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It’s a well known fact that people have a small attention span and that they have less and less patience, when a website takes too long to load, they’ll just go to another website and I’m wondering, what are the best ways to avoid that?
I already took some measures in speeding it up, but additional knowledge won’t hurt anyone.
I’m interested to hear about your experience.
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Check your site with PageSpeedInsights, GTMetrix and Yellow Lab Tools. Carry out all (or at least most) of the proposed suggestions.
I work with WordPress every day and have made hundreds of sites in all categories and sizes. Here’s how I keep them lightweight and fast (even with page builders).
A cache plugin is mandatory. Here are my personal top 3 (in no particular order):
1. LiteSpeed
2. WPRocket
3. FlyingPress
LiteSpeed is the most advanced, WPRocket is the middle ground and FlyingPress is the easiest (but with too few settings IMO, and the plugin seem a bit aggressive at times).
And here are a few tips you can do to speed up your site in general:
* Compress your images and preferably use jpeg over png when possible. (or .svg) If you have a ton of uncompressed images on your website then you can also use a plugin like Imagify that automatically optimizes all your images.
* If you use videos on your site then don’t host them locally. Use Youtube or similar.
* Consider using a better host or hosting plan.
* Avoid too many animations and use Lottie files instead of GIF’s
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Your choice of theme is also very important. The theme is the skeleton of your site and you need to pick a lightweight theme. There are many shared opinions on themes but I personally swear to Blocksy.