Your site might be pretty, but is its load time slow?

These days a website is pretty easy to come by. You don’t need to hire or become a web dev to have a functioning site, you can just buy a template and then customize it in a drag and drop builder. 

Heck, even the web designer you hire is likely doing that exact thing for you.

However, as accessible as technology has made creating a website, it’s still not all automatically optimized and easy for performance.

Sure, you can create anything you want these days in terms of design, but the bigger question remains, is it functioning well?

Because a beautiful awesome looking site really doesn’t matter if it’s broken, convoluted, hard to navigate, or worse,

Slow.

Some quick stats:

Google’s mobile benchmark research found that when page load time goes from 1 second to 3 seconds, the probability of a bounce increases by 32%

and 

53% of mobile visitors leave a page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. 

Imagine missing out on up to HALF of your potential clients before they even get a chance to walk through the door.

But alas, there is hope!

You are not doomed by default to a slow site.

So, what can we do?

First, What is Load Time?

Because knowledge is power, don’t let these techy web devs tell you what you can and can not know! (coming from a slightly techy web dev)

Okay, so first off, what is “load time”? This is the amount of time it takes for your website to load and be usable.

So we are not just talking the moment a couple of your elements pop up!

We’re talking the time from:

someone hitting ENTER after typing in your web address 

to:

All the fonts are loaded, everything looks correct on the screen, and it’s scrollable.

Second, What affects Load Time?

Let’s think of your website’s code like a book.

Even if you’re using a drag-and-drop builder, there’s still a whole lot of code underneath your site making it function and telling the browser what to show on screen.

In simple terms:

Your browser, aka, Chrome, Safari, Firefox (you do you) goes to your website address, reads the code behind it, and uses that information to figure out what your website is supposed to look like on screen.

So if your code is a book your browser has to read before it can show your site, a smaller book is quicker to read than a big one, right?

Exactly.

So let’s make that book smaller.

What are Simple Things Even a Beginner Can Do to Improve Their Website’s Load Time?

I’m glad you asked….

#1. Optimize Your Image Sizes

A lot of people are using their original sized images because either a.) they want to make sure they have the best quality on their site or b.) they don’t know any better and figure the site will resize and compress the file for them.

Reality is: a webpage is only so big, and your visitors are only viewing it on screens that can show so much at once.

SO, uploading a giant original file isn’t giving them “better quality,” it’s just giving them more to download.

Quick Image Sizing Tips:

• Make sure your regular photos are JPG/JPEG, not PNG.
  PNG files are best saved for images that need transparency.
  (WebP and AVIF can be even more efficient, but they’re a bit more modern and not every website builder supports them yet.)
• Compress your images.
  Use a free tool like TinyPNG to shrink the file size as much as possible without wrecking the quality.
• Make sure your image dimensions match how the image is actually being displayed.
  If your image only shows at 600px wide, it does not need to be uploaded much larger than that.
• If you’re using the same image in multiple places at very different sizes, use separate files sized appropriately for each one.
  For example, if one version spans a huge section and another is a tiny icon, they shouldn’t necessarily be the same file.
• If your website builder allows it, consider using a different image size for mobile vs. desktop.
  ***I would not do this for every single image, but it can be helpful for large visuals, like your hero.
• Also, just because an image is hidden on one device does not always mean it is not still being loaded behind the scenes.
  So be strategic with this trick rather than using it everywhere.

Lil love note takeaway:

People can see your images just fine without the giant file size, tone it down.

#2 Be Mindful of Extra Tools Running on Your Site

Another thing slows down your site is having too many extras and add ons you really don’t need.

I’m talking about things like:

• popups
• chat widgets
• Instagram feeds
• booking tools
• forms
• countdown timers
• Pinterest widgets
• tracking tools
• random little plugins or add-ons

A lot of these things require extra code to load in the background. So even if they look small on the page, they can still be asking your browser to do a lot of work.

That doesn’t mean don’t use them. It just means every extra tool you add should earn its place.

This is really good practice in general. Each of your pages should be very clear in where you want a person to go, you should have a main Call to Action and a secondary if that’s important to you. 

Then, if you have other things you’d like your visitors to do, put them on other pages. 

Have an application form? Instead of a pop-up use a separate page for that (Just learned this one myself)

Newsletter ad? Fine, do you need the pop-up plus the embed? If you do, does the embed need to have images and a downloaded font? No.

Overall, a good question to ask yourself:
Do I actually need this on my page?

For example, if you have a contact form, a popup, an Instagram feed, a scheduling tool, and multiple tracking tools all loading on one page, it can start to add up fast.

The simpler your site is, the easier it is for it to load smoothly.

Lil love note takeaway:

If something is not truly helping your visitor or your business, it prob doesn’t need to be there.

#3. Use Animations Sparingly

Animations are so fun, I get it. As a creative, I can go crazy with those. And a little movement goes a long way to make your website feel alive.

BUT

too much animation can have the opposite effect.

If everything is fading in, sliding around, bouncing, rotating, or loading dramatically, your site can start to feel clunky instead of intentional. 

And you’re asking the browser to do more work, especially on mobile.

Let’s think of animation like perfume:
a little is absolutely lovely, too much is… TOO MUCH

Don’t take this advice to strip your site of its personality or anything, just mindful, mmkay?

Subtle places for animations:

• buttons
• section reveal
• subtle image fade
• one or two stand out moments

Not every single element on the page.

When animation is used sparingly, it feels thoughtful, intentional, well crafted, like a gorgeous website SHOULD.

When it’s overused, it’ll both: slow things down AND distract from your actual content.

Lil love note takeaway:

Use animation sparingly instead of as your main attraction.

BONUS FREE SOURCE

Run your site through Google’s PageSpeed Insights to find out exactly where it’s slowing down, PLUS it has an SEO and accessibility rating! 

This can look a little “techy” to someone who is unfamiliar, but if you have a web dev or designer, they should be able to make sense of the jargon. OR, if it floats your boat, AI can help you with this too.

Conclusion

Not all websites are built the same. Sometimes we worry a little too much about how it looks, reads, feels, and forget there’s a lot going on under the hood!

But as I’ve said, knowledge is power and the more you know, the better you can control the outcome instead of being victim to a slow load time.

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Don’t wanna do all of this yourself? Inquire for my services, let me know what’s going on and I’ll audit and fix your site for you!