Optimizing your website is key in improving your digital marketing presence. In 2012 alone, Google reported performing 100 billion searches per month. Your customers are certainly investing time in making their way to your website, but what happens when your website doesn’t load quickly enough? The average internet user clicks away from a website when the pages don’t load within a few seconds. If you are experiencing slow loading times, it may be because of these common web development issues.
Website Development Issues:
Your code is too bulky
If your code is not efficient enough, your website is likely running inefficiently as well. Work with your developer to make your code as simple as possible.
This will not only help your site load more quickly but will also help you spot bugs more easily. This is the first of the many website development issues.
The site’s images are too big
Make sure you are optimizing any photos that you use on your website. If you are uploading a photo that is much larger than the size you actually need,
you are wasting bandwidth. By choosing the correct size and resolution of the image to begin with, you are saving loading power for other website features.
You’re using too much Flash
While Flash is a great tool for creating interactive features and other tools, it is not always efficient. Some internet browsers and many mobile devices do not support the program, creating even more complications for some of your users.
There are too many plugins
If you are using a publishing and hosting platform such as WordPress, plugins are a great way to personalize your website. Using too many, however, can bulk up your site too much and slow it down. To avoid this, select only the necessary plugins. A marketing agency will have recommendations about which specific features to choose.
You have too many ads
Including ad space in your website development is a great way to bring in extra revenue, but excessive advertisements can make your page loads drag. This is especially true if your users are clicking on the ads, upping the number of HTTP requests that your website has to process. Consider being more selective in your ad placements to avoid running too many.
To further pinpoint the cause of your slow loading time, be sure to talk to your development and marketing company. An experienced professional will be able to look at your code and content and make specific recommendations for speeding it up. Your effort will have major payoff in customer retention.
For extra assistance on developing a website, contact us here or check out other website development companies.