9 things you can do to speed up your site

Is there such thing as a site that’s too fast?

If you’ve been keeping up, my last article was about Pingdom, which pointed to a tool that allowed you to check the speed of any of your pages. I also mentioned that if your site is too slow, you’d quickly see visitors abandon your site, in some cases, before they even see your core material. In other words, no matter how great your content is, you’ll lose a chunk of your audience due to poor performance!

So how can you quickly decrease those load times? There are so many things you can do but I’m going to start you with the 80/20 rule. Let’s try to get 80% of the way there by executing only 20% of the work. Here’s what I think are the simple considerations.

Stage 1

· Reduce image sizes

· Install a cache plugin

· Remove Flash if you have any

If your site is still slow, let’s move into more moderate changes:

Stage 2

· Remove ads that slow your site down (you can see which ads take the longest to load with Pingdom)

· Merge CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) into a single file if you have more than one

· Remove unused styles in your CSS

· Replace image nav with text nav

OK, that should pretty much do it for most folks. However, outside of redoing your entire site, if you still have some crazy sluggish load times, then you may have to consider the following:

Stage 3

· Remove all ads (you can reapply them later one at a time while you test your performance)

· Move to a dedicated server with your current host -OR- switch to a different host provider (It is important to have a dedicated hosting service that will enable your readers to have easy access to your site)

Obviously, these are a last resort, especially if you have to change your hosting company. That may impact your SERP, PR and other variables if you have an established site. However, I think you’d all agree that none of those things matter if visitors leave before they even get a glance of your content!

What are some of the methods you have tried in the past that have increased load times for your site?

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Tags: usability

This entry was posted on 2010/06/29, 12:01 am and is filed under Establishing design and usability, Leveraging tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

84 Comments

At 2010.07.05 13:49, Eric said:

These are some good ways to speed up your site that are probably easily overlooked most of the time. I haven’t had too much trouble with my site but not sure how it is on other servers across the world.

And I’m using a hosting provider that works pretty well but no one has really ever heard of that I know of lol.
Eric’s last post…Blogging Better- The Two Simple Ways To Do So

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- At 2010.07.05 22:06, Gabe Young said:
  
  One way to keep trouble from coming to your site is to stay light on the images.
  
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  - At 2010.07.06 18:30, Eric said:
    
    Yeah good point. I actually don’t use images on my blog so I don’t have that problem that I know of.
    
    Thanks for the reply.
    Eric’s last post…Blogging Better- The Two Simple Ways To Do So
    
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At 2010.07.06 08:33, Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella said:

Personally, I found caching plugins caused way to many problems with some of the other plugins I was running. In the end I enabled zLib compression on my site and cut my load time in half. I blogged about this and a number of my readers who read the post and applied this compression technique had the same results. All without having to add another plugin.

One more tip, when choosing plugins find as many different ones that do the same thing as you can and test each one. Some plugins are just more efficient than others. Well written plugins make minimal use of and will load much faster. Try to keep plugins that generate large functions on your site to a minimum.
Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella’s last post…Guest Post Content Are You Posting Original Articles

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At 2010.07.06 13:48, Spanish Lessons said:

Reducing the images size always will improve the load speed of your site. However, I consider that a dedicated server is very important. This will guarantee you the whole bandwidth for you
Spanish Lessons’s last post…Mundo Hispano – Kina Malpartida

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At 2010.07.07 12:40, Hieu Martin said:

Yes reducing the images size will improve the load speed of site. You can use wp cache with Maxcdn to up speed your site too
Hieu Martin’s last post…Tips To Improve Your Site Ranking In Bing Search Engine

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At 2010.07.10 23:08, Judy @ pressure cooker said:

I have done some of these, but not all. Thanks for the help.

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At 2010.07.11 11:42, Hieu Martin said:

@judy after you do it. do all of them will speed up your site. I sure that )
Hieu Martin’s last post…Secret of link building – Be a top commentator

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At 2010.07.12 02:39, Joel @ Growth hormone said:

Nice tips and since page speed is real factor that impact on SERP, this is pretty much required.

