5 Ways To Increase Your Site Speed

Website speed is easy to forget about when optimizing a website. It may seem like content management systems will keep your website running quickly and smoothly. However, this is not the case. In fact, CRMs can actually slow down your site. Google’s algorithm does factor site speed into the ranking process. Additionally, from the user experience side of things, with every extra second it takes your website to load, the chances of a bounce become higher. So, what can you do? Here are 5 ways to increase your site speed.

#1: Optimize Photos & Videos

Photos that are too large or at an incorrect resolution can bog down your site speed. Optimizing your photos is tedious and takes a while, but it can make a major difference in the overall load time and look of your site. The same goes for videos. Make sure they load and are embedded correctly.

#2: Audit Your Plug-Ins

Plug-ins are notorious for causing site speed issues. One or two plug-ins are unlikely to have a major effect, but if you are using plug-ins for many design aspects of your site, this can slow down load time. Go through your plug-ins and get rid of ones you no longer use or need. Also, consider doing some of the backend work to avoid needing so many plug-ins. Finally, keep your plug-ins up to date.

#3:  Parse Your Redirects

Redirects--in general--are not harmful to site speed. However, over time, one page might end up redirecting two or three times before landing on the correct page. This is easy to lose track of, but also quite an easy fix. Simply create one redirect, or split them to reduce redirects. This is especially important when redirecting from a typical link to a mobile link.

#4: Upgrade Your Server

Sometimes it may not be what is on your website slowing it down. You may need to upgrade your server package or implement a CDN. This will help your page load as quickly as possible no matter how far the visitor is from your actual location.

#5: Enable Caching

Caching is a way that browsers and servers can save your websites. Normally, if someone in New York wants to visit a Los Angeles based website, they will have to connect to the server all the way in California. However, with caching, when someone a closer server, say in Massachusetts or elsewhere in New York visits your site, it saves a copy. This lets the site load for most users faster.To learn how you can better optimize your site's technical SEO, call us at 206-787-0784. You can also reach out online using chat or contact form.