In recognizing that ecommerce has become an incredibly effective way to increase a business’s conversion rates, many company owners find themselves asking an the question, “Are there ways to increase the loading speed on my webpage?” The answer is yes, and you can find several easily implementable strategies you can use to accomplish this objective below.
1. Minimize HTTP Requests
Yahoo reports that 80% of the time it takes a web page to load is attributed to downloading different page elements such as scripts, flash, stylesheets, and images. To perform any of these functions necessitates an HTTP request, and the more page elements that exist, the more time it will take for the page to complete the request and load. To reduce the number of HTTP requests associated with your page and thereby increase the loading speed of your webpage, you can simplify your design in several ways. Some of them include:
- Combining multiple style sheets into a singular element
- Decreasing the number of elements on the page
- Reducing scripts and placing them at the bottom of the web page
- Using CSS in place of images when doing so is possible
2. Utilize Compression
As many Internet experts know, large pages can reach 100kb in size and some take up even more space. This size causes the web page to take a great deal of time to load up. To increase the load speed, you can utilize a technique commonly referred to as compression. Compression is an effective technique to employ, because it reduces page bandwidth, thus reducing the HTTP response. Compression is accomplished through the use of a tool called Gzip. Generally, a web server will be able to compress files in the Gzip format prior to sending them off to be downloaded. Yahoo reports that utilizing this method can result in a reduction of download time amounting to 70%.
3. Minify Your Resources
Although the use of WYSIWYG can make it simple to create a web page, doing so can also result in the creation of messy codes that slow down your website loading time. In recognizing that each piece of superfluous code contributes to the size of your web page, it’s a good idea to eliminate unnecessary line breaks, indentation, and extra spaces. This will make your pages leaner, thus increasing their loading speed.
4. Optimize Your Images
Opting to optimize your images is yet another way that you can increase the loading speed on your webpages, and there are several things you can do to accomplish this objective. First, consider the size of your images. If they are oversized, they will take longer to load, so be sure to keep them as tiny as you can. To do so, you can crop them and/or remove image comments. You should also consider your image format when attempting to increase the loading speed on your webpage. Your best option is JPEG, and PNG is also suitable. However, avoid the use of TIFFs and BMPs at all costs.
Related Resource: Improve Website Bandwidth
Conclusion
If you are interested in ensuring that the content of your webpage reaches many people, you should know that increasing its loading speed can play an integral role in helping you accomplish this objective. Now that you have a basic answer to the question “What are some ways to increase the loading speed on my webpage?” you can begin implementing proven strategies that will help you do so.
