3 Tips to Optimize Your Website Performance by davidc. Available from <http://www.groundreport.com/3-tips-optimize-website-performance/>. [Sept 10, 2016]
A smart business owner knows the importance of monitoring performance even for the best of websites. Of course, building a website has to start with implementing solid design and business principles that will encompass, among other things:
- Easy navigation.
- Defining your target audience.
- Focusing on high-quality content.
- Using great images, videos and a variety of content.
- Load time and so on.
But once a perfect website has been created, a business owner must also spend time on monitoring and optimizing its performance. Here are the top 3 tips to achieve this goal:
- Image control,
- Multi-channel and device optimization and
- Meta data.
Image control
Good websites often have lots of images or visually appealing content. These images could pertain to their products, services, key events and so on. There are a few important things that you must keep in mind when it comes to optimizing your website performance.
Use lazy loading
If your website is image-heavy, try out the ‘lazy loading’ method. Simply put, this method defers or delays loading content. This does not mean slowing down; on the contrary, it speeds up the page loading process. So when someone lands on your website, he or she does not have to go through a waiting time when ALL your images are being downloaded. Instead, your website will display only thumbnails of the images and the visitor can choose to click on a particular image to open it up for greater detail.
Right size
Resizing an image to make it fit into your website specifications can be done in many ways but the thing to avoid is to do it the HTML way. Use an image editor tool to resize the images and then upload the same. You also need to preserve the quality of the images. There are many formats of images out there and it is advisable for you to read up on these resources and then optimize image size.
Multi-channel and device optimization
Your website has to be optimized for multiple channels and multiple devices. One way to go is responsive web design but you will also need to bring in your search engine optimization strategy for this component of performance.
Multi-channel performance
Every social media platform out there has a specific set of parameters. These platforms will also differ in terms of keyword usage, image guidelines and so on. It therefore makes sense for your website to be supportive of optimization for:
- Instagram and so on.
Multiple devices
Your images and content should be ‘elastic’ or ‘fluid’ which means that they flow and take the form of the device on which they are being viewed. Responsive web design will give your website high marks simply because more and more people are turning to the use of smartphones, tablets and other handheld devices to interact with online information. So when your website renders flawlessly on any device, it gets more ‘marks’ for its actions.
Caching systems
This is a useful system simply because it minimizes the need to connect to your site time and again. When your website has to connect to your database time and again to create the same content, you are slowing down the engagement with visitors. So you can reduce server processing considerably with caching systems.
Some of the things for you to consider are:
- Database caching.
- Browser cache.
- Great CDN systems and so on.
There are quite a few plug-ins for various CMS platforms that will allow you to up the performance of your website rather significantly.
Meta Data
Meta descriptions and Title Tags are critical. The one word you should keep in mind for the same is ‘Unique’.
Meta description
The HTML attribute that you use to explain the content of a web page should be spot on. The main purpose of Meta Description is to get the visitors from the google to click the link of your website. A well-optimized website will have meta descriptions that are:
- Keyword enriched but not keyword-stuffed.
- Around 140-160 characters long.
- Fabulous to showcase a preview of what the visitor can expect on your webpage.
- Compelling – they should draw the visitor into your website itself.
- It should have structured content and also it must match the content.
- It should be unique and must contain focus keyword.
Title Tags
These Title Tags show up in search engine pages, external websites and in a browser as well. Here again, accuracy and relevance are critical elements. The Title Tags have to point to your content. They help in:
- Enhancing user experience.
- SEO.
- Pointing a visitor to relevant content.
- Making your website look good in search engine results pages.
Meta keywords
More often than not, meta keywords are not part of search engine rankings. But if your website uses them, then ensure that they are chosen wisely and formatted correctly. Use a good online tool to generate the list of possible keywords. Format these keywords correctly and eliminate all spelling errors! Long-tail keywords have become rather popular today so you should include this in your website as well.
3 Tips to Optimize Your Website Performance by davidc. Available from <http://www.groundreport.com/3-tips-optimize-website-performance/>. [Sept 10, 2016]