MARKETING MATTERS
Fast Loading
Website Formula
MONICA PITTS
WHY
Google ’ s algorithm is changing and dinging rankings for slow-loading sites . So if your site is slow , it ’ s less likely to show up when people search for it . Plus , people will abandon a slow site before even fully loading the page . Which is a signal to Google that your site is slow ... and then it won ’ t share your site on search engines , so now we ’ ve come full circle . So really , you need a fast-loading site because it doesn ’ t matter how gorgeous your site is . If people never get there , all that pretty just goes to waste .
FIRST YOU ’ RE GOING TO RUN A TEST .
Check your website ’ s load time using a few free testing tools like Google Page
Speed Insights , GTmetrix or Uptrends . These reports will tell you where you ’ re bogged down and give you suggestions for fixing . But to be honest , some of the stuff they tell you is going to look a lot like geek ( no , not greek , geek ) because it is . So I ’ m going to define most of the common challenges for you now .
1 . Enable Caching
Once the site is loaded on a device , the browser stores or caches most of the content on the page , so the next time the page is loaded , the content is stored locally and loads faster . That ’ s why sometimes when you update your site you can ’ t see the changes you made until you clear your browser cache .
You ’ ll manage this through a plugin . We usually use WP Rocket .
2 . Minimize CSS and Javascript
A site has lots of moving parts , and each takes time to load . Each plugin , and your theme as well , often have their own CSS and javascript files . So , for example , for your website to display , it may need to pull 10 or more files , process , and load them before the viewer can fully use your site . When you minimize CSS and javascript , you only have to load two files to achieve the same result .
3 . Use a CDN
A CDN ( Content Delivery Network ) is a collection of servers that helps speed www . callape . com [ 20 ] 1.800.210.5923