A large DOM size can negatively impact your WordPress website's performance in a few ways.
Think about how you create a new page in WordPress. You might add elements like headings, paragraphs, images, galleries, forms, buttons, and social media icons. Each of these elements translates to a DOM node in the tree structure.
While each element individually might seem small, the sheer number can quickly add up, creating an excessive DOM size.
If your DOM nodes keep increasing, the browser will take longer to read, understand, and load the structure of your website. This is because a complex DOM structure requires more memory usage and processing power from the user's device to display the page.
All of this leads to slower loading times, which can frustrate visitors and cause them to bounce off your site before they even see your content.
These days, users expect websites to load quickly. A slow-loading website can be like waiting in a long line – it discourages people from sticking around.
Search engines like Google prioritize websites that offer a good user experience, including fast loading speeds. So, an excessive DOM size can indirectly hurt your WordPress SEO and ultimately, website conversions.