5 Ways to speed up your E-commerce Website

Speed is a critical component of an e-commerce site’s performance. According to web statistics, approximately 70% of users will leave a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Web users expect significantly faster loading times, and your site needs to live up to those expectations. If your website falls short on speed, there will be an increased bounce rate and you will lose out on conversions from your business. Speed also affects your website’s search engine optimization. Google uses speed to rank websites on search results, so slow web pages on your site can negatively affect your search results ranking.

Thoroughly checking your website and mitigating any issues affecting your website’s speed is vital. Use these techniques to make your e-commerce site load faster and perform smoothly;

1. Compress files. Files take up a large chunk of a website’s space. E-commerce websites have lots of product images and videos, which can lead to slow-loading product pages. While image and video files are an essential part of a website’s content, they can affect the performance. Therefore, optimizing them will ultimately keep their sizes down and increase your website’s overall performance. Compress these files without compromising their quality by using plugins to make them load faster and improve your site’s speed.
2. Implement caching. Use caching plugins to reduce load times on your site and also to help your server perform more efficiently. Caching cuts down the resources required to run your site by reducing the number of requests and files that load directly from the server every time a user visits your e-commerce site. Browser caching lets you store static assets, for example, logos, in the browser so that visitors won’t need to reload them every time they visit a new page.
3. Remove unnecessary plugins. The right plugins are helpful for the smooth performance and development of your e-commerce site. They add features that improve the functionality and customization of your website. When regularly updated, they improve your website’s speed and performance. However, it can be tempting to have excess plugins, which affects the functionality of your site and leads to slow web pages.
4. Manage website errors. Website errors, like 404 errors, directly affect the user experience, which can frustrate users to leave your site. Such errors occur due to broken links or when you move a page to a different location on your website that is not accessible by users. Additional requests to find these files will lead to longer loading times, which affect the overall performance of your website. Proper monitoring of your site and fixing these common errors will improve its speed.
5. Switch to a robust hosting option. If all fails, it is time to figure out whether you’ve outgrown your current web hosting plan. We have specially packaged hosting accounts that have the required resources necessary to support e-commerce hosting. Upgrade has become very simple and convenient. Improve the speed of your e-commerce site; our team of experts will take you through our hosting packages and help you pick the right option to suit the needs of your e-commerce site.

The speed of your e-commerce site is crucial to the success of your online business. Implementing these strategies will ensure your site performs better, which will considerably improve the customer experience and increase conversions.

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