How to Achieve Lightning Fast Site Load Times

We’re sure you’ve heard this before, but as a respected digital agency in Surrey, Thunderbolt Digital can’t help but repeat ourselves at times (especially when it’s important!) and it’s truly vital that you know: websites that take longer than 3 seconds to load will see more than 50% of users leave the site, with the majority of them never to return. Not only that, but they may even tell their friends about their poor experience on your site – how scary is that? So, how do you avoid such things? By having a lightning fast load time, of course! Based on local coverage and devices used, it may not always be possible for your site to load as fast as it does when you check it, but there are definitely steps you can take to shave off some excess seconds!

• Check your JavaScript and either cut down on overuse or defer its loading, meaning it will only begin running once the page has finished loading, speeding things up considerably.

• Optimise images for different resolutions. A 2000px image will look nice on a desktop monitor but is unnecessary for a mobile device and will delay load times.

• Compress images before uploading to your site where possible – you can even download extensions to do this for you so you don’t forget.

• Choose correct file types depending on purpose. Blog images can be JPG to reduce page size but logos with transparency will need to be PNGs.

• Use browser hinting so browsers can use idle time to prefetch or prerender important elements in the background as a user views a page, saving load time when they move on. Be mindful to use appropriately to avoid excess data use on mobile devices and limited networks.

• Make use of the fact that most content on webpages lie below the fold and incorporate lazy loading into your site, meaning pictures further down the page will not load until viewed, further cutting load time.

• Upgrade your hosting. Sites with lower traffic may use shared or VPS hosting to get a better price, but once your traffic increases you’ll want a dedicated server to handle all of your users and decrease your server response time.

If your website needs a complete rehaul and you need designers and developers you can trust, turn to Thunderbolt Digital, an award-winning digital agency in Surrey, Farnham. Why not chat with us today and see how we can get you noticed on the digital high street for all the right reasons – call 01252 413757 or email howdy@wearethunderbolt.com to schedule an appointment.