*-In this day and age, the loading speed of your website can be the decisive factor in whether you have a successful business or not. Improving the loading speed of your website can have a significant impact on both your organic SEO rankings and user experience (UX). Considering this, the main question is what loading speed you should aim for.
In this article, we will give you a few easy steps that will improve the speed of your e-commerce website. Let’s get started!
1. Examine your hosting server
As your website receives more visitors and conversions, you have to ensure that your hosting server is capable of handling the increased traffic. To provide an exceptional user experience to your growing audience, you will need a larger and more powerful server. This is especially important for e-commerce websites, where customers expect fast loading times and smooth transactions.The ideal hosting solution for e-commerce is VPS hosting.
To achieve the desired performance levels, contact your hosting provider and request an assessment of your website’s expected traffic growth and peak user load. Based on this analysis, they can recommend a suitable hosting plan capable of meeting your website’s growing demands.
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First, we must point out that by website speed we do not mean the entire website, but rather the loading speed of a single page. Every page on your website contains a different amount of images, files, and content which means that it will also have a different loading time. It is important to pinpoint the page that is causing the problem. That said, the home page, category page, and product page should be analyzed separately.
Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a lifesaver when it comes to this. It is a free tool offered by Google which shows how fast the website pages display on mobile and desktop devices.
3. Reduce the size of high-resolution images and other media
Although high-resolution images and videos can improve your e-commerce site’s aesthetic appeal, they can in turn significantly lower its loading speed. This will eventually lead to potential customers abandoning your website for another. As a result, it is best to upload smaller or reduced versions and evaluate their impact on the website’s performance.
This process can get a bit time-consuming, but if your online store is powered by WordPress, you can use a variety of image optimization plugins like ShortPixel Image Optimizer, Imagify, Optimole, EWWW Image Optimizer, etc.
4. Make sure that the chosen payment method is working in your favor
Choosing the right checkout and payment solution can have a significant impact on the loading speed of your website. Consequently, it makes your customers’ buying experience as effortless as possible. For example, Shopify Checkout can speed up conversions by up to 60% while also providing fast loading times. This will lead to satisfied customers who are likely to return to your website the next time they do online shopping.
5. Utilize caching
Caching, also known as in-memory technology, is a process of storing data in the server’s available RAM, which improves the performance of a website by eliminating the need to retrieve data from the database each time a customer visits the site.
There are several caching options, including full-page caching, object caching, server caching, and browser caching. That means that you will have to conduct extensive research to determine the best caching strategy for your website, but it will pay off in the end.
6. Reduce or remove all redirects
A redirect is a way to send users from one URL to another. Redirects are frequently unavoidable and, when necessary, should be used sparingly. As your website and business grow, you may have to redirect customers from old links to new ones on a regular basis. While this is acceptable at first, it is critical to remove all redirects once customers begin accessing the new URLs directly. This can significantly improve user experience and reduce the site’s loading time.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the speed of your e-commerce website is a crucial factor in determining user satisfaction and engagement. You can improve the overall user experience and your search engine rankings by prioritizing website speed. This can result in increased visibility and traffic, higher conversion rates, and finally, a more successful online business.