Guest Blogger: Josh Wardini
Page loading time refers to the time taken to transfer and show the content of a website page in a web browser window. This process is measured in seconds and it has direct implications on how visitors are engaged and the success of a brand. Even one-second delay in loading of a website page can lead to a 7% decrease in conversions and worse ranking with the search engines. It is no exaggeration to say that page speed is essential for better conversion rates and should be made the priority when starting an online business.
In order to increase the page loading time instantly, it is important to reduce HTTP requests. 80% of a website’s loading time goes to download the components of the web page; for instance, the scripts, flash, stylesheets and images. An HTTP request is usually given for each component. Therefore, the more the number of on-page components, the longer it would take for the website to load.
Using CSS instead of background images reduces the HTTP requests regardless of whether you are using a custom-built website, WordPress, Joomla, Wix, Shopify, BigCommerce or whichever site builder gets your creative wheels spinning.
The web page owner can also decrease server response time to be less than 200 milliseconds, in order to improve the page loading time. A website application monitoring solution can be employed to analyze your hosting environment and to suggest optimization techniques.
The third option the website owner can take is compression. Huge web pages have plenty of content and are therefore not fast to download. To decrease the loading time, the pages can be zipped using GZIP. Zipping decreases the pages’ bandwidth, and this reduces the HTTP response. The GZIP compression decreases loading time by roughly 70% prior to downloading by reducing the amount of data transferred between the server and end user.
If you have been having issues with your page load time, you can easily apply those three easy solutions (the technical support team of your host should be able to help) and you will view the results instantly. These optimizations are simple but effective.
Paul Dughi.com 