5 Reasons Your Site is Slow

The year? 2023. The problem? Your website is still loading slow. You've noticed in your analytics software that bounces are high. Your funnel has a hole in it – and you're losing sales!

Everyone has been here – it's a tale as old as time. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if you're tired of hearing about it. The question is: What can we do to fix it?

#1: Heavy code usage

Code that is too heavy can negatively impact website speed, as more code that needs to be executed on the server or browser leads to longer load times. By minifying or compressing code, website owners can improve website speed.

Minifying code is the process of removing blank space, comments, and unused parts of code before shipping it to the user. Compressing code is actually using a compression algorithm to make the file smaller.

You can minify and compress your code as a part of your DevOps or CI/CD pipeline. Alternatively, you can do it with one click, on-the-fly, with Skip2.

#2: Non-optimized images

Images and other media content makes up over half of all web traffic. This is in part because of the huge difference in file size for different data types - text and CSS are small, while pictures and video are large, and the delta is staggering. By compressing images, lazy loading, or using next-gen image formats, website owners can reduce image file size, allowing for faster download and processing times.

#3: Absence of a cache layer or CDN

Another reason for slow website speed is the lack of a caching layer. Caching is the process of storing a copy of website files in a web cache, which allows for faster load times. Without caching, the client's browser needs to request assets from the origin server every time, leading to slower response times. Setting up caching rules manually, utilizing a content delivery network (CDN), or using caching plugins can help automate the caching process.

Not using a content delivery network (CDN) is another reason for slow website speed, as network latency can occur when the physical distance between the user and origin server is too great. CDNs consist of servers distributed in different locations worldwide, which serve content from the nearest server to the user, resulting in faster load times.

#4: Cheap hosting that really is too good to be true

The least fun reason for slow website speed is due to low-quality hosting services. To optimize website speed, it is crucial to choose a high-quality managed service provider and hosting solution that can guarantee availability, security, and performance. Relying on a cheap shared-hosting service can negatively impact website speed, as resources are shared with other websites and not evenly distributed.

The way bad providers operate is by over-subscribing their server space, trying to fit hundreds or thousands of websites on a single server that simply cannot handle the traffic. If you think you're in this boat, you can try the other solutions above, but you may have to settle for the fact that it's time to find a new provider.

#5: Render-blocking CSS or JavaScript

When code is 'render-blocking,' it means that the page cannot be rendered until all of the code has been downloaded. This means that if you've got large file sizes, the user is left waiting far too long for the first part of your page to appear. Techniques such as critical CSS, reducing unused CSS, and deferring JS can help prioritize resources and lead to faster load times.