Are you wondering why your site visitors do not spend much time on your website? Why your website hasn’t been ranked high on Google and other search engines? One of the likely reasons is that your website is not fast enough.

Why DO I NEED A FAST WEBSITE?

The answer is simple: your website speed sells! 

Let us support our statement with the following:

• You know this – true or not everyone is busy these days and few of us really have the patience waiting for a slow website to load and show.  Technically speaking, a slow website equals to a high abandonment rate.  As a rule of thumb, you have less than 3 seconds to impress your visitors, making them either stay or leave.
• Speed of your website also highly matters to your brand and business image. A sluggish website translates into a slow and non-credible business. It also sends a message that you don’t care about your customers.
• Website speed is an important search ranking factor for Google and other search engines alike. It is pretty straightforward to understand why: with everything equal, search engines rank the site with faster speed higher. By doing so, search users are more likely to click into the faster site therefore creating a more plausible search experience.
• Chances are some of your competitors are running faster websites, which give them a competitive advantage over you.

All things considered, researchers agree that you may double your sales every time you shave off 1 second from your page load speed. 

It is the time for every business to check and speed up its website.

HOW TO SPEED UP MY WEBSITE?

1. Test & Track

First you will need some tools to measure your website – know where you are today.

What are the best (and free) website speed test tools out there?

We recommend the following set:

1. Google page speed test. Follow this link to know more about this too and test for yourself.
2. Google mobile friendly test. Follow this link to know more about this tool and test for yourself. According to this report in Q3 2018 a whopping 52.4% of all website traffic came from mobile devices!
3. Gtmetrix. Gtmetrix is another great speed test tool. You can create a free account on Gemetrix and track site performance of your website and your competitors.

2. Actual Work

With test data in hand, you are ready to jump in and speed up your website.  Below please find 5y3n Gtmetrix test result for a client of ours, before any speed tuning. The result page shows both the overall PageSpeed Score (this client had an E) and the list of area grades ordered by priority from top to bottom (we are seeing lots F’s, D’s, B’s):

Where do you start in website tuning and optimization?

Our suggestion – stick with these important principles:

• Always back up your website before doing any work.
• Start with the top priority area then move to the next.
• Make a goal to score all A’s in high priority areas.
• Make sure you have a higher overall grade and a higher overall score over your competition.
• Track website performance of yours and your competitors and repeat the work as necessary.

Guided by these principles, our performance team tuned up  this website and here is the end result of the first round:

After the first round of tune-up, this client saw search ranking gains across the board.  Today, this client still leads its competition on the website speed track.

3. Ask for a Pro to Help

As for the most cases we have seen, tuning up a website for speed often requires special knowledge and know-how.  In addition, you don’t want to let someone who does not know what he is doing break or bring down your website by this work. Business continuity is a must! This said, if you don’t have someone in house for the job, do reach out and contact some professionals who have been there and done that.

Interview a pro with these top questions:

• What has been your experience in site speed and performance tuning?
• What is my site speed now and what can I expect after your work?
• How do you guarantee that my site will not break while you are tuning it up?
• What kind of information should I know after the tune-up to keep the site speed?

If you don’t hear concrete and specific answers on them, move on and talk with the next candidate.

Our website performance team specializes in WordPress website speed, performance, and cross-device tuning and optimization. As shown by one example in this post, over the years we have tuned up websites for a large number of clients in both B2B and B2C sectors, big and small. Challenge us by sending a note to hi@fanzappy.com with your website address, your name and a contact phone number. We’ll measure your website then send our analysis and answers to these interview questions your way.

Go with a pro. It may very well worth it.