Google is prioritizing website speed in a push to improve user experience. As a result, if your site doesn’t load within 2 seconds, you could be losing customers and lagging in search results. A slow website is frustrating for visitors, and delays of just a few seconds can cause them to bounce. In this post, you’ll learn how to check your site’s speed, what causes delays and how to fix slow load times.
The need for speed
A lightning-fast website is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity. When prospects and customers visit your site, they expect a fast, smooth experience. If your site lags, they won’t wait. In turn, they won’t interact with your content or your business.
Furthermore, Google’s algorithm appears to “punish” extremely slow pages by downranking them, according to Backlinko. A low ranking means less exposure for your content. Backlinko found the average Google first-page result loads in 1.65 seconds. If your pages take much longer, you could lose traffic and engagement.
Google evaluates websites based on three Core Web Vitals:
- Loading speed (Largest Contentful Paint)
- Visual stability (Cumulative Layout Shift)
- Smooth interactivity (Interaction to Next Paint)
Fast sites get high scores for these metrics. In contrast, slow-loading pages signal that a site doesn’t provide a good user experience. Optimizing site speed isn’t just about rankings – it’s about keeping visitors on your site, interacting with them and enticing them to return.
How to check your website speed
Regular speed audits help keep your site running at peak performance. Fixing problems as they arise ensures your site stays fast and optimized. Free speed tests can help you pinpoint slowdowns and offer clear solutions. No single tool catches every issue, so stick with one testing service while making improvements. This allows you to track progress and see how each change affects performance.
Make one adjustment at a time and test it page by page. A fix for one problem can sometimes create another. By taking a step-by-step approach, you can easily identify and reverse any changes that cause issues.
Here are three reliable tools:
Pingdom – Great for beginners, Pingdom tracks performance history, offers clear recommendations and generates easy-to-read reports.
GTmetrix – Simple to use, GTmetrix analyzes load speeds and grades your site’s performance, providing specific fixes to improve speed.
- PageSpeed Insights – This Google-backed tool measures load times and Core Web Vitals. It provides recommendations to improve speed, user experience and performance.
If your site loads quickly on your device, that doesn’t mean it’s fast for everyone. Your browser may have cached key files, making repeat visits seem instantaneous. But first-time visitors and users in different locations won’t have that advantage. Running a speed test gives you a true picture of load times across different devices and regions.
Problems that can cause a slow website
Does your website take too long to load? Lots of different things can contribute to this issue – from budget hosting services to large image files and inefficient code. By understanding the possible culprits, you can take steps to improve your site’s performance and keep your visitors happy. Here are some of the most common reasons for a slow website:
1. Cheap web hosting
Your web hosting provider plays a major role in your site’s speed and reliability. Shared hosting is a popular, budget-friendly option, but it comes with risks. With shared hosting, your site lives on the same server as many others. You share things like bandwidth and memory. Consequently, when other sites get a lot of traffic, it can slow yours down.
Solution: To fix this, upgrade your hosting. A dedicated server is the best option for speed. With a dedicated server, you don’t share resources with anyone else. If your website gets a lot of visitors or people use it from all over the world, using a dedicated server and a content delivery network (CDN) provides the fastest possible experience, no matter where they are. A CDN stores copies of your site in many places. Therefore, users get the site from a server that’s close to them, which makes it load quickly.
If your budget doesn’t allow for a dedicated server, look for a high-tier shared hosting plan. Make sure your host has enough resources for your site, especially if you get a lot of traffic. If your hosting plan doesn’t have enough bandwidth and processing power, your site will lag. Look for plans that guarantee good performance even during peak times.
2. Lack of caching
Websites load slowly when they have to download every file each time a visitor arrives. This happens when caching isn’t set up correctly. Without caching, your server works harder and your visitors wait longer.
Solution: Enabling page caching will resolve this problem. Page caching stores website files on the server for a short time. As a result, when someone visits your site again, the server sends these stored files instead of downloading them all over. Since some files are already saved, the browser needs to ask the server for fewer files. This makes your website load much faster than if caching were disabled.
3. Big, high-resolution images
Big, unoptimized images can make your site slow to a crawl. Even though high-quality images look good, they hog bandwidth.
Solution: Compressing your images will fix this. In short, you’ll reduce the file sizes without sacrificing quality. Try these image compression tools:
You can also pick the right file type. For photos, use JPEGs. For images with sharp lines, like logos or screenshots, use PNGs. This format keeps the details clear. Avoid using TIFF files, as they’re often very large.
4. Large, high-resolution videos
Video is the No. 1 content format among B2B marketers today, according to LinkedIn. Videos increase visitor engagement and attract organic traffic. But they can also bog down your site if they’re not optimized. Smaller files load faster and use less bandwidth.
Solution: Use video compression tools to reduce file sizes while maintaining quality. Try these video compression tools:
Similarly, choose a format that’s widely supported across browsers and devices, such as MP4. It offers a good balance between file size and quality. In the same vein, adjust the resolution and bitrate to reduce file sizes. Test different approaches to balance visual appeal and website speed.
Additionally, instead of hosting videos directly on your server, consider using a video hosting platform like YouTube or Vimeo. These platforms handle video streaming and optimization, reducing the load on your server. Lastly, implement lazy loading to load videos only when needed, reducing initial page load times.
5. Excessive plug-ins
Plug-ins are like add-ons that give your site new capabilities without needing to write code. However, an excessive amount can cause a slow website. As for a “safe” amount of plug-ins, there’s no magic number that won’t affect site performance. The consensus among experts is that quality matters over quantity. In other words, a few good ones are better than many bad ones.
Solution: Install only the plug-ins that are necessary for your site’s functionality, and keep them updated. Updates fix problems and make your site faster and safer. Moreover, before you add a plug-in, consider whether you need it. Can you add code or customize the site another way?
Keep in mind that plug-ins can fight with one another or your site’s design. In turn, this can cause errors, increase load times or even “break” the site. If you encounter problems after adding a plug-in, try turning off other plug-ins to correct the issues.
6. Cluttered code
When you visit a website, your browser downloads files that tell it how to display the pages. These files include CSS, JavaScript and HTML. The bigger these files are, the more they affect load times.
Solution: You can trim the fat from your website’s code by minifying CSS, JavaScript and HTML. Minification gets rid of extra spaces, line breaks and comments in the code. By removing these unnecessary characters, the files become smaller, which makes your site load quicker. Try these minification tools:
Every second counts
A slow website can cost you traffic, customers and revenue. Every second of load time can increase bounce rates and reduce conversions. Addressing speed issues – whether through better hosting, efficient coding or content optimization – can make a big difference. Take action now to ensure a good experience and meet performance expectations.
