Beyond Images: 6 Things That Slow Down Page Loads

6 things that slow down a page loading

As a designer, the images you use on your website are the most important focal point for your client businesses. You may spend hours putting together logos, graphics, and photos that tell the story of each company you work with. But these images can really slow down the page load speed. There are plenty of ways to optimize your images, but once you have, is your work really done? Images aren’t the only things that slow down page loads. What else can affect your site speed and what can you do about it? 

JavaScript

This development language is one of the cornerstones of the internet. It made huge strides in personalization when all we had before was HTML. The tendrils of JavaScript run so deep within the web that it would be impossible to separate it out now. 

JavaScript itself isn’t necessarily making your pages slow, but the way it’s used can have a huge impact. Some aspects of it are overused, which can give your page severe bloat that slows down your load time. 

Flash

This has also long been a darling of web developers, and for good reason. It allows users to be interactive on your site, which is imperative for some businesses. However, most Flash content is huge comparatively and will slow down a site. 

The only way to control the issue is to make your flash file size much smaller or eliminate it from your site all together. 

Too Many HTTP Requests

It gets complicated, but HTTP requests can slow down your site significantly. For everything loading on your page, your browser sends out communications to the web and back. When the web is slow to respond, your page loads suffer. 

If you reduce the number of files on your page, it can speed up the process. When the browser doesn’t have to do as much heavy lifting, things go much faster. 

Messy Code

WordPress does take some of this off the table, but messy code is responsible for a lot of slow websites. When a designer codes a website themselves, it takes a lot of information to tell the page to have blank space or style or text blocks. 

The best solution to this is to remove all unnecessary code, but it takes a lot to comb the back end to see what’s causing the slowdown. 

Display Ads

Your client may use ads to help generate revenue from their site. There is nothing at all wrong with that, except that it can slow down the user experience. Ads use a lot of HTTP processing to send out a request through the browser and display the ad, but that’s not the only frustration.

There is also the user experience to consider. If an ad is what slows down the page, they are likely to click away and not return. 

Hosting Problems

Honestly, you could be doing everything right and still have a page load slowly. This doesn’t serve you as a designer or your client companies. If everything else is fixed and your page is still slow, it may be time to consider a new host. 

Many hosting companies offer website optimization as a part of their package. With this as a priority, you’ll find the entire experience more pleasant. 

It’s a lot to ask for a page designer to know all the back-end technology to optimize a site. You don’t have to do it alone. Call the experts at SiteTrustee to see how we can help.