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3 Practical Ways to Improve Your Website Speed and Why It Matters More Than You Think

3 min read
Updated: Nov 12 2020
By: South Made

STAFF BLOG SERIES, DEREK

You can create all the engaging content you want but it won’t mean anything if your website won’t load.

Part of running a successful business is maintaining an easy-to-navigate website. A major component of your site’s success is its speed. In fact, almost half of internet users — 47% actually — expect a company’s website to load in two seconds or less. On top of that, 40% of people will abandon a site and visit a competitor if it takes more than three seconds to load.

Though these seem like inconsequential speeds, it can have a big impact on getting potential customers to stick around. The faster your site is, the more likely you’ll be able to make a sale. This is because a fast website is a reliable website. If your site is too slow, people will think that you’re not invested in your customers — or your business.

Luckily, there are a few ways to improve your website’s speed. Here are some of the options you should consider when you talk to a digital marketing company.

Minimize your images

Every digital marketing company knows that images are essential to a site’s success. After all, few site visitors want to be met with a wall of text. Images serve to break up the monotony of a site while boosting your company’s image. High-quality images look great and encourage people to stay on your site longer. But if your images are too large then it might be slowing down your site.

Image size compression can be a life-saver in this regard. If you use a site like WordPress, you can install a simple compression plug-in to reduce your image size while still maintaining the quality. Other popular CMS options, like Shopify and Square Space, also have plug-ins that can compress your images. When the file size is smaller, your website won’t have to work as hard to render those images. Don’t be afraid to reach out to web design services for more information.

Streamline your HTML

Working on the backend of your website can also help its load time. In many cases, a site’s HTML is crowded with duplicate codes and unnecessary formatting. This is especially true if it’s an older site.

Another factor to consider when improving backend performance is the role of testing tools. Using remote browsers’ end to end testing can help uncover hidden inefficiencies in how your site loads and functions across different devices and networks. By identifying issues early, you can streamline your HTML more effectively and avoid unnecessary complexity. This proactive approach ensures that backend improvements translate into real gains in speed and user experience.

You can streamline your HTML by using plug-ins, but there’s always a chance that you could mess something up. This is especially true if you don’t have a lot of coding experience or relied on someone else to build your site. The best thing you can do is to rely on a digital marketing company to improve your web design from the ground up. They’ll be able to highlight any issues and correct them. This action should actually be performed regularly in order to keep your site up-to-date. When your code runs better, you’ll notice that your website loads faster.

Analyze your redirects

This issue is especially common among older sites. Many webpages have updated because of a change in the business’ name or bec

All of these redirects will make your page run slower since the site recognizes the original URL and then has to load the new one. Trust on the digital marketing company Knoxville TN trusts to help reduce these numbers and improve your site’s speed.

Did you know that Google gives preferential treatment to sites that load quickly? Don’t get left in the dust: contact the digital marketing company you can trust at South Made Marketing.