Having a fast website is very important these days. But many people say that even though they have performed the required tasks their websites are still slow. So here we have created a list of issues that contribute to decreasing the speed of your website. Avoiding these problems should be your number one priority to increase the speed of your website.
Un-optimized Images
A Large amount of un-optimized images is usually one of the most common factors that contribute to slowing down websites. High-resolution and high-quality images can take up lots of bandwidth while loading. A common amateur mistake that is made by website developers is that they upload high-quality images and later on try to scale them down. This unnecessarily increases the size of your web page which leads to longer loading time and overall slowing down of your website.
The format of your images also affects the speed of your website. Some formats such as JPEG take up less memory as compared to formats like PNG and GIF. So, unless you are using a hosting package that supports large files and has the server power to load up high-quality images stick to lower quality JPEG images
Too Much Flash Content
Although Flash content is a great tool for increasing the interactivity on your website, it can also be contributing to your slow page load speed. Flash content is usually quite large in size, and the bigger the file size is, the more time it requires to load. And longer load times means slower speed.
So, eliminating flash files from your website or reducing their size can really help you improve your page speed. Another way to improve your speed is using HTML5 alternatives to your flash content.
Not Making Use of Caching Techniques
Caching is a technique in which all the most frequently used data points are stored in a cache memory. Later when these data points are accessed, they can be quickly retrieved from the cache memory. Using cache memory can greatly improve the speed and performance of your website.
Too Many Ads
Of course, advertisements are very beneficial for high traffic websites but to stay in a good position for a longer time. You cannot compromise the speed of your website for advertisements.
When your website is overloaded with advertisements the amount of HTTP requests generated is increased rapidly. This requires a lot of processing power, and as a result, it slows down your website. Especially ads like auto downloads and pop-unders take up a lot of memory and slow down your website significantly.
Not using the right kind of web hosting for your website.
Choosing the proper form of web hosting is very important to maintain the speed of your website. If your website features a lot of images and flash resources you should not opt for shared hosting. VPS or dedicated hosting is the best option for larger websites that require a lot of processing power. There are many websites like Hostiserver.com and GoDaddy available on the market, which provide different kinds of hosting services at reasonable prices. So, choose the kind of hosting that suits you best.
Barbara Morgan is a how-to’s technology writer for more than a decade, hardware tester, Linux power user based in New Hampshire. She regularly posts her how-to articles at the managed hosting Europe provider – Hostiserver.com
