As many as 57% of online users will abandon a site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Every second of delay increases bounce rates, resulting in lost conversions and lower revenue. Whether you manage an e-commerce store, blog, or another type of website, a slow website will frustrate users and negatively impact your brand.
If you’re stuck thinking, “My website takes too long to load,” remember that slow website performance can be affected by several quite specific factors. And once you know these factors, you can implement appropriate solutions to keep your website fast and responsive.
Below, we look at and analyze the 15 most popular reasons for slow website loading.
1. Poor Server Performance
Poor server performance is one of the main reasons for slow website loading. Most hosting platforms share your server with other websites, which can slow down your site.
To solve this problem, you can upgrade to a virtual private server (VPS) or a dedicated hosting plan to ensure the entire server is dedicated to your site.
If you manage your own server, keep all software on the server up-to-date and regularly perform system maintenance to keep it running smoothly.
2. Excessive HTTP Requests
Every time someone visits a page on your site, their browser sends multiple HTTP requests to download the various elements on the page. These HTTP requests bring in the images, scripts, and stylesheets for your website.
In short, more HTTP requests mean slow website loading. To reduce HTTP requests:
- Merge your CSS and JavaScript files.
- Remove unnecessary characters or lines from your website’s code.
- Use image sprites for small images.
- Implement lazy loading so media loads only when it comes into view.
3. Large File Sizes
Large files are another common culprit behind slow website loading times. Large files take longer to download, leading to slow speed in general. Optimize the size of your files by:
- Hosting videos on reliable platforms like YouTube or Vimeo.
- Compressing your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code with GZIP compression.
- Storing only the necessary files, including page elements and only the specific font weights and styles used on the site.
- Loading fonts asynchronously.
As soon as you reduce file sizes, your slow website will begin to download noticeably faster.
4. Unoptimized Images
Images are one of the most common file types that can have overly large sizes, especially if it’s high-resolution images or specific formats. Optimize your image use by:
- Compressing images with tools like TinyPNG or JPEGmini.
- Choosing a better file format: WebP or JPEG suits most purposes. Use PNG only when transparency is necessary.
- Resizing images to the exact size needed.
By compressing, resizing, and formatting your images appropriately, they will load as fast as possible. This is especially important for e-commerce sites run on platforms like Magento, as there are many product images for the site to manage.
Read More:How to Optimize Your Magento Speed
5. Render-Blocking JavaScript
JavaScript often delays the rendering of a webpage until all JavaScript files have been executed. This render-blocking behavior slows down your website’s load time significantly. To reduce render-blocking JavaScript, you can:
- Defer the parsing of JavaScript with the defer attribute in <script> tags.
- Load scripts asynchronously using the async attribute.
- Place critical JavaScript within your HTML to reduce HTTP requests.
- Regularly audit and remove unused scripts.
6. Too Many Plugins
Plugins add features to your website, but they come at a cost. Each plugin adds extra code that must be executed. To optimize plugin use without slowing down your site, you can:
- Limit the number of plugins to only those critical to your website’s functionality.
- Use lightweight, efficient plugins.
- When possible, combine functions into one plugin.
- Update all plugins regularly.
Optimizing your use of plugins results in a leaner, faster website.
7. Unclean Code
Unnecessary white spaces, inline styles, and comments make your code more complex for browsers to process. Clean up your code by:
- Using tools like UglifyJS for JavaScript or CSSNano for CSS.
- Making sure to use proper formatting for all code, including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Regularly auditing your codebase.
- Limiting nested loops and conditional statements.
Streamline your codebase and enjoy watching your slow-loading website become more efficient!
8. Lack of Caching
Without caching, the server must process every user request like a new one, which results in a slow website speed. Caching reduces requests by storing copies of files in temporary locations, making it easier for the browser to load quickly. You can implement caching by:
- Enabling browser caching to store static files on the user’s device.
- Using server-side caching such as Varnish or Memcached.
- Configuring cache-control headers to optimize caching durations for different content types.
