5 Tips to Improve Your Website Speed

Achieving optimal website speed is like chasing a unicorn. Ultimately, respective web clients play a huge role in your front facing web experience. IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc. all react differently to HTTP protocol. However, there are several solutions to this predicament.

There are 5 actions that can be taken to optimise your website performance, and ultimately enhance your visitor’s experience.

• Compress your code. If you are one of the lucky ones using WordPress, this can easily be done by the use of shortcodes. Shortcodes are specific to WordPress, these codes are shortcuts that link to otherwise long and complicated html code language. Others using another platform can ZIP html code by the use of a tool known as Gzip. Gzip simply asks the web browser to shrink the code before it is delivered to your visitor. The focus here is making your code tight and compact, as opposed to big and bulky.

• Resize images before you place them into your code. This is especially the rule if you are using an open source client like WordPress or Drupal. Websites have to slow down to resize images “on call”. For example, images that must be 600 x 200 but start out as 1220 x 980 need to be resized prior to their upload. This simple change will create a noticeably faster experiencer for website visitors.

• Don't overuse plugins. Big no-no. Plugins use a lot of active Javascript. This special script is what makes your site interactive, but Browsers such as IE and Safari can be slowed down considerably if you overuse them, even Chrome has the occasional “this page has crashed” message. Stick with the rule that a little goes a long way.

• Structure. Browsers like to load the bones of a website first. CSS is the bones of your site. This is structure, layouts, headers. This should be placed first in your lines of code. Html is the meat on the bone. Java is that gooey extra stuff that we generally try to keep at a minimum and should load last. In conjunction with compression, these two alone will transform your visitor’s experience.

• Caching tools. The most popular cashing tool on the planet right now is W3 Total Cache for WordPress, but there are others. A caching tool helps to store static website data for longer periods of time rather than the standard. This significantly speeds up load times.

Optimised website speed can help improve the user experience, increase site visits, increase the time that visitors stay on your site, and increase sales. These 5 steps will help to keep your site moving fast well into its golden years.