Not sure about you, but I HATE waiting, and so do your potential clients. Website loading time is one of the most important aspects of user experience. If your website doesn’t load within 3-4 seconds, people are likely to abandon it. On top of this, Google also considers website loading speed a ranking factor because it influences user experience. If your website is slow, it won’t rank high on the SERP. Here’s a look at how you can fix the issue:

1. Check The Site Speed First

The site speed depends on several factors, including hosting quality, traffic, bandwidth, and website design. It is a good idea to investigate the root cause of the issue before trying to fix it. There are several metrics in place to check website speed such as:

· TTFB – TTFB stands for Time to First Bite and indicates the time taken from the start of downloading to the successful download of the first bite.

· Page Rendering – This metric indicates how long it takes for the white-screen of the browser to disappear and for the page to begin to load.

· Page Load – This indicates how much time it takes for all of the page elements to load fully. This showcases that all of the resources within the page are usable.

· Full Loading – This is the time it takes for the entire website to load, including all main and deferred resources.

Your website download speed should be consistent across all of these metrics to ensure it performs well. You can then use website speed check tools like the one provided by Google. Once you have a good understanding of how this works, you can start fixing it.

2. Improving Website Speed

The first step to improving website speed is to optimise the website. Make sure the website structure is lean and clean so it loads in an organised fashion. Ensure the code allows for primary elements to be downloaded first so the user can see the important parts of the page quickly. You should also optimise the images and reduce website file size as much as possible. The lighter the website, the faster it loads.

These steps should help you improve website speed and performance by a considerable margin.