Many small local businesses have a hard time optimizing their site for speed. Why is that? Well, site speed optimizations tend to require web development skills, which most small business owners don’t have, and developers can be quite expensive.
But what if you don’t have the skills or budget and still need to improve your site’s speed? In this blog, I’ll walk you through some practical steps to speed up your site—even if you don’t have access to a developer.
Why Improve Site Speed?
Let’s face it, slow websites lose visitors. And when it comes to small businesses, those visitors are potential customers you can't afford to lose. Picture this: Your potential customers are searching for local services while watching TV or running errands, meaning mobile speed is crucial.
“Mobile searches surpassed desktop searches in 2016. According to one study, 56% of mobile searches done on the go have local intent.” Today, that number is likely even higher.
Mobile devices have slower download speeds compared to desktops. So if your website is already slow, it’ll crawl on mobile—bad news for your bounce rate. The average bounce rate for pages that load within two seconds is 9%. But as page load time hits four seconds, bounce rates skyrocket. At five seconds, bounce rates hit 38%. You can see how crucial speed is, right?
How to Improve Your Site Speed
If you want visitors to stick around—and convert—you need to optimize your site for speed. In short: MO’ SPEEDS = MO’ LEADS!
Here’s how I improved the speed of a local optometrist’s website using a couple of paid plugins (WP Rocket and ShortPixel). Both start at around $60, so they won’t break the bank.
Step 1: Use a Quality Web Host
Before diving into optimizations, make sure your hosting isn’t the problem. I’ve seen clients’ site speeds improve drastically by simply switching to a better host. If you’re paying $5/month for hosting, consider an upgrade.
Step 2: Set Up WP Rocket
I installed WP Rocket and turned on these settings:
Cache: Enabled mobile caching and set the cache lifespan to 7-10 days. If you post content frequently, set a shorter time. If not, longer cache times will do just fine.
File Optimization: Here’s where you can minimize and combine CSS and JavaScript files. Just remember: Check one box at a time, clear your cache, and test your site. If something breaks, undo it.
LazyLoad: Enabled LazyLoad for images, iframes, and videos to ensure they only load when needed.
Preload: Enabled preloading for the cache and sitemaps, and set up DNS prefetching for external domains like Facebook and Google. This helps reduce the time it takes to load resources.
Step 3: Optimize Images with ShortPixel
Next up: Image compression. ShortPixel automatically compresses and replaces your images with smaller, faster-loading versions. I enabled the following settings:
Lossy Compression: Chose ‘Lossy’ for the site, but you can choose Glossy or Lossless if you want higher quality images.
WebP Format: Enabled serving images in WebP format, which is 26% smaller than PNGs and 25-34% smaller than JPEGs. Smaller files = faster load times.
Step 4: Remove Unnecessary Code
Once I configured WP Rocket and ShortPixel, I found there were still leftover optimizations to tackle. For example, I removed unused third-party scripts using WebPageTest.org. By simply removing a Hotjar script that wasn’t being used, I knocked six requests off the page load.
One Last Tweak: Simplify Your Homepage
Finally, I replaced a large image slider on the homepage with a single static image, saving even more loading time. This is a no-brainer for local business sites. Sliders are fancy, but static images with a strong call-to-action (CTA) load faster and convert better.
Conclusion
In a digital world where visibility is everything, GMB Fox ensures your business isn’t just online—it’s the first choice customers make. Let us handle the complexities of digital marketing, so you can focus on what truly matters: growing your business.
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