Technology Tip
Dave Pelland has extensive experience covering the business use of technology, networking and communications tools by companies of all sizes. Dave's editorial and corporate experience includes more than 10 years editing an electronic technology and communications industry newsletter for a global professional services firm.

Increasing the Speed of Your Small Business Website

Increasing the Speed of Your Small Business Website

While perhaps not as important as posting engaging and educational content, increasing the speed of your small business website provides important benefits in improving your search engine rankings and the site’s business results.

Because impatient users are likely to abandon a page that is loading slowly, search engines account for loading time as they determine the rankings on results pages.

A site that displays its images and text in less than three seconds, which is considered the standard today, will rank higher and attract more visitors than a site that, although it may offer better content, loads in six to eight seconds.

Fortunately, there are some basic tools and techniques that small business owners can use to increase the speed at which their site loads - as well as the site’s overall performance in supporting your company’s goals for attracting and engaging prospects and customers.

Understand Your Load Speed

When visitor accesses your small business website, all of the site’s elements -text, images, headlines, graphics, videos and other elements - have to be downloaded to their computer or mobile device.

And although the speed of their connection plays the most important role in determining how quickly this process takes place, there are a number of steps you can take to reduce the site’s overall loading time.

An important first step is understanding how quickly your site loads. Perhaps the most valuable tool in measuring this metric is Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool, because it’s important to know how Google evaluates your site’s loading time. The tool will help you identify elements that are loading slowly and potentially delaying the site’s overall speed.

Consider Your Images

A common issue with small business websites is the resolution of the images displayed on the site. At full resolution, the size of each image file is larger than necessary for quick display on a website. Full-resolution images are packed with data that makes them easy to edit or crop, but that much detail is wasted for web display.

If you edit your images, export them in a setting that’s designed for online display. This will preserve the essential details of the image, while reducing the file size and optimizing their load speeds within your site.

If you don’t edit your images, there are a variety of tools and WordPress plugins that can optimize images for online display.

Evaluate Your WordPress Environment

If your small business uses WordPress for its website, check for plug-ins, widgets, templates, and other elements you may not be using (or that you can live without). While each element usually performs its function quickly, having a combination of add-ons can slow the site’s overall performance.

For instance, using one plugin to manage Facebook, Twitter and Instagram images will likely be faster than using separate plugins for each platform. Removing extra plugins will speed up those you retain.

Similarly, look for a plugin like WP Rocket to combine the functionality of diverse site tools and to reduce repeated code in the site’s infrastructure.

And make sure the add-ons you keep on the site are updated, since outdated page elements can slow performance (and could create a security vulnerability).

By paying attention to your site’s load time and taking steps to optimize it, you can improve your site’s rankings and the benefits the site provides to your small business.


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