Four ways to speed up your company’s website

Less page requests can mean more traffic

A computer with website code displayed on it. How many times have you visited a website and found it slow to load? Is your own company’s website also one that tends to drag as it loads? A website that is slow to load negatively impacts the user – your client’s – experience. It can impact the overall experience so much that prospective clients may leave your site and go find or fill their needs elsewhere.

You ask yourself (and your IT team) why this is happening. Most likely it’s not because your internet speed isn’t good but rather because there are too many page requests or hypertext transfer protocol requests.

The hyper transfer protocol, more commonly known as HTTP, is the name for when a web browser like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Safari sends a file request from a specific website, and then the website’s server sends (or "transfers") that file to the browser.

The more HTTP requests your website makes, the slower it becomes. Speed up your website by using these four steps:

Grade your website. Visit a website grader site to see what may be impacting your website’s performance.
Remove unnecessary images. If an image is taking too long to load, it’s not helping your website or experience.
Reduce image file sizes. Images on your site should be less than 100 KB.
Utilize Javascript to allow elements to load at the same time instead of one at a time, which is the default.

Once you’ve made these enhancements, you can begin to make other changes and improvements like adjusting the width and height of your image tags, reviewing the amount of text on your site, and reevaluating the use of H1, H2, and H3 tags.

The overall user experience is important when clients visit your site. A prospective client could see a positive tweet or news article about your company and its products and may want to make a purchase. However, the accessibility and usability of your site can quickly change that positive experience or thought process, causing you to lose clients.

You should review your site regularly to ensure links aren’t broken and images are loading properly. In fact, we recommend redesigning your website every three years! Use things like inbound marketing to your advantage. Download our Inbound Marketing e-book to assist you as you look to enhance your website’s appeal.

Clients love Marjorie’s work ethic, speed and diligence. She has worked with Axia Public Relations since October 2011. Marjorie graduated from Rockhurst University with a Bachelor of Arts in communication and loves to cheer for her hometown Kansas City Royals. Learn more about Marjorie.