Symptoms & Reasons For Website Loading Slow
Slow loading of a website is a serious problem. Here’s why!
Slow loading of a website can affect the business in many ways. Below are some of the major concerns that you must have when your website is loading slowly:
- A slow-loading website will turn away the users, forcing them to quit as soon as they enter the site, leaving them frustrated and never returning.
- A slow-loading website affects the credibility of the business. Businesses or companies that don’t care to optimize their websites for their customers aren’t considered trustworthy.
- A slow-loading website also lose its SEO rankings. Search engines like Google consider a website’s loading speed an essential signal for ranking on its search engine result pages (SERP).
- A slow-loading website can reduce the number of conversions coming from the marketing & advertising efforts.
Do you need more reasons to consider fixing your slow-loading website seriously?
Now, you may be wondering how to know if your website is loading slowly for your customers and the possible reasons behind its slowness. Below, we have shared some common symptoms and reasons for website slowness.
Symptoms and reasons for slow loading of websites
- Symptom: Pages take too long to load, especially with images.
- Possible reasons: Uncompressed images (especially high-resolution images) can significantly slow down a website.
- Symptom: The site feels sluggish, making each element load slowly.
- Reason: Bloated or unoptimized code, such as excessive usage of JavaScript or CSS, can cause delays.
- Symptom: After adding new features, the website takes a long time to load or function sluggishly.
- Reason: Outdated/faulty plugins can slow down a site by adding extra code and resources.
- Symptom: The site experiences consistent lag or is slow during peak traffic hours.
- Reason: The web host can be the cause of slowing down the website during peak hours.
- Symptom: Websites reload entirely every time they’re accessed, causing delays.
- Reason: Lack of caching slows down repeat visits. This means that each time a webpage loads, all the elements are loaded completely.
- Symptom: The website takes longer than usual to navigate between pages.
- Reason: Multiple redirects, such as page or URL redirects, can increase load times.
DIY hacks to fix slow-loading websites
Before we share DIY hacks to fix a slow-loading website, a word of caution: Always make any changes to a website after taking a full backup and consulting a professional web developer.
#1 Upgrade the required plugins/theme:
The most basic yet important way to fix a slow-loading website is to upgrade outdated plugins and themes. In most cases, the primary cause of a website’s slowness is its outdated plugins and themes. Make sure to back up your website before updating any theme or plugin, as the customized codes used in them can break it. If you are unsure how to do this, hire a professional WordPress developer.
#2 Upgrade the PHP version on the server
The version of PHP keeps changing regularly. If your WordPress website uses an older or outdated version of PHP on the server, you must update it. This can be done from the server’s cPanel (aka control panel). Again, updating the PHP version can show warning messages on the website, or sometimes it can even show a white screen. If this happens to you, you must revert back to the older version and contact your web developer to update the PHP version and make changes to the files accordingly.
#3 Upgrade the WordPress CMS
The WordPress CMS version also changes whenever there are significant changes. Usually, WordPress websites show a message on the dashboard asking to update the WordPress version. Before you update your website, make sure to back it up completely. In most cases, upgrading the WordPress version doesn’t cause any issues, but if it does, seek help from a reliable WordPress developer.
#4 Install a cache plugin
A cache plugin stores static versions of your web pages, reducing the need to reload resources from the database every time a visitor accesses your site. As a result, your website users get a smooth browsing experience. Most professional WordPress developers use a cache plugin on their client’s websites.
Below are some of the commonly used cache plugins that can be used with a WordPress website:
- WP Rocket
- W3 Total Cache
- WP Super Cache
- LiteSpeed Cache
#5 Optimize/resize the high-res images
Due to their large file sizes, high-resolution images can slow down your website. Large image files consume more data, affecting the server and user experience, especially for mobile users.
There are several ways in which you can optimize the images on your WordPress website:
- You can use an online tool such as JPG-Optimizer to compress the images.
- Always use the proper image format (JPG, PNG, or WebP)
- Before uploading images to your website, always resize them and avoid using large images.
- Use a CDN (content delivery network) like Cloudflare to distribute images across multiple global servers. This will help the images load faster.
#6 Reduce the number of redirects
Excessive redirects on a website can also affect its loading speed. Use an online tool such as Google Pagespeed Insights or GTMetrix to identify if your website has multiple or unnecessary redirects. Once you find that your website has multiple redirects, you can take the below steps to fix them:
- Use a WordPress plugin like Redirection to reduce unnecessary redirects.
- Avoid multiple redirects from HTTP → WWW → HTTPS → Non-WWW
- Correct .htaccess Redirect (for HTTPS & WWW preference):