I use Picnik.com tool to resize most of images. It crops and minimize size of images. Which overall a nice too. It web based tool so can use without downloading it.

Stylesheet images also important factor, whereever possible, they should also be resized. That can be one time hassle but really help.

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At 2010.07.12 07:37, Gabe Young said:

Thanks for the Picnik.com tip!

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At 2010.07.13 08:33, web marketing melbourne said:

Very good information…I appreciate you sharing this with us.
web marketing melbourne’s last post…Professional Web Design Melbourne- Ecommerce Website Design- Professional Website

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At 2010.07.15 16:51, Amanda @ Outdoor Planters said:

Great tips! It is really important that our website is loading up fast. I myself wouldn’t stay long and wait for a website to fully load its page. We should always think of our visitors’ satisfaction.

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At 2010.07.16 09:06, jeff@givingplants said:

Good point. I think removing unnecessary plug ins can prevent it from happening. Just make sure that all plug ins and applications that are present in your blog or site are the important ones. THanks for sharing!

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At 2010.07.16 10:26, Brian said:

Wow everything in here is useful. Thanks guys. we definitely have a very poor connection here. But websites must be some factors here. I’ll try some pointers here

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At 2010.07.16 11:38, Alamin said:

Thanks nice post. Actually google now consider site load time to rank.

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At 2010.07.16 13:23, adhonys said:

For me i have an incredible reduction in my page load time instaling w3 total cache and thiincredible plugin Script Compressor
adhonys’s last post…Crear un correo en Hotmail

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At 2010.07.16 22:57, jimmy choo said:

　A careless word may kindle strife；a cruel word may wreck a life；a timely word may level stress；a loving word may heal and bless.
Jimmy choo

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At 2010.07.21 22:16, Mia said:

I did not realize that this was so important. I have heard about this through the grape vine but, have not done anything about it. I guess I had better get to it.

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At 2010.07.24 22:57, Carol said:

I have heard that this is becoming more and more important. I do not really know what makes my site slower than other sites. I will have to check out your ideas to see if, this will help. This makes for alot of work.

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At 2010.07.25 22:20, etipz said:

nice domain
etipz’s last post…9 steps to avoid seasickness

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At 2010.07.29 09:24, DataCenter said:

Get the best Dedicated server fromus.we give you all the best 24*7*365 support.

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At 2010.07.30 04:01, sangsang said:

Google now consider site load time to rank.
So I’ll try for my pages load faster.
Maybe I’ll have to consult many here.
Thanks
sangsang’s last post…Bộ đề thi trắc nghiệm kinh tế vĩ mô

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At 2010.08.09 00:33, iCore said:

merging java scripts also play a great role in fasting up your website…..

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At 2010.08.21 05:28, Paris Accommodation said:

I like to see your blog because your blog always gives useful post to us. I just read your post “Do you know how fast (or slow) your site is?”. I wondered that how to speed up the slow site. This post already answered me. Thank you for sharing.
Paris Accommodation’s last post…Paris Apartment in Le Marais – Georges Pompidou

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At 2010.10.11 11:07, Jason @ How to make lots of money fast said:

Thank you for this advice. I have noted especially that ads seem to slow ones site down dramatically – today I don’t even have ads!

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At 2010.10.23 02:38, best wall mounts said:

what is the size of images in site for good seepd.

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- At 2010.11.09 04:23, Catalin said:
  
  There’s no standard for image sizes, but they should never go over a few hundred KBs, also avoid to resize your pictures through HTML, but resize them yourself with a software and insert them as needed. I’d also suggest merging to the PNG format, they weight less and support alpha transparency.
  
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At 2010.10.23 02:40, Carpet Cleaning NY said:

My site a little bit slow so that ill apply your points and check thanks for sharing.

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At 2010.11.22 09:39, Mangix said:

How can you make the ads load last?
I’m planning on having everything else loaded before the ads on top.

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At 2011.02.03 12:56, Liberian Geek said:

Also go to http://www.cloudflare.com and register for a free CDN (Content Delivery Network) service. This has increase my site and reduced my bounce rate.
Liberian Geek’s last post…Delete Desktop Themes You Don’t Want in Fedora 14 Laughlin

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At 2011.02.05 11:28, Nabil said:

My only tip to anyone willing to speed up their blog is to make use of the Minify-feature found in the W3 Total Cache plugin for WordPress.

