Slow loading times have a huge impact on user experience; it's a key cause for page abandonment, and a major source of discontent for those who have to suffer through it.

And every second counts; it's been calculated that just one second of delay in page response can lead to a 7% decrease in conversions.




There are several ways in which you can analyze your site's speed. First, if you're not thoroughly versed in the workings of Google Analytics, you should take a look at an Analytics guide, which will guide you through the basics before you begin to assess the efficacy of your site.

Then use Google's site speed tool to measure page loading times for different browsers and locations. User Timings, a subsection of this assessment, allows you to measure the speed of any specific event, be it the response to a button click or the loading of images.

You can also monitor the ways in which your site speed is affecting your site's performance; correlating the amount of traffic to the loading times of various pages. You'll probably notice that higher bounce rates usually correlate with slower loading times. So now that you've seen where you're losing traffic, what can you do to fix it?

Useful Remedies for Slow Sites

• Change Your Host Often, the factor that makes the most difference is your choice of host. Depending on the size of your site, you may need to invest in one with a professional configuration. Use this guide to determine your needs. 

• Use a CDN A Content Delivery Network uses a system of servers that trade off on delivering content based on which will have the quickest response time for the given situation. This technology allows CDN services to quickly and easily provide speed optimization for your whole site, or just for particularly clunky components. 

• Use Cache-Control Headers For elements that remain consistent, like a logo-mark or a footer, enable caching so that they don't have to be pulled up with a new HTTP request every time a user is on your site. After their first visit, they'll load without a request.

• Consolidate Your CSS and JavaScript Browsers load files sequentially, so the more you have, the longer it'll take. But don't take this a step further and start in-lining them within the HTML; caching usually lets exterior files load faster. 

• Compress Files to Reduce Response Times Using GZIP, compressed files can transfer more quickly between server and browser, in the same way that zipped files will download faster onto your computer. 

• Make Sprites for Sets of Images Combine a group of images into a CSS Sprite (this is simplest when the images are of the same dimensions) to avoid calling up each image file individually. 

When optimizing your site speed, always start with the most wide-ranging changes and move on to smaller corrections. The less crucial tweaks can wait because they'll have less impact. And as you monitor user reaction along the way, you'll be able to track the appreciable difference it should make in your website's accessibility and appeal.

Author Bio
Rob Toledo is a Seattleite who matches the usual stereotypes. Loves coffee, the rain, and prefers dogs to cats. When not rambling about marketing and web design, he can be found in the mountains either climbing or hiking.