Page Load Speed — Update!
Ok, so I wanted to provide the solution to my problem on this medium (Pardon the pun — or perhaps that’s why they chose this name?) a lot sooner than this however, not all things can be that easily rectified and there are times when you need to admit defeat and call in an expert.
Luckily for me, I have one handy. Actually, I have a whole team handy! But one person will do.
In my previous post of the same topic, we were emphasizing the need for fast page load speed as one of the main ranking factors for good search engine results with Google. In other words. The faster your page loads the better chances you have at ranking higher — Of course, the algorithms that Google use to ranks sites have other important factors, however, this is one of the most important!
Why is this so?
Because statistically if a web page takes longer than 4 seconds to load, people will abandon the site. If you are in eCommerce or a service based business then this is of particular importance because you want the user experience of your site to be as fluid and intuitive as possible. And this begins with how fast your website loads.
Patience is a thing of the past. At least when we are talking about getting answers to a question online! To reiterate what I said in the previous post. Google’s main objective (actually this is subjective) is to be the most accurate search engine on the planet with the best user experience. I’m sure they also want to collect masses of data and dominate just about every other technological advancement on the planet — however, this, in a nutshell, was their beginning.
So when someone Googles “Nike sneakers online” Google will turn around results that best serve the keyword but also according to the legitimacy of the website and what the user will experience when visiting the searched site. Bottom line. If the page takes too long to load. It’s a problem!
So here is how we corrected the said problem for the website www.installexpress.com.au
1. First checked the website for any unused plugins and removed them.
2. Checked the server latency using the speed check tools like Pingdom.
3. Identified the core items that were contributing to the slow performance.
4. Checked the status of the cache modules installed.
5. Install and configure the WP Total Cache plugin, update the htaccess to handle the cache requests.
7. Checked all the images being used in the website and compress them if they are of large size. (There are plenty of online services to compress the image without losing the quality)
8. As the final step going to the wp-cache settings and select the options manual compression/ minification of js and css. Then compress all the files by a click of a button.
9. Purge all page cache (this option is available on the top nav bar in the admin dashboard on WordPress ).
Did all that sound like technobabble? Perhaps. That's why I called in the big guns!
Big thank you for the team at www.Vendfox.com for jumping in and taking over. For over 10 years these guys have helped not only myself but many other Aussie eCommerce businesses. Hands down the best service I have experienced when dealing with offshore services!
