Website Performance
We understand the vital role of fast and high-performing websites, impacting both user experience and search engine rankings.
We specialize in optimizing website performance to ensure exceptional usability, reduced bounce rates, and improved Google rankings, ultimately driving increased organic traffic and bolstering your online success.
Why website speed matter
As consumer reliance on mobile devices for accessing digital content and services continues to grow, your site analytics likely reflect this trend.
Consumers today are more discerning, not only comparing your site with competitors but also with best-in-class services they encounter daily.
User experience
Extended page load times and slow response times to user actions can lead to a negative user experience.
The frustration of waiting for content to load may prompt visitors to abandon the site altogether, hindering engagement and potentially impacting conversion rates.
At S Tier Dev, we prioritize website performance optimization to ensure swift, responsive interactions that keep users engaged and delighted throughout their online journey.
SEO
The speed of your site plays a crucial role in your SEO performance, with Google assessing the overall user experience through Core Web Vitals signals.
A slow loading speed can have a direct impact on SEO and indirectly lead to higher bounce rates and reduced user engagement.
Improving site speed is essential to enhance your online presence and offer a more positive experience for your visitors.
What and How to optimize
When it comes to WordPress optimization, and website performance optimization in general, there is no ‘One Size Fits All’ solution.
Every website is different and every business has its own preferences and meaning of ‘well performing website’, but in the following we will show you some things that should be looked at on every website.
If you want to spend your time on developing your business and leave the website performance to us, let us know.
Theme
There’s no shortage of impressive themes out there, with each tailored for a particular kind of website project.
Many premium themes, especially those bundled with page builders, offer a rich selection of pre-designed layouts. These can expedite the website creation process, making it possible to have a full-fledged site up in just a few hours or days. This is particularly beneficial if you’re working with limited resources or time constraints.
However, it’s essential to note that while these themes offer convenience, they may also introduce some downside. They might come loaded with redundant scripts, styles, and features that aren’t always necessary for your site which can cause unnecessary bloat.
While it’s possible to optimize these themes for better performance, it raises the question: If you’re investing both money and time in optimization, why not choose a lightning-fast theme from the outset?
Caching
Caching is a crucial mechanism for enhancing web performance, saving bandwidth, and providing a faster browsing experience for users but also a topic for itself.
To sum it up and to make it a bit clearer for you, here are the basics of a couple layers of caching:
Browser
Caching
Browsers can store website resources locally on a user’s device. When a user revisits a site, the browser can check the cache to see if it can use those resources instead of re-downloading them.
Server-side
Caching
This can involve multiple techniques like page caching and object caching. The server creates static versions of content, so it doesn’t need to re-process frequent requests.
Plugin or Application-level Caching
Many content management systems, like WordPress, have plugins or built-in features that handle caching at the application level.
Plugins
Plugins are a great way to extend webste functionality, but if choosen poorly, they can do more harm than good.
Be cautious of plugins with fewer than, for instance, 1,000 installations. Their limited installs might indicate they haven’t been extensively tested. If a plugin doesn’t have a high number of users, it often means the developers haven’t received enough feedback to refine it. Consider searching for an alternative if you’re uncertain.
Even if a plugin seems perfect based on its description and has a considerable number of installs, be wary if it hasn’t seen an update in, say, a year. Outdated plugins can not only slow down your site but may also become incompatible with newer WordPress versions, potentially causing site breakdowns. Moreover, they can pose a security risk.
This might be a controversial take, but hear me out. If a plugin boasts over a million installations, chances are it might be too cumbersome for your website. This issue often arises with premium themes as well. To cater to such a vast user base, these plugins or themes tend to be feature-packed, many of which you probably won’t utilize. As a result, these over-featured plugins could potentially be more detrimental than beneficial.
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CDN
A Content Delivery Network (CDN ) is a network of distributed servers designed to deliver content to users more efficiently.
At the heart of a CDN are multiple servers strategically located across various geographical locations. These servers hold cached copies of static content from your website, such as images, scripts, stylesheets, and videos.
When a user wants to access content hosted on a website using a CDN, the CDN will redirect the request from the originating site’s server to the server in the CDN that is closest to the user or has the quickest response time.
The chosen CDN server then delivers the cached content to the user. If the content isn’t already cached or is outdated on that server, the CDN will fetch the latest version from the original server and then deliver it to the user, simultaneously updating its cache.
Hosting
Selecting the ideal hosting provider for your website is a crucial decision to make early on.
The right host can significantly impact your site’s overall performance and user experience.
Even if your website’s design isn’t inherently optimized for speed and efficiency, migrating to a different, more competent hosting provider can drastically enhance its performance.
Therefore, investing time in researching and choosing a host can be instrumental in determining your site’s success.
