Did you know that a blank WordPress website’s average loading time (without any plugins installed) is only around 400 milliseconds (depending on hosting and configuration), where as one with up to 20 plugins can increase this time by 3.00+ seconds, which is more than enough time to result in 40% of website visitors abandoning the site all together.
Speed is king. Even if your business processes are fast and efficient, having a fast-loading website is another thing altogether. But if you’re just starting out how can you expect to gain such visitors in the first place? Any savvy person when looking to get a website and find hosting for it to live on is most likely either going to be recommended by a friend, or they are going to search online. The problem with this is that there are so many cheap and nasty hosting providers out there, that finding a good one can be like finding a needle in a haystack, and those that do stumble across such providers are likely to be put off when they see the price tag, so they end up going back and choosing on price.
Now there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this, especially when you’re just starting out – perhaps you’re just testing the waters to see what works. But when you’ve got an idea that does work and you’re at least generating some form of income, I implore you to stop thinking small time and learn about some of the different kinds of hosting available.
Whether you go for quality managed hosting, or something more serious the results in performance can be astounding – which will serve as the foundation of your website, bar it’s underlying code – and if you have one of those off-the-shelf website themes, start to think about getting a quality custom theme from a WordPress expert, who will not only build you a lightweight performance driven website, but will performance test as they build and push back on any rash decisions that will negatively affect the overall result.
Not only does a slow website affect user experience, but it is also a key ranking signal. As our attention spans are getting shorter and search engines are now ranking websites based on user-experience we need to take notice and make the experience of visiting your website the best it can possibly be.
Please see below as we’ve put together an infographic on 10 ways you can speed up your WordPress website. This should come in handy when wanting to take immediate action, catering to your websites visitors to ensure that they stay past the initial loading time and actually see the amazing information, products, or service you have to offer.
