2 Easy Steps to Improve the Speed of your Website

Are you making your website speed slower without realizing it?

Don’t worry, many of us do this. We unintentionally skip one small thing that could be the top factor in making our website pages load slower.

As entrepreneurs, our websites are one of the biggest assets we have, so making sure that it is working effectively has to be a priority.

Last week, I shared a quick website test for you to do, and this week, I have some advice of a different kind but still geared to help you improve the performance of your website. This time it’s all about speed!

Read on and learn an easy tip that might make a huge difference with how fast or slow your website loads for visitors.

Why is speed of our websites important?

Studies have shown, most website browsers have an expectation to see a website in less than 3 seconds. If it takes longer for your website to load up, you may lose that visitor.

So… what is making our websites slower?

The top factor for most businesses is the images on your website.

Images are a great way to add that visual variety that makes the web pages easier to view and to consume the content. But as we load more and more images on our website and blog posts, if the files have not been reduced in size before uploading them to the website, then it will affect the speed of your website.

Full sized images will take a lot of bandwidth while loading, and they need to load in order for the website visitor to see them. So, if you are serious about improving your website so you can convert as many website visitors as possible (to a lead) then you need to take these steps to optimize every image file, every time you upload an image.

2 Easy Steps to Improve the Speed of your Website.

There are two simple things you want to do when you create images to use on your website, they are listed below, along with more details on each one. If you do these two steps with every image that makes it on to your website, you will ensure that you can have your images and a faster loading website too.

1. PICK THE RIGHT TYPE OF IMAGE FILE TO USE.
2. REDUCE THE FILE SIZE OF THE IMAGE.

TYPES OF IMAGE FILES – and WHICH ONES TO USE:

Typically, when you go to create an image, you will save either a JPG or a PNG file. But do you know what the difference is between them? Let me give you a quick lesson.

JPG is a file extension also known as JPEG which is used interchangeably with JPG. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group who created the standard for this type of image file. JPG images are mostly what they call, lossy, which means after the image is saved, the data that was lost can’t be recovered. I’s like making a photocopy of a photocopy, each time you open and save a JPG file, it will look slightly worse than before. You will want to use this format to store photographs at a smaller size. It’s the best choice for images with a lot of different colors and not good for adding text or lines onto an image. (This is why your marketing images sometimes look fuzzy or pixelated).

PNG files are image files stored in the Portable Network Graphic (PNG) format. It contains a bitmap of indexed colors and uses lossless compression, which means there is no loss in quality each time it is opened and saved again. PNG files are commonly used to store graphics for web images. Use this format for simpler images and transparent images (JPGs cannot be transparent). It’s a good choice for storing line drawings and text at a smaller size. I know, you are thinking, “Kathy, I just want to know which one to use.” Yeah… well, so did I as I did my research for this article.

And there are tons of opinions out there, tons – and some very opinionated ones too! So, let me save you the research I did…

Here is the rule of thumb to follow: Use JPG for photographs and PNG for graphics and screenshots.

REDUCING THE SIZE OF THE IMAGE FILES

Reducing the size of the images files is called Image Compression. Image compression allows you to reduce the size of your images without affecting their quality. You reduce the image size by removing image info algorithmically that a human eye can’t detect, so the image still looks clear and sharp. But the size of the file is reduced. The smaller the file size, the faster it will load on your website.

There are several ways you can reduce the size of your images and I am going to share the way I use and what my team of Virtual Assistants do for my clients too. We use a tool called Shortpixel. This is a program I got a sweet deal on last year and it allows me to compress up to 5000 images a month for the plan I have ($4.99 a month).

There are many tools out there you can use too (Tinypng.com is another top one and there are some WordPress plugins), but my preferred method is to compress the files BEFORE uploading them to the website not after and then using a plugin. No matter the system you do use, the steps are essentially the same as these 5 steps below.

Here is how to compress an image file:

1. Create the image you want to use.
2. Save it on your computer.
3. Upload the file to Shortpixel (or Tinypng) and choose the type of compression you want.
4. Re-download the compressed file to your computer (I replace the image if I know it will only ever be used on my website saving me space on my computer too).
5. Upload this compressed file to the website to use on the page or blog post.

Once you have followed these steps, you can be assured that you have done the best thing possible to reduce the file size of the images and will not negatively affect the speed of your website.

All of this will help improve the load time of the website and give you the best chance possible to make sure your browsers on your website ‘see’ your website as fast as possible when they come to visit!

PRO TIP

Always remember to name the file something that is keyword rich for its purpose. Having file names on your website (each image file as its own URL) that are keyword rich, help give your website visibility a boost when it comes to SEO – Search Engine Optimization.

Do you ever feel like you need expert help for your marketing? More ideas and strategy to help you put your best foot forward and grow your business?

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Not sure if this program is for you? Book a quick call with me to discuss how the Insiders Club can help you get more out of your marketing.