially important if you have more than five images on one page.
Javascript: If you have Javascript in the HTML page, move it from the header to the footer.
Location: It sounds strange that in today’s modern world, location even matters. It does, though! If your web host is located far from where you live – like on the other side of the world – consider getting a new host that’s closer to home. This can affect your website loading time.
Quality: When it comes to web hosts, you get what you pay for. Beware of any free hosts or ones that cost just pennies – the less expensive hosts tend to be slower, too.
Scripts: If you have too many scripts or multiple style sheets, your website could be running extra slow. Hire a professional to combine all the scripts into one script sheet. You also many need to put all CSS onto one style sheet.
Simplicity: Part of the problem could be too many large images and widgets on your page. If too much is going on, trimming down each page’s content could help the entire website to load faster. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a rich website, just that you shouldn’t clog it up with unnecessary components. There a different sites online where you can run a a page speed test in order to find out how long each element on the page takes to load.
Theme: If you’re using a host with standard themes, like Weebly or WordPress, the theme itself could be the problem. While it’s a bit time consuming to change themes, it may be necessary. First, though, hunt around in forums to see if other people are experiencing the same issues with that specific theme.