E-commerce companies recognize the importance of crafting attractive, easy-to-use websites. These feature-heavy sites, however, tend to take longer to load. Not only must Google and other browsers download your site’s code, they also have to absorb style sheets, images, and HTML. The end result is often a slow-loading website that affects both your position in the organic search rankings and your website conversion optimization.
A recent LinkedIn article reveals that the ideal site load time is just one second, and if your site takes longer than three seconds to load on either a computer or mobile device, you risk losing viewers. The end result is fewer customers purchasing your goods and services online.
Tips for Reducing Load Time
Here are three tips for decreasing load times and ensuring traffic stays on your site where it belongs:
1. Alter Script Placement
Script placement can have a profound effect on page load time . Because many web builders put Javascript files at the top of the page, they often load before other site content. As a result, viewers have to wait longer for the content they really want. Fortunately, e-commerce sites can circumvent this issue by placing scripts “below the fold” on pages. By including external Javascript files just before the close of your site’s body tag, you can expedite load times and ensure users can access desired content faster.
2. Optimize Images
If you want to decrease load times and increase website conversion optimization, optimizing your images is crucial. In order to load large or high-resolution images, the site needs to send an HTTP request to the server. Doing this takes time and likely annoys your users in the process. Fortunately, web designers can compress photos using editing programs, reducing unnecessary white spaces while maintaining image quality. The end result is a more attractive website that loads faster.
3. Minimize CSS
Referring to the style language used by your site, CSS includes vital information about fonts, colors, background images, margins, and more. While some content management systems automatically minimize CSS to increase load speed, others like WordPress neglect to do this. To ensure your website loads fast, consider using a free online service to compress your style sheet. By removing spacing, newlines, comments, and indentation from the CSS, you can increase download speed while creating a superior experience for your users.
Contact Softline Solutions to Help Website Conversion Optimization
Wondering how fast your current site loads? Google’s PageSpeed Tools allows you to analyze site performance and identify load problems so you can correct them. Additionally, you can contact the team at Softline Solutions for a consultation.
A leader in website design, Softline Solutions offers custom web development services for a broad range of businesses and professionals. We know it’s not enough for your website to be beautiful and responsive—it also has to load quickly if you hope to keep customers happy and engaged. Call today for more tips on website conversion optimization with Softline Solutions’s help.
