Do you want to speed up your e-commerce site with trending techniques?
Speed is a vital element to the success of an eCommerce site. Not only does it improve the customer experience, but it also directly affects conversions and sales.
This guide will show you how to speed up your eCommerce store to improve performance and conversions.
1. Reduce the Size of the Page
Page size is in kilobytes. It includes all the elements on the page – images, JavaScript, and CSS. The smaller the page, the better. Avoid embedding large objects or pictures on the page via WooCommerce upload files; design your pages with loading times in mind. It’s easy to measure the size of a page by saving it to your computer as a website database from your browser. Then measure the file size.
Keep page load times under 3 seconds unless your site needs more images to generate revenue. In this case, strike the right balance between losing customers due to slow loading times and gaining customers due to better shots.
2. Use a DNS Level Website Firewall
Brute force and DDoS attacks are common threats to the Internet. Hackers usually try to enlarge your server by hacking, stealing information, or installing malicious content.
Most hosting companies have built-in security measures to protect your sites from such attacks. However, one of the disadvantages of these attacks is the slow loading of your website. This is why you need a Web Application Firewall (WAF).
Now set up WordPress custom windows to run on your website. This makes them less effective, as they cannot block suspicious attacks until they reach your server. On the other hand, a DNS-level firewall can filter your cloud traffic and stop suspicious attacks before they even get to your website.
3. Reduce HTTP Requests
More HTTP requests can also prevent page speeds from slowing down. Online stores have added many elements and features to attract visitors and encourage their shopping experience. All these features increase the number of HTTP requests from the server, resulting in slower speeds.
You need to reduce HTTP requests to increase the speed of your store pages by removing all unnecessary elements and features from your store and removing extensions/plugins to improve performance.
4. Make Use of CDN
Another meaningful and effective way to improve your eCommerce website for speed is to use a CDN (Content Delivery Network). This type of network has different servers spread around the world. They facilitate the user’s use of web pages as quickly as possible. After you have chosen the best CDN for your eCommerce website, all your files will be copied to these servers worldwide.
This way, you ensure that users can find your page as quickly as possible when they try to access your e-commerce site from another location. The closest server will respond to the user’s request to allow them to use your website design as soon as possible. A CDN (Content Delivery Network) ensures that your site will load quickly, no matter where it is located.
Since many servers are available, you can easily make your product available to all users worldwide (if it fits your policy). CDN is best suited for all types of websites, especially for an online store that attracts a lot of traffic from different countries. If your website is found quickly from anywhere, it will also affect the performance score of your website, giving it a better position on the search engine page.
5. Review Third-Party Extensions
Another thing that affects our store is the third-party extensions we install to make our job easier. Know that adding it in reasonable amounts won’t hurt you, but too much of anything is wrong. Much of the user work and bugs, broken codes, and other issues found in third-party compilations slow down the site’s loading.
To solve this, you can start looking at third-party extensions. You should balance the pros and cons. Then remove any plugins that no longer work or don’t have proper functionality.
6. Think about the Mobile Experience
To engage consumers on mobile, you must prioritize the mobile experience. A mobile-first experience should be easy for a visitor to see and navigate when a visitor is viewing your homepage from a mobile device. Avoid flashy and complex designs that only get in the way.
About 85% of adults think a website viewed on a mobile device should be as good or better than a desktop website.
While the use of mobile devices for browsing the web and making purchases is on the rise, they are still new compared to online life. As a result, mobile user conversion efforts are less popular than desktop efforts.
7. Use Caching and In-memory Technology
Use cashing or in-memory technology to avoid unnecessary data usage. These technologies can temporarily store a complete list of e-commerce products, all customer information, web browsing information, and other information to prevent data loss.
The technology uses the RAM available on the server and stores data. Because read-only operations typically run ten times faster in RAM than on a hard disk, this helps improve performance.
8. Optimize WordPress Database
Over time, your WordPress database can become cluttered with information you no longer need. This mess can slow down data processing, backups, and the overall performance of WordPress. From time to time, it is essential to use the WordPress database to eliminate unnecessary information.
9. Keep the Core Web Technology Updated
We advise you to update the core technology to the latest version. Or PHP. HTML or WordPress is always recommended to upgrade the underlying technology because it improves the website’s performance and speed. Updates are offered to enhance the experience of site owners and users. If you are using a top hosting company, they will provide you with information about the latest PHP version.
However, we advise you to stay tuned because many site owners avoid opening their hosts. If you are updating PHP or any other theme and installing it on your website, it is always recommended to use a custom site. You need to perform the proper updates on your website to maintain your online store. Because, in many cases, other plugins and themes are not compatible with updates, which can lead to various problems on your website.
10. Use Lazy Loading
If your website takes a few seconds to load, you can improve the user experience by speeding up the top of the page. Lazy loading is a technique that works best for sites with a lot of content. Images will be loaded first on display and then all other images later, thanks to lazy loading.
The user does not have to wait long to reach the site, and the images will load as they appear. This will reduce the loading time for posts with many photos. Installing this plugin is a simple task. There are different plugins like Lazy load, BJ Lazy load, WP Rocket, and many more.
Final Thought
Remember, eCommerce optimization is an ongoing process. Changes are continuing, as are user preferences. Website owners must adapt accordingly and make appropriate changes to their sites as new trends emerge.