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The best ways and tips to improve the speed of your website or online store
Website or online store speed is one of the important factors affecting user experience and search engines. If your website or online store is slow to load, you may lose visitors, customers, and rankings in search results. Therefore, it is very important to improve the speed of your website or online store to increase your conversion rate, sales and loyalty.
In this article, we will go through some methods and tips that you can follow to improve the speed of your website or online store easily and effectively. We will cover the following topics:
How to measure the speed of your website or online store
Improve the speed of your website or online store by optimizing images and assets
How to measure the speed of your website or online store through the use of a CDN and caching
Improve the speed of your website or online store by reducing the number of requests and merging files
Improve the speed of your website or online store by using a content delivery network
Improve the speed of your website or online store by delaying image loading
Improve the speed of your website or online store by reducing the number of ads
Without further ado, let's get started!
How to measure the speed of your website or online store
Before you start improving the speed of your website or online store, you first need to know how fast it is currently and what factors affect it. Therefore, you need to use site speed measurement tools that help you analyze the performance of your pages and provide reports and recommendations to improve them.
There are many free and paid tools that you can use to measure the speed of your website or online store, but some popular and reliable tools are:
PageSpeed Insights from Google: This tool measures the speed of your website or online store's pages on mobile and desktop devices, and gives you a score from 0 to 100 for each. It also gives you an overview of issues affecting your page speed, and offers suggestions for resolving them. You can use this tool by entering your page link in the provided field, and pressing the “Analyze” button.
Pingdom: This tool measures the loading speed of your website or online store pages from different locations around the world, and gives you information about the size, type and number of files that affect the speed of your pages. It also gives you a score from 0 to 100 for the performance of your pages, and shows you what problems exist and possible ways to fix them. You can use this tool by entering your page link in the provided field, selecting a test site from the list of options, and pressing the “Start Test” button.
GTmetrix: This tool measures the loading speed of your website or online store pages based on Google's PageSpeed and YSlow metrics, and gives you two scores from 0 to 100 for the performance of your pages. It also shows you charts and stats on your page speed, highlights issues that need your attention, and gives you tips and tools to improve. You can use this tool by entering your page link in the provided field, and pressing the “Analyze” button.
You can use any of these tools or more to measure the speed of your site or online store, and get clear and detailed reports on the performance of your pages. Thus, you can identify the factors that slow down your website or online store, and start applying the appropriate solutions to them.
Improve your site speed by optimizing images and assets
Images and assets are the main components of your website or online store, they attract the attention of visitors and enhance the aesthetics and professionalism of your design. However, if it is not properly optimized, it can negatively affect the loading speed of your pages and thus the user experience and search engines.
Therefore, it is very important to optimize the images and assets that you use on your website or online store, so that they are of high quality, fit for purpose and small in size. And in this part, we'll share with you some methods and tips that you can follow to improve the images and assets on your website or online store.
Choose the appropriate pictures
Before you upload any image to your website or online store, you need to make sure it is appropriate for the content and context in which you are using it. You must not use random, irrelevant, unattractive, or unauthorized images. Instead, you should choose images that clearly and impactfully express your message, identity, and value.
Here are some questions you can ask yourself before choosing photos:
Is the image of high quality and clear resolution?
Does the image fit the size, shape and colors of your page?
Does the image show your products or services accurately and attractively?
Does the image add value to, help explain, or support the content?
Do you have the rights to use the image or have permission from the owner or source?
If your answer is yes to these questions, then you are on the right track to choosing suitable images for your website or online store. And if you need help finding high-quality, free or cheap stock photos, you can take advantage of some of the following sites:
Unsplash: This site provides you with a large variety of beautiful and inspiring images that you can use for free and without the need for attribution or permission. You can search for images by categories, keywords or photographers, and upload them easily and quickly.
Pexels: This site offers you a great collection of free photos and videos that are licensed under a Creative Commons license, which means that you can use, edit and share them as you like without the need for attribution or permission. You can search for photos and videos by themes, colors or sizes, and upload them with the press of a button.
Shutterstock: This site offers you a huge collection of paid and licensed images, videos, graphics, icons, and fonts, guaranteeing you high quality and great variety. You can subscribe to different plans depending on your needs and budget, search for photos and videos by categories, groups or providers, and upload them quickly.
Choose the correct format
After you have chosen the right images for your website or online store, you need to make sure that they are in the correct format for
to the Internet. You should not use images in unsupported, unfit for purpose, or uncompressed formats. Instead, you should choose formats that guarantee you high quality, small size, and fast loading.
