Websites with long loading times slowly frustrate users and could lead to them giving up and visiting the site of a competitor.
With an estimated 40% of users abandoning a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load, the speed at which your website loads should be a critical performance indicator for your business.
Pick A Good Hosting Solution
The host you use and the hosting package you choose to put your website onto the world wide web is important as it controls the flow of data into and out of your website.
Whilst many businesses monitor whether their site is available on the web or unavailable (down) due to their host, few monitor the speed of their site.
Choosing a host is not as simple as picking someone to put your site live and keep it that way. The way your site is hosted can vary depending on the vendor, the package and the server configuration you select.
The likelihood is that unless you are expecting high volumes of traffic you will be sharing a server and it is important that you pick a provider where this does not compromise deliverability.
Pick The Right WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme is the base around which your website is built. There are thousands out there each designed with a different purpose.
The more complex a theme and the more functionality contained within it then the more likely there is to be a delay in loading time. Whilst this may only be momentary this can be enough to cause people to abandon your website.
Therefore, use a theme that only has the functionality that you need, if you use a multi-purpose theme it may be bloated compared to what you need and slow you down.
The best route is to opt for a custom theme design that reflects the unique qualities of your business.
Manage and Optimise Your Plugins
Plugins are the pieces of software that give your WordPress website flexibility and functionality, however they may be weighing your website down.
Be selective in the plugins you use and delete any that are no longer in use, this way you will reduce the size of the data within your website to make things run that little bit faster that can make all the difference.
A slow loading website can be a disaster for your business, costing sales and damaging your reputation.
At Jigowatt we work with the companies we build sites for to put together the right hosting solution, incorporating the theme and plugins that fit the functionality required and optimise speed.