Back in the stone age, along with pet dinosaurs, Nintendo 64, and Blockbuster, slow websites were the way of the world. And as such, people were a bit more used to a ten minute load time. But with technology’s increasing efficiency and timeliness, we’ve grown quite accustomed to speedy sites. And that means that your clients and customers have high expectations for your website. So, you’d better get with the times and meet their high demands. There are several reasons why your site might be running slowly. This issue can pose some serious consequences for your business, as we discussed in our last blog, “5 Reasons to have a fast website.” So, what should you do? Thankfully, there are some simple solutions to remedy such troublesome slowdowns. The first step in this process is determining the source of your site’s slow pace. From there, you can decipher where to go next to ensure increased speediness!

Top 5 Reasons Why Your Website is Slow…And How to Fix It.

1. Your website server. A website server is where your website’s files are stored online. While it may initially appear as an unlikely culprit for a lag in load time, this is an important factor to consider. Most people buy their own hosting, usually costing them five to twenty dollars a month on a shared hosting environment. It is a cheap and simple solution. However, these servers host thousands of websites all in one place. As a result, all of the websites are affected by one another, causing serious slowdown to everyone’s site. An alternate option for hosting might provide faster speeds, but it will be pricey. The higher quality hosting servers can run anywhere from 150-1000s of dollars per month. So, if the cost of top tier servers does not enthuse you, but want more from your hosting, what should you do? We at Creative 7 Designs offer a best-of-both-worlds hosting solution: a commercial grade, dedicated server on which we keep all of our sites for a small price to our clients. With fewer sites on one server, each can run with more speed and controlled security. Our closed system in which everything is tightly monitored and upgraded as needed to continue optimal performance allows a less expensive and far better hosting solution!
2. Images on your site. So often, we’ll encounter images on websites that are not optimized correctly. When full sized images are uploaded to your site, they require an extensive load time, slowing everything down. Bottom line: make sure that your photos and graphics are adequately optimized to ensure quick load time for your entire site.
3. Bloated files and databases. There may be an excessive amount of unused files. After years of continuous adding of files and plugins to your website, it will become overgrown and ultimately, slow. Take out and delete every non-essential that is eating up your load time. Make way for a faster site with a lighter database!
4. Unneeded plugins pertaining to CMS and WordPress. You may currently find yourself with a load of unused or unoptimized plugins, all vying for the load time of your site. So often, people will turn on a plugin for everything, leaving them with 40-50 of them, most of which go unused and forgotten. Make sure only to use the most well-optimized and to use as few as possible. Take note that each will load on the front-end of your website whether you’re using them or not. In fact, we at Creative 7 Designs are beginning to move away from WordPress themes because they tend to be too top heavy. Instead, we’re using page builders for WordPress design.
5. There’s too much on the page. Are your web pages stocked with flashing lights, images in every corner, lengthy stretches of text, and interactive PacMan games? If you answered yes, you might have a bit too much going on. Each of your fancy features makes your pages too big and heavy for a quick load time. Rid your pages of any excess thing to lighten up your load and opt for speediness.

Your online presence is your window to the world. It is your means of reaching potential clients and customers with optimal efficiency and ease. So, make sure that it is up to date, looking great, and running fast. Don’t get stuck in the old ways of the web. Meet expectations, and enjoy your resulting success! In case web design and optimization isn’t your thing, call on us at Creative 7 Designs. We just so happen to be experts in not only this but marketing, graphic design, and content writing as well! And we’ve been at for 17 years now. So leave this website optimizing task to the experts and get back to doing what you do best!