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How do you make a website faster? That’s a question we, as web developers, often get asked. Once we start analyzing a website, we can usually identify a few reasons why it’s not performing as well as it could be. Below, I outlined the most common issues we find. Is your website suffering from these performance killers?
Huge Images
When it comes to images, you would think the bigger the better, right? You want every detail of a photo to be visible and appreciated, so you upload an entire 15 MB (or more) of a raw image onto the server and display it on the page. In reality, the page will only display as many pixels as it can fit inside its predeveloped container, while the rest of the pixels will be wasted and will only weigh your page down. A modern webpage container’s standard width is between 1024px and 1400px. As a point of reference, the photos you take on your phone are most likely AT LEAST 3 times wider.
Videos Not Hosted Properly
Another type of media that is even more demanding for bandwidth is video. If you auto-play a video on your website, our suggestion is to either keep it short and sweet and host it on your server, or for bigger videos, you would need to use a third-party video hosting platform like YouTube or Vimeo. Remember that while free, YouTube channels have mandatory ads that can advertise your competition! Our video hosting platform of choice has become Vimeo. We appreciate a clean interface and better control, even if it comes with a price tag versus free YouTube (no such thing as free, am I right?).
Large Web Files
It is somewhat common knowledge that images can be optimized, but not many people know that PDFs can and should be optimized as well. You don’t have to be a graphic designer either; there are plenty of tools online that will get the job done in seconds.
Hosting Not Optimized for Your Website
Where you host your website matters. Some hosting is better equipped for “brochure” websites, some were specifically designed to run WordPress websites, and some can handle custom websites with hundreds of pages. This might be a complicated question, so your best bet would be to reach out to your web developer to evaluate your needs.
Messy Code
Ideally, all code on your website should be minified, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Minifying means removing white spaces, line breaks, comments, etc. Essentially, that turns hundreds and hundreds of lines of code into one very long line. It’s easier for browsers to load and comprehend that one line, resulting in better performance.
Widgets and Plugins Galore
Many of our clients like to use third-party widgets on their websites, be it a gallery of social media posts, an external contact form, or a virtual chat. Widgets can be a great addition to a website when used in moderation. Remember that every widget comes with a whole library of code that gets loaded on the page and might drastically affect the website’s performance. Plugin overload can be your biggest offender if you have a WordPress website. Ensure you know what all your plugins do and remove any unnecessary ones.
In conclusion, I wanted to mention that sometimes there is just no way to make a website significantly faster than it already is. Sometimes, the code is desperately outdated and just doesn’t work well with modern technology. If your website is older, there is no better way to improve its performance than redesigning it. Technology changes daily, and what was top-of-the-line 5 years ago is considered dated today. If you need help with evaluating your website’s performance, give our Solutionists a call at (610) 337-8484!