9. Unoptimized CSS
Large CSS files with duplicate or unnecessary stylesheets will slow down your website significantly. Make it easier for browsers to render pages by optimizing your CSS:
- Combine multiple stylesheets into one.
- Use tools like PurifyCSS, UnCSS, or our Google Page Speed Optimizer Pro for Magento to remove unused CSS.
- Use critical CSS for above-the-fold content.
- Load non-critical CSS styles asynchronously.
Streamlining your CSS will help browsers render your pages faster.
10. Heavy Use of Ads and Trackers
Ads and trackers are critical for many websites. Whether you run a website with ads or an e-commerce store, these marketing tools are non-negotiable. Be aware, however, that each ad and tracker increases your website’s overall load time. Balance your ad and tracker use with website performance by:
- Limiting the number of ads on each page. Focus on higher-quality ads versus a high quantity of low-performance ads.
- Optimizing ad sizes and images used in the ad.
- Consolidating trackers into a single analytics platform.
- Implementing lazy loading, so ads won’t render until they’re in view.
Balancing ad revenue with site performance will result in a better user experience overall.
11. Insufficient Hosting Resources
Your slow website’s hosting can bottleneck your website’s performance. If your hosting doesn’t provide enough bandwidth for your site, it’ll slow down significantly during traffic spikes. Address this issue by:
- Choosing hosting services that tailor their configurations for your platform (WordPress, Magento, etc.).
- Monitoring resource usage like CPU and RAM, and upgrading as your website hits the limits of available resources.
- Implementing load balancing, which distributes traffic across multiple servers.
By optimizing your hosting environment, your website will handle increased traffic more efficiently.
12. External Embedded Media
Embedding external media, such as videos, can free up resources compared to hosting large files directly on your site. However, they can also decrease performance if the media host begins to have issues.
Having third-party embeds requires extra HTTP requests, which can further slow down your website. Minimize the impact of external embedded media by:
- Using only reliable video hosting services.
- Using lazy loading for embedded media.
- Optimizing image thumbnails versus initially loading the entire video player.
- Monitoring all third-party platforms used on your website and switch to alternatives if they underperform.
Rich media content provides many benefits as long as it does not compete with the overall website performance.
13. No Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) delivers website content quickly across the globe. Without a CDN, your primary server processes all requests. A CDN spreads the load, allowing users to connect with servers that are geographically closer to them. Here’s how to implement a CDN:
- Choose a reliable CDN provider. Check for global coverage and reviews on their performance.
- Cache static content like images, CSS, and JavaScript through the CDN versus requiring calls to your main server.
Setting up geo-distribution with a CDN allows all users worldwide to enjoy low latency.
14. Inefficient Database Queries
Inefficient queries to your database will increase response times for users visiting your site. Optimize database queries by:
- Ensuring frequently queried columns are indexed appropriately.
- Rewriting complex queries by limiting unnecessary joins and subqueries.
- Using prepared statements to enhance both performance and security.
Optimizing queries will streamline your database operations, resulting in faster response times.
15. High Traffic without Scalability
High traffic can be a blessing and a curse. It’s great news that people are interested in your offer, but the additional traffic can overwhelm your servers. Make sure your website can scale efficiently to handle the load from traffic spikes:
- Distribute traffic across multiple servers.
- Add auto-scaling features that automatically spin up new servers based on demand.
- Use a cloud hosting platform that offers flexible resource allocation.
Enjoy the benefits of high traffic without the headaches by preparing your website with scalable hosting.
Speed Up Your Website Today!
Great user experience, SEO rankings, and overall business success depend on improving your slow website’s loading speed. From optimizing images to choosing scalable hosting, you can increase your website’s performance in many ways. Address these issues with targeted solutions, and your website will engage users with faster, more efficient upload times.
Consider using professional services to help increase your website’s speed. Our Shopify speed optimization service and, for Magento users, our comprehensive Magento performance audit can identify critical areas for improvement.
