WordPress Site Speed Optimization
Is your website crashing, underperforming, or unable to yield traffic? Well, WordPress site speed optimization could be a remedy for all such problems. But, for most people, site speed optimization might feel like a puzzle. If it’s any consolation, thousands of WordPress site owners like you are unaware of where to start troubleshooting.
A quick load speed is fundamental for the customer experience and success of your business. If you don’t want your traffic number or search engine ranking to tank, it is time you consider WordPress site speed optimization.
This article will deliver everything you need to know about site speed optimization – why it is essential and how it affects conversions and your business. So, are you ready to take some insightful notes on sight speed with us?
Quick Links: Are you struggling with optimizing WordPress site speed? Leave the job to the pros – WP Gazelle!
Why Does WordPress Site Speed Matter?
Neither search engines nor your visitors prefer waiting for ages for your website to load. Don’t take it from us; read it yourself to understand why WordPress site speed should top your priority list!
It Affects SEO
Probably every site owner knows the importance of SEO in the ever-evolving algorithms that search engines are coming up with. The search engine giant has made it clear that it considers website load speed while determining rankings.
Google wants to ensure that if it directs visitors to your page, that visitor will have a satisfactory experience. The Core Web Vitals of Google are specific factors that are critical for the overall experience of your website. And yes, website speed is a huge part of it!
Fast WordPress Sites Are Easier To Crawl
When your WordPress site speed is not optimized and slow, it disincentivizes web crawlers. Due to the sluggish load speed, search engines could also slow down in crawling your website. There are only limited resources with web crawlers. As a result, the unoptimized load speed can lead to Google deprioritizing the site.
Slow Speed Impacts Conversion
These days, it is hard for a slow-loading website to attract and retain visitors. It is a fact that the attention span on the internet is concise. If there is a delay in loading pages, there is a possibility that visitors quickly move to look for answers elsewhere.
The quicker the website speed, the higher the satisfaction for visitors. We will discuss conversion rates and site speed in-depth in the upcoming sections.
Slow Website = Higher Bounce Rates
One of your website’s goals should be to have a faster website than that of your competitors. Remember, the visitors are just one click away from your competitor’s website. You can have lucrative deals, a wide range of products, and excellent content. But, with a slow website, you won’t get too far.
Quick Links: Thanks to WP Gazelle, security for your WordPress sites is more accessible and more affordable. Get in touch today to see immediate results!
How Does WordPress Site Speed Affect Conversion Rates?
The site speed and a diverse range of other factors affect the conversion rates. But, there is an intricate relationship between conversion rates and site speed. Many stats reveal that a faster-loading site can offer a better conversion.
If your website loads quickly, the customer will likely surf further and take action. For example, Amazon lost millions in revenue due to its slow website speed. Amazon has increased 1% of its revenue for every 100 ms speed improvement.
You should also know that images, text, design & layout of the page also impact conversion rates. Visitors will quickly abandon the page if you present a slow website with a complex structure and several options.
You don’t want to risk losing potential customers just because it took a second extra for the website to jump from the cart to the checkout page. Since WordPress site speed influences SEO, optimizing page speed can increase traffic and improve conversion rates.
Quick Links: WP Gazelle is your one-stop shop for complete WordPress management, tools, hosting, and optimization. Maintaining your website will have never felt so easy!
4 Ways A Slow WordPress Site Speed Impacts Business
A slow-loading website can be threatening to your business! We live in a world of instant gratification. As a result, a fast business website speed is critical for customer satisfaction. Guess what? 70% of customers say that site speed impacts their purchasing decisions.
Two or three seconds is the threshold for website load speed. So, if you do not think about improving site speed, customers will abandon your business without further thought!
In the following sections, we’ll address the repercussions of a slow site on business in detail.
1. Where Do You Fall In Your Search Engine Ranking?
Doesn’t every eCommerce or website owner desire to see their site on the top of the search results? Well, that won’t be possible if your website takes forever to load. Note that search engine rankings are essential for more traffic to your site.
Both your audience and popular search engines like Google do not like the sight of a slow website! Google gives preference to sites that have speed good enough to satisfy visitors (it is also to be noted that a site’s speed is one of the many ranking factors and not the only one).
Besides, by crawling to the top of the search ranking, your website will enjoy more traffic and user clicks. Your website might have phenomenal content, but it might struggle with SERP rankings due to poor speed.
2. Loss Of Traffic
By loading extremely slowly, your website will risk losing potential traffic. You should also know that a fast—loading website is essential for mobile phones and desktops. Most people who experience slow loading might prefer not to revisit the site.
It means a loss of incoming traffic and further translates to lower conversions or user engagement. You’re probably aware that low conversions are extremely bad for business. It can lead to revenue loss and poor brand reputation.
3. Unsatisfactory User Experience
Over the last few years, website owners have experimented rigorously to improve website functionality to enhance user experience. It is important to note that the attention span of web users is decreasing by the day.
