Key factors affecting website performance and how to combat them
Tags: performance, webperf, webdev, webcomponents
Published: 2022-06-30 04:56:01

Nothing can be more frustrating than waiting for a website to load. **Page speed**  plays a very important role in website `user experience`. Many website owners still prioritize complex website design over focusing on website performance.


According to [Kissmetrics](https://blog.kissmetrics.com/loading-time/?wide=1):

- 1 second delay in page response will lead to a 7% reduction in conversions.
- 47% of consumers expect web pages to load in 2 seconds or even less.
- 40% of them will abandon a website that takes more than 30 seconds to load.
- 79% of online shoppers who are dissatisfied with a website performance are less likely to buy from the same website again.
- 52% of the online shoppers stated that fast page load is crucial to their site loyalty.


`Site speed` is one of more than 200 signals that Google uses to determine search rankings. Although Google announced that site speed is not  as important as content relevance, it does. 

Anyway, you still need to optimize your site speed for faster loading times.

- Linked to better search ranking (so you get more organic traffic than) 
- Give your visitors a better user experience, which improves your conversion rates. 

However, you should always prioritize the reputation, relevance, and  quality of your site's content above everything else.

 
It doesn't matter how hot a bargain is on your site if it runs slow. Even a second delay will result in a significant reduction in conversions. `Customer loyalty` is directly related to  page load speed. 


## Factors that slow down the website 

Keeping in mind the importance of your website speed, here are some factors that can slow down your website: 


1. `Online advertising` is one of the main ways to make money from your website. But there are also downsides that come with it, and one of them is that it affects the speed of your site. 

2. Choosing a mediocre web host can be a hassle. When the web host cannot keep up with the demand,  your website can become sluggish. You might consider switching  web hosts in these cases.
  
3. Fancy websites often run at slow speeds. Videos and music are great sources of content, but they are additional code for a website that affects page load speed. 

4. Many `widgets and plugins` are useful features, but it can slow down the speed. The more widgets and plugins you install, the longer it takes to load. It even tends to affect the security of your websites which is why `SSL speed tests` are also recommended. 

5. Uploading `large images` to your site will slow it down. You can reduce their size before they are downloaded. 

6. It will be difficult for the visitor's browser to cache the content locally if the header is not configured. This means additional needs for page elements.

7. `Gzip` compresses CSS, Javascript and HTML files by more than 50% of the file size. When you don't enable Gzip compression, web pages take longer to load  and use more bandwidth.

8. Browsers like Chrome don't work well with some plugins. Make sure to always test your page speed and whether it loads well on different devices and browsers. 
 

## Ways to optimize website performance
 

Considering these factors, there are many ways to optimize website performance. You can use different tools to ensure a fast website. Here are some ways it could happen. 

## 1. Website Speed ​​Test 
 
There are many free tools  you can use to test website speed. Some of them are `Site Analyzer, Load Impact, Pingdom and P3`. 

## 2. Image optimization 

Make sure your image has a `small file size` before uploading, otherwise it may take longer to upload. 

## 3. Reduce the number of plugins 

Installing too many plugins can be harmful, as mentioned above. It can even pose many security threats. Disable and remove all `unnecessary plugins` that can slow down your website. 

## 4. Content Delivery Network 

You should use the Content Delivery Network if your site is a large amount of data. This uses a larger network of data strategically placed  in `different locations` to deliver web content to visitors. 


## 5. Choose a reliable web host 

This is one of the most effective ways to ensure  your website performs at its best for speed. Choose the right `web hosting plan` to improve website performance. A cheap hosting plan may at first seem good  and seem like the right choice, but it will be very expensive in the long run. Make sure to use a reliable web host that offers several hosting plans. This is essential for  **effective management **of website resources. 

## 6. Enable Gzip compression

Another way to speed up page load times is to zip or compress them. Compression reduces the bandwidth of your site, thereby reducing the HTTP response. To do this, use a tool called Gzip that can reduce download times by up to 70%. 

## 7. Enable browser caching

Every time a user visits a website, elements of the visited web page  are stored in the user's temporary memory or  cache. So the next time the same web page is visited, the user's browser can load the page without sending another HTTP request to the server. Configure `Expires` from a minimum of a week  to a year for cacheable resources like JS files, CSS, PDFs, media files, and more.

It is very important to ensure a fast website  to maintain conversions. A business will never function without an optimal website in this modern era where people rely on the internet more  than anything else.

Gratitude for perusing my article till end. I hope you realized something unique today. If you enjoyed this article then please share to your buddies and if you have suggestions or thoughts to share with me then please write in the comment box.


Above blog is submitted as part of 'Devtron Blogathon 2022' - https://devtron.ai/
Check out Devtron's GitHub repo - https://github.com/devtron-labs/devtron/ and give a ⭐ to show your love & support.
Follow Devtron on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/devtron-labs/ and Twitter - https://twitter.com/DevtronL/, to keep yourself updated on this Open Source project.