Improve your site speed through the use of a CDN and caching
CDN is an acronym for Content Delivery Network, a service that helps speed up the loading of static content on your website or online store, such as images, videos, styles, and scripts. CDN stores copies of this content in multiple servers distributed around the world, so that the visitor can get the content from the server closest to it, which reduces waiting time and delays.
CDN has many benefits, including:
Improving the loading speed of your website or online store pages, thus improving user experience and increasing conversion rate and revenue.
Reduce bandwidth consumption and pressure on your website or online store server, thus reducing costs and increasing performance and stability.
Ensuring the work of your site or online store In the event of any malfunction or interruption in the server of your site or your online store, the CDN will continue to provide content from its servers.
Securing your website or online store from DDoS attacks and other security threats, a CDN uses multiple layers of protection and certificates to ensure the safety of your data and visitors.
Improving the ranking of your website or online store in search engine results, site speed is one of the ranking factors that Google and other search engines take into account.
There are many CDN providers out there, some free and some paid. Some of the most famous are:
Cloudflare: This provider offers you a free and easy-to-use CDN, as well as other services like DNS, WAF, and SSL. You can register with Cloudflare, add your website or online store to your account, and follow the instructions to change your DNS settings. Then Cloudflare will start distributing your static content across its network of 200+ servers in 100+ countries.
Google Cloud CDN: This provider offers you a paid CDN service that is integrated with the Google Cloud Platform, in addition to other services such as Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, and Load Balancing. You can enable a Google Cloud CDN by creating an HTTP(S) load balancer and enabling the CDN option in Settings. After that, Google Cloud CDN will start storing your static content in its own points of presence, covering more than 90 countries.
CloudFront: This provider offers you a paid CDN service that is integrated with the Amazon Web Services platform, as well as other services such as S3, EC2, and Lambda. You can create a CloudFront distribution by selecting your content source, be it a server, bucket, or job, and specifying the required settings. CloudFront will then start storing your static content in its network of over 200 points of presence in over 70 countries.
In addition to using a CDN, you can also improve the speed of your website or online store through the use of caching, which is the process of storing copies of the pages of your website or online store in memory or on disk, so that they can be displayed to the visitor without the need to regenerate them from the database or files each time. Caching has similar benefits to a CDN, including:
Improving the loading speed of your website or online store pages, thus improving user experience and increasing conversion rate and revenue.
Reduce bandwidth consumption and pressure on your website or online store server, thus reducing costs and increasing performance and stability.
Ensuring the operation of your website or online store in the event of any malfunction or interruption in the server of your website or online store
Improve your site speed by reducing the size of images and assets
Images and other assets such as icons, fonts, and logos are important elements for capturing visitors' attention and showing your website or online store's identity. However, if the size of these elements is too large, it can negatively affect the loading speed of the site and thus the user experience and search engines.
Therefore, it is a good idea to reduce the size of images and assets as much as possible without sacrificing their quality or clarity. There are some methods and tools you can use to achieve this, such as:
Choosing the appropriate format for images: As we mentioned in the previous part, there are different image formats such as PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WEBP. Each format has advantages and disadvantages regarding image quality and file size. For example, PNG supports transparency and does not lose quality when editing, but generates larger files than JPEG. JPEG greatly compresses images without losing much quality, but loses quality when re-edited. GIF supports movement and limited colors, but generates very large files. WEBP is a new format that combines the advantages of PNG, JPEG, and GIF, but it is not supported by all browsers.
So, how do you choose the right format for images? This depends on the type of image and its purpose. In general, you can follow these guidelines:
Use PNG for images that contain text, transparency, or fine details.
Use JPEG for images that contain many colors, gradations, or photographs.
Use GIFs for images that have little movement or color.
Use WEBP if the user's browser supports it.
JPEG: This is the most common image format, which uses lossy compression to reduce image size. JPEG is used for images that contain a lot of color and detail, such as photographs. You can control the level of compression to balance quality and volume.
PNG: This is an image format that uses lossless compression to maintain image quality. PNG is used for images that contain simple text, logos, or graphics, or that need a transparent background. PNG is usually larger than JPEG, so it should be used with caution.
GIF: This is the image format that is used to create animated images. GIF uses an old system
It consists of only 256 colours, resulting in low quality and large volume. GIF should only be used for short, simple animations.
WebP: This is a modern image format that supports both lossy and lossless compression, as well as animation and transparency. WebP provides high quality and small size, but it is not supported by all browsers.
Image Compression: After selecting the appropriate image format, you can compress images to reduce their size further. You can use online image compression tools or download image compression software to your computer. Some examples of image compression tools are:
TinyPNG: This online tool allows you to compress PNG and JPEG files with a maximum size of 20MB. You can also download plugins for software like Photoshop, WordPress, or Magento to compress images automatically.