It means that websites have a limited time to retain and offer visitors a great user experience. As a result, you might end up frustrating and losing your traffic if your website pages are slow to load. A chunk of these frustrated users are highly likely to never revisit your site. What’s more, they might even switch to your competitors who offer a better user experience.
The worst part is that poor website experience can bury you in a mountain of negative reviews. Also, with poor website experience, the user engagement is minimal. For eCommerce websites, a poor site speed results in a higher shopping cart abandonment rate.
4. Staggering Bounce Rates
With a sluggish website, there is a high chance that visitors might leave it without performing the intended or expected activity. It is called website bounce. The search engines record bounce when a maximum of your visitors abandon the website after opening the first page. They might not further engage by clicking on any menu items, links, or CTAs.
You should know that a slow site is the primary cause of high bounce rates. So, with a high bounce rate and limited engagement, your overall sales and conversion will suffer.
Quick Links: Don’t let the website speed get in the way of traffic and conversions. Contact WP Gazelle and have your WordPress site speed under control!
Top Platforms And Plugins You Can Use For WordPress Site Speed Optimization
You’ll love these top platforms/plugins that will rush to rescue your WordPress site from a tanking load speed.
With these platforms/plugins, your site will never have to cross paths with poor conversion rates, high bounce rates, or a falling search engine ranking. Take a look!
WP Gazelle
WP Gazelle saves you the hassle and hours of manual effort to optimize your website speed. The platform automatically performs processes that improve the load time. What’s more, it allows you to test the service for free before you invest.
It is a complete WordPress management, optimization, and hosting tool. It also ensures maximum security for your website and prevents the risk of getting hacked. Moreover, with WP Gazelle, you can ensure that your technical SEO is on the right track.
WP Gazelle also set up analytics for website owners to help them understand what’s working for conversions and what’s not.
Quick Links: Did you know that lighting fast site speed equals more profit? How? Let WP Gazelle help you learn all about it!
WP Rocket
WP Rocket is one of the leading WordPress plugins. Website owners can enjoy all the caching features and functionality that they require. Besides, it has by far one of the most user-friendly interfaces. The plugin also makes sure that it is trouble-free to set up.
With WP Rocket, you have database optimization, lazy loading, and also the ability to delay Javascript execution.
Perfmatters
Perfmatters adopts a unique method of improving your website speed that differs from any other plugin on this list. WordPress enables many options by default that might cause your website to load slowly. Thanks to Perfmatters, you can disable these unnecessary options with just a few clicks.
Many website performance-boosting features such as local Google Analytics script hosting, Preconnect, DNS prefetch, and more are available in this plugin. Even with an existing caching plugin in place, you’ll still see benefits by using Perfmatters.
NitroPack
NitroPack is not merely a performance-enhancing plugin but a complete speed optimization tool. NitroPack aims to make the process of enhancing website speed easier than before. NitroPack does not use several plugins to optimize the speed.
You have to add NitroPack to your website and download the connector plugin. Next, choose the aggressiveness of the optimization and leave the rest to NitroPack.
It implements various caching types, DNS prefetch, minifications, compression, and other processes to optimize speed automatically.
LazyLoad By WP Rocket
Your website might be full of high-quality, exciting images. Though these images might add to the overall appeal of your website, they might also cause your site to load slow.
Moreover, when visitors land on your website and load a page, the site will load the entire page at once. The reality is that the website does not need to load the entire page in one go. Bulky images can increase page load time.
This plugin uses the ‘lazy loading’ method to improve site speed. Lazy loading only loads specific elements when the visitors need them. The plugin allows you to replace post images, thumbnails, and more!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Is My WordPress Site Speed Slow?
Here are a few common reasons why your WordPress site speed might be lagging:
- You have not compressed or optimized the images
- The plugins are slow or out of date
- You might be using an old version of PHP
- It is possible that due to poor choice of hosting services, your website is lagging speed
- WordPress sites can also be slow because you might still be using HTTPS and not HTTPS2
- The website might not have a content delivery network (CDN) to reduce the load on hosting
- You might’ve missed caching
How Can I Check My WordPress Site Performance?
You can check your website load speed through various tools. These tools let you check the performance and offer essential metrics. Some of the tools available these days can check speed results from 25 different locations.
Is Website Theme Important For Site Speed?
You might have ignored it, but the theme of your website might also be contributing to the slow load speed. Most people mistake picking a theme based on aesthetics and pay too little attention to functionality.
But, an efficient theme in terms of load speed is appropriate for your website. Additionally, you should choose a theme that offers performance optimization features.
Quick Links: A whopping 30,000 to 50,000 websites are victims of hacking every day. If you don’t want your website to be one of them, reach out to WP Gazelle to beef up your wordpress site’s security!
Want to get to the
top of Google?
Get More Traffic and Sales on WordPress.
Our Repeatable, Data-Driven Four-Point Process.
Start tracking core metrics and making some improvements on the free tier.
Make and maintain dramatic speed and security improvements.
Get thousands of data points analyzed to increase traffic and conversions.
Tune the Flywheel to keep increasing traffic and conversions.
Get started on the free tier.
