Improve Site Speed
Managing your eCommerce business shouldn’t mean site-speed dictates every decision. In this article, we are going to help you use speed to manage top-tier user experience and end the constant battle your site running like a snail. Site speed can feel like a dead-end especially considering software as a service website (Saas), (BigCommerce, Shopify, WordPress) are not meant for custom coding out of the box. Well, how can you make a difference quickly without having to spend the money on hiring a web-developer or working with an agency? If these questions interest you this article is everything you need to get that site moving faster.
Is site speed affecting you?
Not only is site speed crucial for your user experience it also affects your rank with google directly affecting SEO. In January of 2018, Google announced its “Speed Update” which now ranks mobile and desktop site speeds.
We all know this feeling:
Waiting for a site to load is the fastest way to lose credibility and make your users want to get off your site. Even loyal customers. According to 2018 research by Google, 53% of your users will drop off your site if your site takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
The fastest way to combat that slow load time starts with Content Optimization.
Site speed begins with the ability to load all of the content you want your user to see in a decent amount of time. Something that can drastically affect user flow is the site glitching, breaking, and content loading unevenly.
First, what does it mean to optimize content? Big images mean big loading time. There are multiple ways to optimize an image. You can use a plugin, some script code, or using a couple of useful adobe products. Start by converting every image file from .gif or .png to .jpeg; Jpeg images find a balance of quality and size. You might be thinking “Well I just uploaded a pretty big image and there was no problem” That has to do with image weight and best practices. Shopify for example will let you upload images up to: 4472px X 4472px weighing 20mb but recommends 2048px X 2048px weighing 5-10mbs. You can get all Shopify size recommendations and info here. BigCommerce recommends not using any photos larger than 1028px X 1028px. Magento recommends 1100px X 1100px and has a great guide for how to change image size, Thumbnail images, small images, and zooming or not zooming here.
A full guide of best practices and optimizing all of your images can be found here.
Site caching
What is Site-Caching?
Though the details of site caching can get very complex and complicated, an overview of site caching is very simple. Think about driving somewhere for the first time. Maybe your child’s school or a partner’s house. The first time you’re constantly looking to GoogleMaps for each turn. Well, how about the hundredth time you drop your kids off at school? You can do it in your morning stupor just before coffee and basically with your eyes closed. That is site caching in a nutshell. A user comes to your site and their browser has no idea what to expect or what to do. Then the next time that user comes to your site, their browser has stored your website in that user’s cache and cookies. Their browser will welcome your site like an old friend loading every page at speeds you can’t even imagine.
Check out this guide for a quick set up and quick guide to caching your site.
Last but Definitely not Least
The last very cheap option involves using a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Using a CDN allows you to get content to your user faster because it’s not trying to send it cross-continent or even across the world. Getting this going is very easy, we suggest using this company. For a complete guide check out this awesome infographic by Cloudways.
Of course, the easiest and fastest way to increase your site speed is to let someone else handle it. Let’s get you taken care of! Have any questions? Reach out!