How to improve the Website Speed by 70% in One Hour

Here you will be informed on some of the ways to reduce the page loading speed to one third and having the number of HTTP requests. All of this can be done without making any changes in the visual user experience.

Using the Content Delivery Network (CDN)

One of the best ways to speed up the website is by using the Content Delivery Network, this can save upto 60% of the bandwidth and reduces the number of requests which the website makes.

CDN works by hosting the files on a large network of the servers which are around the world. When a user visits website from USA they will be downloading the files from the server which is closest to them. Here the bandwidth is spread across different servers as it reduces the load on a single server and it also protects the website from DDoS attack as well as traffic spikes.

Using the Caching Plugin

If you are using WordPress for your website one of the best ways of cutting down the page loading speed is by installing the caching plugin like an WP total cache or the WP super cache.

Both of these plugins are easy to download as well as free. They do a lot beyond the caching although that is their primary function. Here we will be using the WordPress and look on improving the page speed quickly. It is much easier to install a plugin.

Adding Expires Headers to Leverage Browser Caching

If you not have been using the WordPress, or if you are not installing another plugin for adding the expires headers and browser caching here is what you can implement it manually. The expires headers will be telling the browser whether to request for a specific file from the webserver or to get a version of the page from the browser cache. This will only apply if the user is already having a version of the web page which is stored in the cache, hence it will only speed up the website for the users who have already visited the website.

Using a Good Theme if Using the WordPress

For preventing the page speed issues one should choose a good host, a good CDN as well as a good theme. There has been no change of what it was five years back. Before designers used the flash and other technologies for building the website. Nowadays the web designers are building the WordPress themes with so many stuffs that its no wonder it is taking 10 seconds for website to load.

Cleaning up the Database

One of the worst parts with WordPress is that the database can get very messy and too quickly when saving the drafts, post revisions, deactivating the plugins etc. WP optimize is a great plugin which routinely deletes the things that you dont require which is cluttering up the database. By using the venture harbor database one can reduce the database from 5mb to 3mb, this can help in speeding up the website which helps in speeding up at the time for the browser to collect and then return the files from the database.

Compressing the files with Gzip

Gzip is a method by which one can compress the files for saving the banswidth as well as speeding up the page loading time. Here the Gzip works by compressing the files into a zip file, which is much faster for the users to download. Here the users browser can unzip the file and then show the content. Here the transmission of the content from the server to the browser is efficient and can save a lot of time.

By the following code you can enable Gzip into the .htaccess file:

# compress text, html, javascript, css, xml:
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript

# Or, compress certain file types by extension:

Fixing all the broken links

Broken links can not only drain the bandwidth but it also makes the user to leave the website. By fixing the 404 errors which is shown in the google webmaster tools increase the average page visited per user and one can also see a noticeable decrease in the bounce rate.

Reducing the Redirects to the Website

As a 301 redirects are much more suggested over a 404 broken links but these are still not ideal as it can slow down the time it takes for the browser in reaching the correct version of the page.

By Minifying the CSS and JS Files

When you will be thoroughly checking the reasons behind the page loading very slow, there are good chances that it has to do something with the JavaScript files or the CSS not being loaded properly. One of the common pitfalls in WordPress as well as in other CMS is that the new JS or the CSS file being added virtually everytime when you are installing a new plugin. There are many ways of minifying the files. One of the common ways is by squshing all the files into one, hence instead of calling ten javascript files, you can simply place all the javascript file at one place. The other way of minifying involves deletion of white spaces and making the files smaller.

Replacing the PHP with a Static HTML wherever Possible

PHP is one of the best ways by which you can make your website efficient and thus reduce the need of entering the same information multiple times. PHP consumers the server resources and it should be changed with a static HTML where its not saving any time.

Turning off the PingBacks and Trackbacks in WordPress

PingBacks and trackbacks dosent play a role in wordpress however it is enabled by default. Hence it is recommended on turning both of these off as they can clog up the database and thus increasing the number of requests that are made.

Enabling the Keep Alive

Here the HTTP keep alive refers to the message which is sent between the client machine and the web server which asks for the permission of downloading the file. Enabling the keep alive allows the client machine in downloading the multiple files without asking repeatedly for permissions. This helps in saving the bandwidth. For enabling the keep alive you simply need to copy and paste the code which is shown below in the .htaccess file.

<ifModule mod_headers.c>
Header set Connection keep-alive
</ifModule>

Specifying the Image Dimensions

Before the browser can be displayed on the webpage one has to figure out on how to lay out the content around the images. Hence without knowing the size of the image the browser will work it out which cause it to work harder as well as longer.

Specifying the Character set in HTTP

It is very useful in specifying a character set in the HTTP response headers, here the browser will not have to spend an extra time on working out which character set you will be using. One can do this by simply adding the UTF-8 character set tag in the website section.

By Minimizing the Round Trip Times

Round trip times can called as the time taken for the client in sending the requests and the server to respond. This is affected by a range of things but it is mainly impacted by the number of requests which are being sent. For reducing the number of requests one needs to use the CSS sprites for calling less images, then minify and combine the JS and the CSS files. You will not have to call anything you not required.

As the mobile internet usage has taken over the desktop usage, its been never so important to fix the website speed. Nowadays internet users are less tolerant on the website speed and are shifting towards internet based mobile devices is not fast, hence this is what you are going to see.