Things to Consider for Your Website Performance

How to Improve Your Website's Performance

After a website is created and launched, you might think your work is done — but that would be a mistake. Once your website goes live, you also need to pay attention to its content. This is done through a process called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). There are many things you can do to improve SEO, the most common being link building, creating SEO-optimized content, on-page SEO plugins, and others.

However, there is another critical factor for promoting your website's SEO: optimizing your website as a whole.

When we talk about website performance, we're not only focused on whether your end users are on a PC or a Mac. We're also considering whether they're using a tablet or mobile device. Regardless of what device they use, if your website is optimized, it will load quickly and offer them a more enjoyable experience.

Here are the top 7 things you can do to maximize your website's performance.

1. Cloud Hosting

If you host your site on a cloud server, it offers many advantages over a local server — including cost, scalability, improved performance, and the ability to scale your organization as needed.

Having a reliable cloud hosting service is the first step in optimizing your website. Many first-time users make the mistake of choosing a cheap hosting company instead of a premium one. Although premium hosting costs more, it is generally worth the price as you scale.

According to data from Neil Patel, users expect a website to load in 2 seconds or less. Premium hosting allows you to deliver a visually appealing and accessible website that loads quickly for your users regardless of their device.

2. CDN Services

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a distributed network that delivers websites and other web content to end users.

Essentially, a CDN serves static web assets — such as HTML, CSS, images, and JavaScript — through web servers that are physically closer to the user.

For example, if an origin server is located in the US and a user accesses the website from Singapore, delivery takes longer because the data has to travel further. A CDN has multiple data servers around the world, allowing users in Singapore to load content from a nearby server rather than all the way from the US, resulting in faster access.

3. Reducing Image Size

According to a 2018 HubSpot report, the majority of marketers said visual content is the most important content format for their business. Images grab the user's attention and make your site look great.

However, using too many images or large-sized images can slow down your website's loading time.

To fix this, you can:

• Use newer image formats like WebP and JPEG XR to reduce file size by 20–50% without sacrificing original quality.

• Save images as PNG or JPEG as an alternative.

• Compress images using tools like Photoshop.

• Rescale images to fit your website's dimensions.

• Use plugins like WP Smush to quickly compress images.

4. Minifying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Files

Minification is a programming process that removes all unnecessary characters from code — including whitespace, comments, and line breaks. While these elements are useful for developers to read and understand code, they make files larger for machines, which takes extra time and ultimately slows down your website.

It's important to note that the source code is not altered — it is simply minified to reduce its size and allow for more efficient distribution over the internet. By minifying files such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, web browsers can read your website faster and deliver the information to the end user more quickly.

5. Making Your Website Responsive

Optimizing your site for desktop is no longer enough — you also need to make your website responsive for mobile and tablet devices. According to a February 2019 survey by Statista, mobile devices account for 21% of internet usage in North America.

If you're designing your website from scratch, the ideal strategy is to code for mobile devices first, then build out for tablets and desktops. If your budget doesn't allow for all three, we recommend designing for mobile first and including desktop if possible. Designing mobile-first also helps reduce the number of unnecessary plugins.

To check whether your website is mobile-friendly, you can use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test tool and enter your website's URL. For example, checking roipublic.com shows that the site is suitable for mobile devices.

If there are any page loading issues, they will be highlighted on a separate page so you or your developer can address them.

6. Using Web Caching

You may have heard of this before, but perhaps don't have a clear definition. So, what is Web Caching?

According to Wikipedia, Web Caching is a method for the temporary storage of web documents — including web pages and images — to reduce server latency and minimize bandwidth usage.

An added benefit is increased efficiency. When a returning visitor comes to your site, they are served the cached version instead of the original files. This saves server time and makes page loading much faster. If you haven't enabled it yet, we strongly recommend doing so right away. Many web hosting providers like WPEngine include a caching feature that significantly speeds up your website.

7. Reduce HTTP Requests by Combining CSS and JavaScript

HTTP(S) is a request/response method used by web browsers to fetch files from a web server. Some users may not be familiar with this, so let's break it down.

When a visitor lands on a page of your site, their browser sends a request to your web server. The web server must then send back everything that makes up that page. A simple example is social sharing buttons. Let's say you've added sharing buttons for Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to your site header — that's already 3 additional HTTP requests per page. If you have Google Analytics or another analytics tool, add at least 1 more.

The more external requests your website makes, the more HTTP requests are generated — and the slower your site becomes.

We're not suggesting you remove social sharing buttons or other features. However, we do recommend combining and placing your CSS in the header, and combining your JavaScript files and placing them in the footer to avoid redundant requests.

Note: Before installing new plugins or requesting new features, it is recommended to systematically evaluate how those additions will affect your site's overall request load.

While website performance may seem like a technical matter, it is actually one of the most important aspects of user experience. With simple actions, website performance can be significantly improved. These actions should especially target the end user. Our goal should always be for visitors to spend more time on the site — and to do so without experiencing any issues.