Did you know? 40% of online users abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load. Also, Google is looking at it as a ranking factor as it prioritizes great user experience. 

Therefore, along with excellent web design and content, it’s essential to have a fast-performing website. Or else, you’ll be kissing a significant number of traffic and conversions goodbye. 

You can begin by checking your website loading time. You can do this with the PageSpeed Insights tool. 

 If your website loading time is equal to or more than three seconds, begin searching for the reasons behind it. Here are a few of the many possible reasons you should take note of. 

11 Reasons for Slow Loading Websites and Ways to Fix It 

1. Use Reliable Web Hosting Services 

Website speed optimisation begins way before you have an actual website. Finding a reliable hosting service is as essential as applying any of the below-listed techniques. It serves as the foundation of your online presence. That’s why relying on a cheap hosting service is not the best option for your website.  

 The key is to choose a reliable web hosting service provider that offers a scalable, secure, and fast hosting solution.  

 RELATED: What is the Impact of Free vs Paid Web Hosting? 

2. Choose a Local Server Location  

Let’s understand this with an example. If a user from India visits a website using a server based in the US, the browser needed to load the website, request access to the data, and then travel back to the device of the visitor for a long distance. Obviously, the greater the distance is, the slower the website content would load. 

 The solution to this is to set up websites with local servers as much as possible. Meaning, the Indian visitor should access the website hosted on a server in India. 

3. Optimize Images 

One of the main reasons for slow website loading speed is uploading images that increase your web page’s weight unnecessarily. Studies show that unoptimised images take up almost 68% of total page weight.  

Uploading down-sized high-resolution images increase bandwidth while loading, which increases the time a site takes to load. To avoid this problem, always check your file size and try keeping it less than 1 MB.   

 The image format is also a factor to consider as it will take more time for an image to load in a large format. It is recommended to go for an image format like JPEG instead of GIF or PNG. 

4. Avoid Flash Content  

As a business owner, you’d want your visitors to have an engaging experience when they visit your website.  

  Flash content is a tool for creating visualizations, animations, webpage components, and other interactive applications that add to a good user experience. But it likely increases the bulkiness of your web page and makes it slow.  

  To provide your user with both an impressive experience and good page loading speed, reduce the file size of your flash content or replace it altogether with HTML5 alternatives. 

5. Optimize JavaScript 

As online users, we all prefer interactive and well-designed websites.   

 JavaScript is a programming code that helps with the website’s functionality and makes it interactive for users. However, it can also contribute to slow loading speed if left unoptimized. promoting Render-Blocking JavaScript. 

 Render-Blocking JavaScript is when the code prevents the page from fully loading and thus slows the website. A recommended solution to render-blocking JavaScript is to defer the JavaScript loading until the rest of the page’s content is visible to the user. 

6. Don’t Leave Unoptimized CSS 

CSS is also a code, like JavaScript, used for styling your ecommerce website’s pages. Nevertheless, not optimising the CSS for a long time might render the visibility of other components while browsing leading to a slow website loading speed. To avoid this, combine multiple external CSS files into one or a few files. 

READ: How Can Mobile Responsive Websites Help Your Business?

7. Opt for a CDN Service 

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is an independent system of several servers based in different geographic locations. It helps with high accessibility and performance of your website by storing copies of your website on these servers so users from far locations can still access your website easily.  

  Opting for a CDN is not mandatory, but it adds to a great user experience, especially if you have visitors around the globe. 

8. Eliminate excessive HTTP requests  

Using several JavaScript, CSS, and other image files lead to excessive HTTP requests, which increases the bulkiness of your website leading to slow page loading speed. In this case, if too many users visit your website at the same time, the browser will ping the server with too many requests. As a result, your website would slow down. 

 The remedy is to minify and reduce the number of JavaScript, CSS, or other files on your web page. 

9. Use a caching layer  

Cache layering is a process where your website’s files get stored in a place called the web cache. It ensures that the browser accesses the web cache whenever a user visits your page instead of pinging the site’s server, thus improving your site speed. 

 RELATED: What is Web Cache and Why is It Important for Your Website Hosting 

10. Minimize Ads  

Ads are a great way to improve a website’s traffic. Using too many ads like pop-ups, interstitials, and other auto-downloads can clog your website with excessive HTTP requests.  

 One solution to maintain a good user experience without compromising the flow of sales on your website is using ads only where they are required. 

11. Upgrade your server 

High website traffic means increased visitors. Who doesn’t want that? 

But in some cases, it might slow down your website as the host server may be capable of supporting only a certain number of requests at a given time. An increased request number means the page will load slower and affect your traffic.   

Upgrading your server and using CDN and caching are some ways of eliminating this problem.  

Speed Up Your Website

A website’s loading speed is directly proportional to the user experience. Thus, optimizing your website’s loading performance should be your priority unless you’re ready to lose potential traffic and revenue. 

Get started with the reasons above to identify the root cause of why you’re site’s speed is slow. Then, take your time fixing each of them.