Having a nicely built website can only take it so far. Even if you have the best domain and hosting service for your site, you will have lower traffic to your website if the web performance is lacking. Knowing the basics of website performance is critical to ensuring the best experience for those who visit your site. Here is what you need to know.
Defining Web Performance
Web Performance is, just as the name suggests, the website's performance. This is typically associated with the overall load times, the usability, the smoothness of loads and features, the level of interactivity, and website optimization. You might have heard of abbreviations such as MDN (Mozilla Developer Network), RUM (accurate user monitoring), API (application programming interface), and others. While these are parts of the performance chain, it is not critical to have good performance basics.
It is encouraged that you research various parts of web performance as you come to terms and practices which you don't understand. The internet is continuously changing, and acronyms like the ones we listed change.
Overall load times
When someone wishes to view your site, the last thing they want is to wait an excessive amount of time to see the content. Google recommends that your site loads in 2 seconds or less. Remember that we live in a world of instantaneous information. Sites that take more than 3 seconds to load have a 57% chance of leaving the page. So, how do you increase the load times for your page?
Firstly, ensure that all your content is formatted for the web. Videos that are in AVI format, for example, take a tremendous amount of time to load and are, in general, large files. If you have images, make sure they are flattened to decrease the file size. The larger the overall file size is for your page, the longer it will take to load. Secondly, check your WordPress hosting service or your domain and hosting services to see the rate of uploading and downloading. Like cell phone carriers, each provider has a different data exchange rate. Choose a plan or a top-rated web hosting with enough speed to handle your site.
Usability
Beta testing is crucial to website performance. In Beta testing, you get feedback from a selected number of people about your site's usability. Any glitches that may be present are brought to light, and any formatting and loading issues. Usability, as it pertains to web performance, includes the buttons and navigation and any interactive content you may have scripted with C++, Java, or HTML.
The smoothness of loads and features
In the past, the loading of sites could have been done using a block loading method. However, in today's world, loading should be simultaneous. Should you find your site loading content in chunks and that the site takes more than 3 seconds to load, you will need to change your website hosting service, as this is a sign that they have not updated information on their end to handle today's website content demands. For the fastest shared hosting WordPress sites and the top-rated web hosting providers, the site's loading should be smooth.
Web page content can be formatted to help smooth loads and features. Again, the size of the content matters a great deal with how well your site loads. Videos should not have to buffer. If you have large video files, ensure that the beginning 2 minutes run smoothly. To avoid any issues with features, avoid using flash as an antiquated format.
Level of interactivity
Even if you have a CMS site (Content Management Service site) that focuses mainly on text, you need to have interactivity designed into the site. Sites that do not encourage user interactivity are apt to be ignored or leave the page. When building within a WordPress hosting service, see which integrated features are available for your site. This can include snippets, social media share capabilities, and animation features. Explore your options and add features strategically.
Overall Website Optimization
After you have done all the formatting and optimizing on your end, you will need to have the site looked at by someone who knows HTML, CSS, XHTML, Java, C++ and other web coding languages. Often, a site with poor performance has issues within the actual coding and structure of the site. If you do not know the code, or if you change the code inconsistent with the rest of the site's design, there is a chance that the web site's performance will suffer because of it.
Conclusion
For the best website performance, have the top-rated web hosting service available, minimize the file sizes of the video and media content on your site, increase the useability, and keep the overall load times under 3 seconds for the best user experience, SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages), and performance.