Compress JPEG: This online tool allows you to compress JPEG files with a maximum size of 50MB. You can also choose the target quality level and size for the image.
Squoosh: This online tool allows you to compress JPEG, PNG, WebP, and other image formats. You can also choose the type of compression and custom settings for the image.
Reduce the size of assets: In addition to images, you can also reduce the size of other assets such as icons, fonts, and logos. These assets are usually in SVG, WOFF, OTF, or TTF formats. You can use tools like:
SVGOMG: This online tool allows you to compress and optimize your SVG files by removing some of the comments, space, and unused data. You can also tweak some of the optimization options and live view of the results.
Font Squirrel: This online tool allows you to compress and optimize font files by converting them into WOFF or WOFF2 formats, which are supported by all modern browsers. You can also choose some optimization options like deleting regex or encoding.
By following these steps, you can reduce the size of the images and assets on your site or store.
Improve your site speed by reducing the number of requests and merging files
When a user visits a webpage, several requests are sent from his device to the server that hosts the website or online store. These requests load the various files that make up the page, such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript files, images, and other assets. The more such requests, the more time it takes to fully load the page. Therefore, it is advisable to reduce the number of requests as much as possible to improve the speed of your website or online store.
There are some methods and tools that you can use to reduce the number of requests and merge files, such as:
Use site speed metrics: These tools help you determine the number of requests a particular web page sends, the size of each request, and the time it takes for each request to respond. In addition, these tools offer some recommendations and tips to improve the speed of your website or online store. Some examples of site speed measuring tools are:
Google PageSpeed Insights: This online tool allows you to enter a link to a webpage and it analyzes it and shows your loading speed score on a scale from 0 to 100. It also shows you the number and size of requests and the time it takes to load them. It also gives you some recommendations to improve download speed.
Lighthouse: This tool is included in the Developer Tools in Google Chrome. They allow you to perform a comprehensive analysis of a webpage in terms of performance, functionality, availability, and best practices. It also shows you the number of orders, their size, and the time it takes to load them. It also gives you some recommendations to improve download speed.
Compress HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files: These files contain some characters, spaces, and comments that do not affect the functionality of the page, but they increase the file size and thus the number of requests. Therefore, it is desirable to compress such files by removing all unnecessary from them. You can use online file compression tools or download file compression software to your computer. Some examples of file compression tools are:
HTML Minifier: This online tool allows you to compress HTML files by removing spaces, lines, comments, and unused data. You can also select some optimization options like deleting duplicate attributes or shortening names.
CSS Minifier: This online tool allows you to compress CSS files by removing spaces, lines, comments, and unused data. You can also select some optimization options like deleting duplicate rules or shortening names.
JavaScript Minifier: This online tool allows you to compress JavaScript files by removing spaces, lines, comments, and unused data. You can also specify some optimization options like deleting duplicate variables or shortening names.
Combine CSS and JavaScript files: If you have multiple CSS or JavaScript files in a webpage, it may send multiple requests to load them. Therefore, it is a good idea to combine these files into one file for each type. This will reduce the number of requests and increase the download speed. You can use online file merging tools or download file merging software to your computer. Some examples of file merging tools are:
CSS Merge: This online tool allows you to merge up to 10 CSS files into one. You can also choose the option to compress the file.
JSCompress: This online tool allows you to combine up to 10 JavaScript files into a single file.
Improve your site speed by using a content delivery network
A content delivery network (CDN) is a service that stores copies of the content of your website or online store on several servers that are geographically distributed in different places around the world. When a user visits a webpage from your site or online store, the content is loaded from the server closest to their site, rather than the original server that may be far away from it. This reduces waiting time and increases download speed.
The use of a content delivery network has many benefits
of benefits, such as:
Improving user experience: When a user visits a fast-loading webpage, they feel satisfied and confident with the website or online store, and they are more likely to stay, interact, and buy.
Search Engine Ranking Improvement: Loading speed is one of the ranking factors that search engines like Google use to provide the best results for searchers. When your website or online store is fast, it gets higher scores and appears higher on the results pages.
Reduce bandwidth consumption: When a user visits a webpage from a content delivery network, it consumes less bandwidth than the original server, because the content is already stored on a server nearby. This reduces the costs of hosting your website or online store and increases the efficiency of resource use.
Increased availability and security: When a user visits a web page from a content delivery network, it is not dependent on the state of the originating server, which may be slow, down, or targeted for attacks. This ensures that the user always gets to the content they want, and protects your website or online store from damage.
There are many content delivery network service providers, such as:
Cloudflare: This is one of the most popular content delivery network service providers, offering both free plan and paid plans at affordable rates. Cloudflare also offers additional security and performance services, such as DDoS attack protection, image optimization, and encryption.
