When it comes to improving your business’ numbers in the digital space, a second’s delay will make or break your customer’s trust. Remember that every moment that you delay is enough reason for your visitors to abandon your page.
Site loading speed plays a significant role in how well you keep your sales figures and your Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) rankings. Knowing how to design your site in a way that keeps it light and easy to load is a critical part of retaining your visitors.
The importance of loading speed
It’s not an exaggeration to say that people will lose interest and even trust in your service with the addition of just three seconds of additional load time to your website. To run a smooth sailing business, you need to ensure that you know what causes slow loading speeds and take the necessary steps to solve them.
In this article, we will share five possible reasons your WordPress site has slow response rates:
1. You’re using the wrong server region
One apparent reason for slow site loading times is if you’re using the wrong region. The farther your site is from its Web Hosting server, the longer your site’s load times will be. If you’re targeting a local audience, you should use your appropriate region to make sure that your pages will run smoothly.
However, if you want to reach an international demographic, you will need to use a Content Delivery Network to place copies of your content across the globe. This makes your pieces of content closer to your site visitors’ closest region, regardless of your original server’s location.
2. You’re using the wrong WordPress theme
WordPress provides a wide selection of free themes for different types of business. However, each theme has varying levels of quality and file size. Heavier themes that are more than 2MB will cause a significant delay in your load times.
To ensure that the theme you’re using is applicable for your business’ needs, use the theme first in a demo site and then run it through a speed checker to check the number of HTTP requests that your site generates. The preferred amount to reach is under sixty requests, while anything higher should make you reconsider the theme you’re using.
3. You’re not updating your software and plug-ins
WordPress plug-ins aren’t just for security updates but also for performance improvements. Make sure that your updater updates automatically to ensure that your pages are secure and working at optimised performance levels.
4. You’re not optimising your content
For businesses that run online retailing websites, content optimisation is a necessary routine that needs to be performed in all types of media. File types from images, video, and even copy lengths need to be optimised to the lightest file size without sacrificing quality to ensure that your visitors don’t experience any delay when navigating your site.
5. You’re subscribing to a poor Web Hosting service
Besides looking at your site’s layout and performance, you also need to consider if your Web Hosting service is a high-quality provider. Spending less on your server will cost you your business in the long run, especially when it comes to digital transactions. Many web hosting sites make use of shared hosting, which makes it an affordable purchase at the cost of lower speeds.
Make sure that you secure a Web Hosting service that provides enough bandwidth space to cover your transactions through encrypted networks for safe and fast data transactions.
Conclusion
Just as a brick-and-mortar store’s front window is the first thing that draws visitors in, how quickly your website loads can make or break their experience with you. For maximum conversions and loyal customers, ensure that your web design is seamless and able to deliver a fast loading speed.
If you’re looking for a professional web design company in Perth to help you improve your site speed, get in touch with us today!
