12 tips to improve website performance

The first impression counts. And nothing scares people away from your company faster than a poorly functioning website. According to Google, the likelihood of abandonment increases by 32% when page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds. A poorly performing website can have a detrimental effect on user experience and brand perception, and ultimately means you miss out on traffic, leads, and sales.

But don't worry. Implement the following tips to ensure your website is the most important marketing tool you have at your disposal.

1. Conduct a site audit

Before you make any changes, it pays to review your website. That way you can find out where the biggest problems are and prioritize how to fix them.
We recommend using a website grader tool to test your site's performance, SEO, mobile design, and security. This will help you determine where you are succeeding and where you need to focus your attention.

2. Choose the right CMS

Hosting your own website is expensive, time-consuming and requires technical expertise. Choosing the right CMS platform can help solve these problems so you can create a powerful website. The HubSpot CMS, for example, offers you:

Support
24 hours, 365 days a year access to a professional and knowledgeable support team.

Security
HubSpot places great emphasis on security. The company employs automatic attack detection, system monitoring, code inspection, regular penetration testing, a bug bounty program, and more.

Optimization
Images are optimized by default to make your website fast and responsive.

Fast page load speed
HubSpot has integrated a number of technologies into its CMS that enable fast load speeds at no additional cost.

Choose a CMS platform that can grow with you, has an intuitive user interface, and has in-house support teams to assist you as needed.

3. content delivery over HTTP2

When a visitor calls up your website, the browser sends an HTTP request to the hosting server. The server then sends back the requested resource. Each resource request decreases the loading speed. So the fewer requests you have, the better your website will perform.

The solution to this problem is HTTP2 - the modern equivalent of HTTP1. It's faster, more reliable, and has built-in multiplexing where requests are loaded in parallel. If you make sure your provider can deliver your website over HTTP2, you can speed up the overall load time.

4. Use a CDN

The distance between the device making an HTTP request and your server is critical to loading speed. The greater the distance, the longer it takes for your website's files to load and send.

A content delivery network (CDN) can help. When a user visits your website, your CDN determines the server closest to their physical location and delivers the cached copies of your website files from that server.
Using a CDN not only improves load times, but can also reduce your bandwidth costs and improve the security of your website.

5. Don't forget mobile optimization

80% of B2B buyers use a smartphone during the buying process, and more than half of visits are abandoned if the mobile website takes longer than three seconds to load. It's important that you don't neglect your mobile website in favor of your desktop website.

To provide a great experience and consistent performance for all users, you need to gear your website towards mobile devices.

6. Use effective browser caching

A browser cache stores website data such as HTML files and images on your visitors' devices. When they return to the website, the browser loads these files from its local cache instead of requesting them from the web server.

Caching speeds up web page delivery, improves user experience, and reduces bounce rate.

Many CMS platforms automatically cache the current version of your website, but you can go a step further by extending the cache period. This means that content such as global CSS styles and logos can be stored for a year without needing to be updated.

7. don't forget to compress

Large graphics and videos can have a negative impact on page load times. If you use a lot of high-resolution images, you also run the risk of negatively impacting your Core Web Vitals.

So choose images carefully and don't forget to resize them. If you leave this to your browser or server, it can affect the performance of your website.
Compression tools like Kraken.io are also useful. Your files will remain as small as possible so that performance remains at a maximum while maintaining quality.

"Compressing images and text could save 25% of web pages more than 250 KB and 10% more than 1 MB. These changes reduce bounce rate and increase page rank in Google SERPs." - Google

8. use plugins sparingly

WordPress and other marketplace plugins can be very tempting. But they are not always developed with performance in mind. They can also introduce many new code elements as well as tracking or analytics scripts to your site. Plugins can slow down your website. So evaluate which plugins are really beneficial for you, and leave out the rest.

9. Review additional code

Overwhelming code can severely impact the performance of your website. Regularly check your additional code like tracking pixels or analytics tools. If they don't provide useful insights, you can probably get rid of them.

You can also implement a performance budget so you can better decide what can and cannot be included on your website. You can optimize performance by continuously reviewing your budget.

10. Select asynchronous loading

When someone visits a page on your website, the JavaScript and CSS files are executed from top to bottom. This can result in increased loading time.
However, opt for asynchronous loading and your JavaScript and CSS files will run in parallel instead of one after the other. This will improve the performance and responsiveness of your website.

11. Don't lose sight of 404 errors

If a visitor lands on more than one 404 page on your site, there's a good chance they'll quickly lose interest.
So don't overlook how many deleted or moved pages lead to 404 pages on your site. There are tools that can detect and fix these problems. Make it a habit to check them monthly or even weekly, depending on the size of your website.

12. Request support

We can't be experts at everything. Outsourcing your website performance to an agency that spends all day doing just that is worth the cost.
Choose an agency that has broad technical expertise so you can be sure your website is built to put performance first.

What are you waiting for?

While 73% of marketers say improving page speed is urgent, only 3% say it's their top priority. And we know that as a marketer, you're probably going in many different directions at once.

But website performance is critical. It is the first impression your potential customer receives and your first opportunity to engage them. Create a seamless web experience and make it easy for your prospects to remember you.