There are many websites who realized very late that their load time was costing them business. You could avoid this from the very beginning and ensure that you consider all the below mentioned ways to create a much faster loading and performing WordPress Website Design. Once you have the reputation of a slow site, then it is very difficult to change this perception in the minds of your customers who had a harrowing time when they visited you last!
Step 1
Using a CDN or a content delivery network is a good idea. It helps in increasing the loading time by offloading static resources from servers. This reduces the server load and makes your site load much faster. Two of the most popular options are MaxCDN and CloudFare.
Step 2
A good Caching Plug-in will drastically change your load time. Since your WordPress site is based on PHP; it’s natural for plenty of PHP calls to get executed at the time of loading which makes the whole process slower. The plug-in will store the files as HTML resulting in better load time. Although, there are many plug-ins that can do this job, choose one that offers all such as CDN caching support, database, page, object, browser etc.
Step 3:
Be careful with the type of images you have uploaded. The high-resolution images look great on your website but can take ages to load. The solution is to use a good plug-in that will reduce the size of the file but there will be no compromise on quality.
Step 4:
Choose your host wisely. There are many hosting companies that can lure you with their cheap prices but you must understand that this may also mean more loading time. You may be often tempted by unlimited space offers but then the painfully slow loading time is sure to make you regret your decision. Often there is a lot of downtimes too on bad hosts which is obviously quite damaging for your business.
Step 5:
Use a minimalistic design in your foot bar and your sidebar. Very dense designs and cluttered up widgets will negatively affect the load time.
Step 6:
No Commenting! Yes, you may not want to turn off commenting as it lets you know how popular or not your site is, but then you are compromising on speed by having it on. So, there are more chances of your site being unpopular. Commenting system use very large scripts so it is easy to understand how it can affect you.
Step 7:
Ensure a tidy database. This will help your site to run smoothly. Often users will experiment with several plug-ins which can clutter up the database and slow the site. So clean up and optimize regularly for best results
Step 8:
Make sure your theme design is simple and clear. This advice may also seem very simple but it can be critical to your website’s speed. Using a simple theme during WordPress Development will ensure faster loading on all device including smartphones, PCs which will increase popularity and as a result traffic too.
Step 9:
Enable Compression. There are a lot of plug-ins that can zip your files and increase loading speed by 70%!
Step 10:
Your homepage is the first thing that loads up so ensure that it has a clean and minimalist design.
What are the Benefits of a Faster Website?
Better profits: If you own an online store then even a second’s delay can cost you a sale! There are so many options on the Internet that the user does not have the patience to wait for your site to painfully load. He or she is ready to click away to another site the moment they are the least bit irritated with loading speed.
A great experience: It is a known fact that when visitors have a comfortable experience with your site, they are likely to come back. They stay longer on the site to browse and research on all your products in greater depth. This means greater conversions and also repeat sales. Word spreads fast online and you are likely to be recommended to friends if you provide your visitor with a great browsing experience.
Search engine optimization: You are virtually nonexistent on the web if you have a poor ranking. The speed with your website loads is a very important criterion for all search engines especially the most important one, Google. Almost 4 years back, the search engine launched an algorithm that started filtering out fast loading sites.
How to ensure that all the above steps and more have been implemented in your website?
The answer to this very simple; hire the best WordPress Development Company to build your site. There are a handful of great developers and one name that stands out is NCodeTechnologies.com. They do not only have a reputation of setting up the fastest loading WordPress website but will also deliver you a well-designed one in the best turnaround time.