You have such a small margin of time when a new visitor comes to your site, you have to ensure that it’s running as fast as possible. That means that they’ve got to be able to find exactly what they need when they arrive, or you risk them clicking away.
Here are seven tips that will help you speed up your WordPress site, bring in new customers, and keep them.
Check your speed
It’s easy to assume that your site is running fast enough if you visit it often enough yourself. However, don’t be fooled. Your browser may have cached the site, meaning it loads faster for you when you visit. What about if a new visitor comes along? Are they getting the same experience?
The best way to find out is to check the speed yourself. There’s lots of testing sites online, so give one your URL and see what they have to say. They’ll give you tips on what’s slowing your site down, so you can make changes as and when needed.
Enable compression
Most sites that create high-quality content with videos and images can be bulky or harder to load. This is good in terms of content, but not great when it comes to load times. The best way to get around this is to enable compression on your site.
Look into reducing the bandwidth of your pages, which is done through compression tools such as GZip. These tools will compress the website before downloads, increasing speeds by about 70 percent.
Hire qualified writers
One of the biggest parts of keeping readers on your site is having content that they want to read. You need to be regularly putting out excellent content that readers will stick around for. That means that you need to be hiring good writers. There’s plenty out there online, so take the time to find someone you can trust with your site.
The best place to look is on freelancing sites, such as:
Keep WordPress updated
WordPress releases updates to keep the CMS secure. The problem is, many users ignore these, or leave them because they’re worried it might break their site. However, this can be the worst thing you can do.
Not updating not only leaves your site open to attacks, it can also negatively affect optimization.
Split your comments into pages
Comments are a great way to connect with your readers. It shows that you’re putting out quality content that people want to read. However, the comments can start slowing down the page and stop people from wanting to hang around to see what else you have to say.
The best and easiest way to avoid this issue is to split the comments up into pages. That way, only a few will load at once, making the page as a whole faster to load. If your readers want to read more of the comments, they’ll be able to click through and see more.
Don’t upload your videos directly to WordPress
Videos are a great idea if you’re looking for new ways to deliver content to your readers. They’re engaging and interesting when done right. However, they can be a real drain on your website. If you’re uploading them directly to the site, it can take much longer to load.
The workaround is very simple. The best thing to do is to is upload your video onto a site such as YouTube. These will host the video for you, and all you have to do is embed it. What’s better, using a hosting site means that your video can reach a wider audience.
Use a speed optimized theme
WordPress uses themes to create websites that are beautiful and easy to read. If you’re experiencing slowdown with your site, the best thing to do is look at the theme you’re using. It could be taking up a lot of memory that you need.
Look for a theme that’s optimized for speed. There’s plenty available, so make the most of them and pick one that suits your website.
These tips will help you speed your site up and keep customers around longer, just where you want them. Put them to use and you’ll see just how much your visitor numbers go up.
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