The loading speed of E-commerce websites has significantly improved over the years due to the wider availability of fast Internet connections. Still, many online shop owners struggle to make their websites run fast.
Our web design experts in Orange County confirm that you can design a user-friendly website, but if customers notice that it takes too long to load, they will probably shop elsewhere.
Here are ten tips from our experts to help increase the speed of your eCommerce website:
1. Reduce Page Size
The general rule is the smaller the page size, the better. Our ECommerce web design experts in Orange County warn against embedding big objects or images on a page. You always need to be cautious of loading time.
Our experts recommend maintaining page load time to three seconds or less. The only exception is if your website needs to include richer graphics to make more revenue.
2. Use a Content Delivery Network
If you have international customers, you will benefit from using a content delivery network. The way that this network works is by caching the content on servers located in various parts of the world, and it helps decrease loading times.
3. Use Caching and In-Memory Technology
Using caching or in-memory technologies can help you avoid needlessly opening up a database. The technology uses RAM on a server and stores data within it. You also improve overall performance when using this technology because input-output operations are usually ten times faster on RAM than on a hard disk.
4. Compress Data
Make use of compression software so that you can reduce the size of data sent to a browser. Before you make use of data compression tools, our web design experts in Orange County strongly recommend checking that your shoppers do not use outdated browsers because most compression software is not compatible with older browsers like Internet Explorer 4.
5. Specify Image Dimensions
Our web design experts in Orange County suggest specifying the height and width of product images. You need to allow the browser to make placeholders for your images and to load the page and the images at the same time.
You should also consider automatically altering image sizes in order to optimize images for mobile and tablet devices.
6.Optimize Platform Configuration
Whether your E-commerce website is hosted or licensed, you need to optimize configurations to improve page loading times.
7. Use Less Round Trips
Our web design experts in Orange County recommend using fewer “round trips” to the server by combining several different files. By doing this, you force the browser to make one request rather than taking multiple trips. And ultimately, you reduce your loading times.
8. Check Your Speed
You should regularly check the speed of your e-commerce website. If your page takes more than three seconds to load, that is a problem that needs to be fixed. You can utilize tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights or Yahoo’s YSlow to check your website’s loading speed.
If you use Google’s PageSpeed Insights, keep in mind that a score of 85 or higher means that your site is performing well.
9. Avoid Redirects
You want to avoid redirects because they usually increase page loading times. Our experts recommend removing redirects as soon as the majority of your shoppers start using the new URLs directly.
10. Use Fast Hosting Servers
Our experts suggest reaching out to your hosting provider and asking them to size your server based on the following criteria:
- Peak user load
- Probably traffic growth in the next year
- Memory requirements
When you put all these tips to use, our web design experts in Orange County and Los Angeles are certain that you can improve your E-Commerce website speed.
Check out our other website speed tips here: https://www.drivetrafficmedia.com/9-tips-to-speed-up-your-mobile-friendly-web-design/