KeyCDN: This is a usage-based Content Delivery Network service provider, which means you only pay for the bandwidth you consume. KeyCDN also offers additional security and performance services, such as DDoS protection, GZIP compression, Brotli, and HTTP / 2.
BunnyCDN: This is a simple and easy to use content delivery network service provider, which offers very low bandwidth rates. BunnyCDN also offers additional security and performance services, such as DDoS protection, GZIP compression, Brotli, and HTTP/2.
Improve your site speed by delaying image loading
Lazy loading is a technique that loads images only when the user needs them, instead of loading them all when the page is opened. For example, if you have a long web page with many images, delay loading images only loads the images that appear in the browser window, and leaves the rest until the user scrolls down.
Delaying image loading has many benefits, such as:
Loading speed optimization: When a user visits a webpage, they don't have to wait for all images to load, which can take a long time and consume a lot of bandwidth. Instead, images are loaded as needed, making the page faster and lighter.
Improving user experience: When a user visits a fast-loading webpage, they feel satisfied and confident with the website or online store, and they are more likely to stay, interact, and buy. The delay in loading images also makes browsing smoother and easier.
Reduced data consumption: When a user visits a web page from a content delivery network, he does not consume additional data to load images that he is not interested in or that he does not view. This saves the user costs and battery.
There are a few methods and tools you can use to delay uploading photos, such as:
HTML native lazy loading: This is the simplest and easiest way to delay loading images, it uses a new HTML attribute called loading. All you have to do is add loading="lazy" to the img tags on your website or online store pages. This will cause the browser to delay loading the images until they are close to the viewing window. This method is supported by most modern browsers, but not all.
JavaScript lazy loading: This is a more advanced and custom way to delay loading images, where some code uses JavaScript to detect the location of images on a page and load them when needed. This method requires some programming skills, use of a ready-made plugin or library. Some examples of plugins and libraries to delay image loading are:
Lazy Load: This is a popular WordPress plugin that allows you to delay the loading of images, videos, and frames on your website or online store. Lazy Load uses a technique called intersection observer to detect the location of elements on a page and load them as they approach the rendering window.
Lozad.js: This is a lightweight and simple JavaScript library that allows you to delay the loading of any element in your website or online store pages. Lozad.js also uses the intersection observer technique, but it requires some changes in the HTML tags to add the data-src attribute instead of the src.
Improve your site speed by reducing the number of ads
Ads are a popular way to monetize your website or online store, they allow you to offer products or services that are relevant to your content or audience. However, ads are also a factor that negatively affects loading speed, they add volume and additional requests to the page, and may contain code or heavy visual content.
Reducing the number of ads has many benefits, such as:
Improve loading speed: When a user visits a webpage, they don't have to wait for ads to load, which can take a long time and consume a lot of bandwidth. Instead, the main content of the page loads faster and lighter.
Improving user experience: When a user visits a fast-loading webpage, they feel satisfied and confident with the website or online store, and they are more likely to stay, interact, and buy. Reducing the number of ads also makes the page cleaner, more attractive, and easier to browse.
Increase the value of ads: When you reduce the number of ads on your page, you increase the chance that each ad will be seen by a user. This leads to an increase in the CTR (click ratio) and eCPM (earnings per thousand views) of your ads, which increases your income from them.
There are some methods and tools that
You can use them to reduce the number of ads on your website or online store, such as:
A/B testing: This is a technique that performs experiments on two different versions of a webpage to compare their performance. You can use A/B testing to see how the number of ads affects load speed, user experience, and conversions. You can use tools like Google Optimize or Visual Website Optimizer to easily perform A/B testing.
Using an intelligent ad network: These are ad networks that optimize ad serving based on user data, content, and context. You can use a smart ad network to display the most relevant, quality, and performing ads to your audience, reducing your need to display many ads. Some examples of smart ad networks are:
Google AdSense: This is the most popular ad network, which displays targeted Google ads based on your page content and audience. You can use Google AdSense to display ads that are text, visual, or optimized for mobile devices.
Ezoic: This is an ad network that uses artificial intelligence to optimize ad serving based on user preferences and behaviour. You can use Ezoic to increase your ad income and improve your site speed and user experience.
In the end
The speed of your website or online store is an important factor in determining your success on the Internet. If your site or store is slow to load, you may lose visitors, customers, and revenue. Therefore, you must work on constantly improving the speed of your site or store, using appropriate methods and tools.
In this article, we have given you some tips and examples to improve the speed of your site or store by reducing the number of requests and reducing the size of the content. We hope you will benefit from it and apply it to your website or store.
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