Have you ever gone to a website and realized it’s taking ages to come online? Don’t you hate that?
As it turns out, your visitors hate that too. Even worse, their definition of “ages” might be significantly shorter than yours. Surveys and user behavior studies suggest that you have around three seconds to interest someone in your website before they click away or visit another search result. If your website takes longer than that to simply load, your chance of winning a customer could be gone before it ever materialized.
You might be wondering, then, why some business websites are so slow in the first place. Let’s look at a few of the most common reasons…
1. Outdated HTML Could Be the Culprit
You may have noticed that your website is constantly being updated. You might change content, add blog posts, and make other little modifications from time to time. Meanwhile, your content management system is probably going through a few versions each month, as are your apps and plug-ins.
Through this process, it’s easy for small errors and inconsistencies to pop up in your HTML. If you don’t have a web design team scanning for them on a regular basis they could slow your pages down significantly.
2. Too Many Plug-ins Can Slow Your Pages Down
Adding plug-ins to your website is easy. Many of them are free, and they add lots of fun and useful features to your pages.
However, that convenience isn’t always a great thing. Because it’s so easy to choose and install new plug-ins, lots of business websites are running more of them than they should. The result is pages that load slowly, along with random crashes and error messages. Worst of all, you might not even see what your customers do because they may be using different devices and browsers.
3. Content Should Be Optimized for Speed
Most business owners don’t think of content as affecting website performance, but it can. For example, having extra-large images crammed onto your pages can slow down your loading time. That’s a particularly big problem on mobile devices. In the same way, using unusual fonts or embedding videos can cause problems.
If you want a fast and reliable website, it’s worth it to review the structure and formatting of all the content on your pages to ensure you have any problems.
4. Shared Web Hosting Can Be Slow
Lots of small business owners like shared web hosting plans because they tend to be inexpensive. Unfortunately, they aren’t necessarily a speedy or reliable choice. That’s because your website will be hosted on a packed server that’s also holding hundreds of other websites.
When you upgrade to premium web hosting packages you get a dedicated room on faster pieces of equipment. That equates to quicker page loading times even during periods of high traffic.
Is it Time to Speed up Your Business Website?
If your website moves slowly, we can help. Using advanced analytics tools, we can perform what’s known as a website audit to dig in your code, evaluate your hosting, and look for any issues with poorly-formatted content or outdated plug-ins. A thorough website audit is the first step towards speeding up your pages and optimizing your site for search engines or conversions.
At The Marcom Group, we know what it takes to put together a cost-effective web presence. Contact us today so we can schedule a complimentary website review and show you how to turn your web presence into real-world leads and sales.