So you’ve got this gorgeous site all freshly built using the latest and greatest widgets, text blocks and sliders with gorgeous high-resolution images and embedded videos. You’re finally ready to launch it, but one last run through reveals that it takes what feels like an eon to load each page. Now what?
Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to combat a high response (slow load) time.
Test the site on a different server. If you have access to another server, try loading your website through that instead and see if the loading time is any different. A web server is a computer system which processes HTTP requests, and sometimes too many requests can slow the time it takes for the system to bring up the website you’ve called for. To remedy this issue, we recommend using a different server.
Check each page using a speed testing tool. If you’ve discovered you have a sitemap warning that says a few URLs have a high response time, the best way to approach the issue is to check each individual page in a site speed testing tool. For more information about how to optimize your site with the help of speed testing tools, Google has a great tutorial and instructions on what to do.
Optimize your site’s cache for better user experience. Optimizing caching is a great way to decrease site load time that many SEOs often overlook. The way caching works is that whenever a user visits your site, their browser stores images and other files. When that visitor returns to your site at a later date, the page will load faster due to their browser saving vital files that would be otherwise difficult to load.
Need a few more tips and tricks? See our other post about how to improve a high response time!