Do you want your business website to load faster? Here's How

Have you ever felt emotional when opening a website that took a long time to load, then you finally gave up and closed it? Well, your potential customers feel the same way. In the fast-paced digital world, visitors don't have much time to wait. If your website doesn't open within three seconds, most of them will leave right away.

Website speed is no longer just a technical matter, but has become a determining factor for business success. A slow website not only makes visitors run away, but it also makes your ranking in search engines plummet. As a result, fewer people will find your business, which means less potential sales. On the other hand, a fast website will be liked by visitors and search engines, thus bringing in more traffic and profits. So, how do you make your website lightning-fast?

1. Choosing the Right Hosting

Hosting is the initial foundation in building a business website. Choose the best quality hosting. Don't let you be lulled by hosting prices below the market price. If you choose low-quality, low-quality hosting, you're building a business with a foundation that can easily be shaken.

Poor hosting providers often stack too many websites on a single server. As a result, when one of the websites is crowded with visitors, your website slows down or is even inaccessible.

For this reason, when choosing hosting, pay attention to the following:

SSD storage: Make sure the hosting provider uses modern SSD storage technology instead of an older model HDD. SSDs are much faster at reading data, so your website will load faster.
Server Location: If your target market is Indonesia, choose a hosting whose server is in Indonesia or a nearby country like Singapore. The closer the server is to the visitor, the faster the data will be sent.
Uptime Guarantee: Look for a provider that provides an uptime guarantee above 99%. This ensures that your website is always accessible to customers at any time.

2. Optimize Your Image File Size

Images are one of the main causes of websites being slow. Many business owners make the mistake of directly uploading photos from their camera or phone to their website. In fact, the files are very large in size. In a few simple ways, you can make the size of the image much smaller without sacrificing its quality.

Follow this simple workflow every time you're going to upload an image:

Adjust the Size: Before uploading, change the dimensions of the image according to the maximum size that will appear on the screen. If the image will only appear 800 pixels wide, there is no point in uploading an image that is 4000 pixels wide.
Compress Files: Use free tools like CompressJPG.com. This tool can drastically reduce the size of the image file while maintaining the quality.
Choose the Right Format: Use the JPEG format for regular photos. If possible, use the WebP format developed by search engines, as this format still provides good quality with a very small file size.
Give Clear Names: Don't let your image file name "IMG_1234.jpg". Change it to something descriptive like "cloud-server-vs-private-server.jpg". This really helps search engines understand the content of your image and is good for SEO.
Using Lazy Load: Use lazy loading so that images only load when needed, reducing the initial loading time.

3. Simplify Code and Plugins

After cleaning up the images, it's time to clean up the inside of your website, i.e., the code and plugins.

Cleaning Code (Minification): Website code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) often contains spaces, comments, or blank lines that are not needed by the browser. The "minification" process is to clean up all this junk so that the code file becomes lighter and faster to process. If you're using WordPress, plugins like Autoptimize or LiteSpeed Cache can do this automatically.
Don't Have Too Many Plugins: Every plugin you install will add to the load on your website. Too many plugins will make the website cumbersome and slow. Do regular audits: check your list of plugins and remove everything that isn't really important or is no longer in use.

4. Take advantage of Caching

Caching is the most powerful technique to provide instant speed for visitors. The way caching works is that when someone visits your website for the first time, their browser will store some parts of your website such as logos, images, and design files. When they come back again, the browser doesn't have to download everything from scratch but rather loads directly from the local save. Result? The website feels super-fast.

For WordPress users, the easiest way to enable caching is to use plugins like W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache, or LiteSpeed Cache.

Conclusion

Speeding up your website is not a one-off project, but a commitment to provide the best experience for your customers. By ensuring the four main pillars i.e., quality hosting, optimized images, clean code, and the use of caching, you are not only improving technical metrics, but also investing for long-term business growth.

Too complicated? Leave it to the Expert

Understanding all the technical details above can be very dizzying, especially if you have to focus on running your business. If you want a fast and professional website without having to worry about the complexity, it's time to leave it to the experts.

Rekadia is a trusted technology partner that has helped many businesses in Indonesia since 2010. The team of experts at Rekadia not only creates beautiful websites, but also builds them with a strong technical foundation to ensure the best speed, security, and performance. We are ready to listen to your vision and turn it into a powerful digital asset to support your business growth.

Ready to have a website that is not only fast, but also able to increase sales? Contact the Rekadia team today for a free consultation and let's make it happen together.