6 Frustrating Reasons Why Your Website Is Slow (And How to Fix Them)

You cannot afford slow-loading pages if you are operating on an online platform. Internet users want quick access to information. You have seconds to capture and keep their interest. If they have to wait for your site to load, you will lose them.

It is important to carry out speed tests to determine page loading speeds. There are tools you can use, such as Google PageSpeeds and GTmetrix. If you determine that there is a problem, you need a way to fix them. Our article will share with you six reasons why your website is slow and how to fix them.

You Have the Wrong Web Hosting Provider

Be careful about the web hosting service you opt for. The provider will determine how fast or slow your website is. Start by understanding what you need in terms of hosting.

Consider the following when choosing a web hosting provider.

• They should be able to provide sufficient bandwidth to handle the amount of traffic.
• Look for those that offer 24/7 customer service so that you do not experience any downtime.
• Go for virtual private servers or dedicated servers instead of shared servers. Shared servers host thousands of websites and will impact your page loading speeds.
• You get what you pay for. Avoid free or very cheap options when choosing a web hosting provider.
• Go for those that allow for scalability. You want to be able to handle more traffic; the more people get to know about your website.

You Have Not Optimized Your Images

When choosing images, you will automatically go for high-resolution ones. They are, however, quite heavy and will consume quite a bit of bandwidth.

Quick fixes

• Optimize images before uploading them to your website.
• Compress large files
• Include the right alt tag and file descriptions.
• Resize images using the right tools. You must ensure you do it well so that you do not distort the image.
• Determine the best file type to use. You have the option of JPG and PNG. The latter tends to be heavier and will slow down your website.
• Try to keep the file sizes below 1MB.

Your Website Experiences High Traffic and HTTP Requests

High traffic to your website is a blessing. It means that you are attracting audiences with the content you have.

However, too many requests can end up slowing down the website. It is especially true if your web hosting provider has not provided you with sufficient bandwidth.

HTTP requests occur when you have CSS, JavaScript, and image files. Every time users want information; the page will load the files separately. Too many requests will end up slowing down the loading speeds.

Quick fixes

• Increase the amount of bandwidth to take care of the high traffic
• Install Socks Proxy so that you increase internet speed. The proxy will cache data allowing for faster loading of the pages. Proxies will also balance traffic coming in and out of your site. All the traffic goes through the proxy server before coming to you. It will compress the data allowing you to save on bandwidth.
• Be careful about the number of images, CSS, and JavaScript files. Alternatively, minify them so that you reduce the number of files.

You Have Excess Flash Content and Other Elements on Your Website

Flash content makes a website more interactive. They are, however, bulky and can result in slow-loading pages. Flash is an outdated technology, and Adobe stopped supporting it on 2020-12-31.

The same goes for additional elements or overheads you have. Such include videos, scripts, logs, and style sheets.

Downloading too many plugins or themes can also be an issue. Your site will take a long time to respond to queries, and you May experience increasing time-outs.

Be careful about the number of ads you have running on your website. While it is a way to make money, it may impact the overall page loading speeds.

Quick fixes

• Consider removing Flash content from your website. There are HTML5 options that you can use instead
• Reduce the number of elements in your pages.
• Delete any themes or plugins you are not using
• Carry out tests to see what your audiences are interacting with the most. Remove those that do not seem to be attracting any engagement. This is especially true for videos and ads, which consume quite a bit of bandwidth.

Incorrect Implementation of JavaScript

JavaScript gives a lot of functionality, especially if you want a dynamic and more engaging website. The script, however, takes quite a bit of time to load and execute. Incorrect implementation will slow down your website. JavaScript can prevent pages from loading quickly.

Quick fixes

• Only install what you need so that you do not have an excess script.
• Use inline JavaScript and remove any external files.
• Allow for JavaScript loading only when the user can see what is on the rest of the page

You Need To Clean Up Your Code

Your code may be contributing to slow-loading pages. Excessive use of inline styling, white spaces, and empty lines are examples of unclean code. Invest in hiring a professional web design company when setting up a website. They have the expertise to advise you on what you need on your website.

Quick fixes

• Check that the elements you have are necessary. Too many CSS stylesheets, for example, add no value because you can do quite well with one.
• Reduce file sizes by compressing the code.