Website speed optimisation is important. These days, when somebody visits your website, they expect to see everything they want immediately. Somebody will rarely be patient enough to wait longer than a few seconds for a page to load or a video to play.
That’s why your website must be fully optimised. To keep up with the increasing demand for instant results, you must ensure that your website performs as best as possible.
I’ve created a checklist that you can use to make sure your website can meet modern customer expectations.
IMAGES
It’s crucial that all images on your website are optimised so that they don’t slow it down. Large image file sizes can cause slow loading and, in some cases, create enough of a delay that your website visitor goes elsewhere.
You can manually optimise your images in Photoshop, or if you would prefer to ‘set and forget’, you can utilise a plugin that does it for you. The image optimisation plugin that we recommend is Imagify.
We install the Imagify plugin at no extra cost on all websites that are on our WordPress Maintenance Plan.
TEXT
You might think the written word does not affect website speed optimisation, but you’d be mistaken. If your website has certain font settings, effects, or custom fonts, you could experience a lag in your loading time.
Small changes like locally loading fonts and reducing the variety of fonts you use on your website can make a marked difference.
A caching plugin like WP Rocket can help with this. That link will get you a 20% discount.
We install WP Rocket at no extra cost on all websites that are on our WordPress Maintenance Plan.
VIDEOS
Do you have videos on your website? Could they be slowing it down? Usually, the slowest websites will be the ones that make the mistake of trying to load a large video from their own site.
When you set your videos to load from an external source such as YouTube or Vimeo and set them to “lazy load”, they will only load and play if a user clicks on them. That means your website doesn’t need to use precious time “pre-loading” a large video.
HOSTING
The hosting company you use can make a big difference in the speed of your website. A cheap shared hosting provider may offer a low cost of entry; however, your website is unlikely to load quickly.
Utilising a specialist WordPress hosting company brings numerous performance benefits. Specialist hosting companies optimise their servers and technology with the sole purpose of helping your website load as fast as possible.
At webalogic.com we provide web hosting for our clients on cloud hosting based in the UK that is finely tuned for optimum performance and website speed optimisation.
CLEAN UP
Don’t forget the little things that could clog up your website speed. For example, do you have a lot of plugins on your website? Are they really necessary?
Take a look at any plugins and extensions you’re using to see if there is a way you could optimise them or get rid of them completely.
The less your website needs to spend time on, the faster it will load for your visitors.
WEBSITE SPEED OPTIMISATION SUMMARY
At Webalogic, we understand the importance of a fully optimised website and you should too. With the increasing demand for instant results, your website needs to perform at its best. That’s why we’ve created this comprehensive checklist to ensure your website meets modern customer expectations.
From optimising images with our recommended plugin, Imagify, to locally loading fonts and reducing font variety for improved loading times, we’ve got you covered.
We’ve also addressed the impact of videos on website speed and recommend loading them from external sources and utilising lazy loading.
Additionally, we emphasise the significance of choosing the right hosting company for optimal website speed. Our specialised WordPress hosting based in the UK is finely tuned for optimum performance.
Finally, we advise on the importance of cleaning up your website by optimising or removing unnecessary plugins and extensions.