Also make sure you try out cSprites for WordPress.

/Nabil.

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- At 2011.08.03 16:12, Sven said:
  
  As Nabil says. One of the most important things is to make a sprite file of all images. In that way you reduce the HTTP request – which takes time – to the server. Instead of images X number, you just have to do one request for the hole sprite image.
  
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At 2011.02.10 18:25, Albin said:

What about media from external website that is embedded on my website? Does that media slow down my website?

E.g. Youtube-video or a picture from another source than my own webpage that is embedded.
Albin’s last post…Tron Legacy 3D

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At 2011.02.10 23:47, Graphic Logo Design said:

nice post and really nice information:-)

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At 2011.02.24 03:22, Ankit Saini said:

I think Web host is also one of the factor..
Thanks
Ankit Saini’s last post…How To Edit Limit Reservable Bandwidth

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At 2011.03.04 00:31, Appliance Repair Memphis TN said:

I haven’t had any problems with host gator yet. Just switched about 5 months ago. We are the preferred choice for Appliance Repair Memphis TN
Appliance Repair Memphis TN’s last post…Appliance News

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At 2011.03.19 05:30, شات الحب said:

Thanks for sharingiyt

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At 2011.06.16 06:51, Linfröolja said:

For WordPress, I think there are several awesome plugins for speeding up websites. I like that Google just came up with “Google Page Speed” so I can look how good ranking Google spider thinks that my page has.

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At 2011.06.18 07:22, Badrumsrenovering Malmö said:

Nice! Finally I can speed that slow thing I’ve got up

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At 2011.07.12 15:58, Webbdesign said:

My best tip for speeding up a website is to use the plugin (for wordpress) Smush.it – but if you don’t run on WordPress – these are great tips

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At 2011.07.23 17:41, شات الطائف said:

This is a good follow up of your previous post about pingdom, and by the way I enjoyed that tool, thanks for sharing that. I’ve also shared the word to some of the other bloggers out there, thanks to you.

Just a quick question though, is it really advisable for a blog to switch on a dedicated server? I mean, say even the blog has not that too much traffic to handle? thanks in advance.

I’m starting to enjoy my stay here, will definitely be back for more.

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At 2011.07.25 13:22, دردشة مكتوب said:

Thank you for offering

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At 2011.08.06 11:22, Badrumsrenovering Information said:

These are great tips and thanks for helping me out. I actually dont runt run WP sites so these are great knowledge.
Badrumsrenovering Information’s last post…Badrumsrenovering Info updated Thu Jul 28 2011 12:31 pm CDT

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At 2011.08.11 14:04, Sven said:

Thats exactly a good thing to use. I use a VPS (Virtual Private Server) which is on a physical server, but Im sharing this with others. The great thing is if I need more space like harddrive, RAM, Core’s I just upgrade. I dont even need to reboot the VPS its starst to work directly!

A VPS is a great way to start with if you need more resources than a shared web hosting can give you.

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At 2011.09.22 02:37, yichlebucow said:

i love to talk about families, being with our family is our best time..hope to see more.
yichlebucow’s last post…Delock Dual Audioadapter für Kopfhörer – Ein 3,5 mm Elektronik

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At 2011.09.22 10:45, Arkitekt said:

THANK YOU! My site has been extremly slow for some weeks now, the css was the problem! Even google couldnt index it!

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At 2011.10.27 10:13, Bantningsmetoder said:

oh, thanks for the tip! Now I can rank higher in the serps too! Thanks m8.
Bantningsmetoder’s last post…Om man väger runt 100 kg och vill ner till 80 snabbt?

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At 2011.10.28 03:25, movie said:

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At 2011.10.31 05:52, vps said:

vps…

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At 2012.01.15 15:34, Bröllopsklänningar said:

Thanks a bunch for the great tips! From what I tested I notice big difference in speed when css optimizing but I will definetly try the other tips out as well!
Bröllopsklänningar’s last post…Hello world!

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