Optimizing the speed of an ecommerce website is crucial as it can impact the performance of your ecommerce store. BigCommerce is a leading online platform that provides space for multiple businesses to grow their ecommerce store. As we all know, there are multiple digital websites, but only a few are able to get sufficient traffic. Do you know why? Because they have everything a user needs, additionally, they provide the best experience to all their visitors.
BigCommerce can help you to reach out and expand your business digitally. But this is not enough, and you need to fix the issues your website has to provide an optimal experience. There are many ways to achieve BigCommerce speed optimization. Therefore, in this blog, we will explore multiple ways to boost the speed of your website. Thus, let's start reading this blog and get familiar with the multiple BigCommerce speed optimization ways together.
What Causes the Slow BigCommerce Website Speed?
There are multiple factors that hamper the loading speed of your website. It can be caused by large, unoptimized images or videos, unrequired scripts, and more. Here, we have discussed the brief of reasons that slow down your website loading speed.
Large and Unoptimized Images:
High-resolution images and graphics that haven't been properly compressed can significantly slow down a website. These large files take longer to load, causing delays. Using too many large-size images causes this problem. When your website is filled with unoptimized images and videos, it will slow down the loading of your e-commerce store.
Large HTTP Requests:
Each element on a web page, such as images, scripts, and stylesheets, requires a separate HTTP request to the server. Too many requests can hamper the server and lead to slow loading. Don't use too many HTTP requests if you want your website to load instantly.
Unoptimized Code:
Bloated or inefficiently written HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code can hinder a website's performance. When browsers struggle to interpret and render this code, it results in slower loading times. Don't use unnecessary codes on your website.
Lack of Browser Caching:
Browser caching stores copies of web page elements on a user's device. Without caching, every visit to a website requires downloading all elements anew, leading to longer load times.
Inadequate Hosting Services:
Low-quality or shared hosting services may not allocate sufficient resources to handle website traffic effectively. This can lead to slow loading, especially during traffic spikes.
Unoptimized Themes and Plugins:
Using resource-intensive website themes and plugins can slow down a website. These add-ons may contain unnecessary features that hinder performance.
Excessive Third-Party Scripts:
Integrating too many third-party scripts, such as analytics trackers or social media widgets, can cause delays as each script loads separately.
Lack of Content Delivery Network (CDN):
Without a CDN, website content is served from a single server location. This can result in slow loading for users far from the server's location.
Database Issues:
Inefficient database queries or a database overloaded with data can lead to slow page generation and retrieval of information.
Not Using Compression:
Uncompressed files, such as images, scripts, and stylesheets, can increase load times. Enabling compression methods like GZIP reduces data transfer sizes, resulting in faster website loading.
Thus, these are the reasons why your website is loading slowly. Now, we will take a turn towards the steps to boost your website.
Techniques To Boost The Speed Of BigCommerce Store
Here, we will go through the steps to optimize the loading speed of your eCommerce store. However, to save your time and resources, you can go for ecommerce speed optimization services that run to improve the loading speed of your website. Improving website loading speed is crucial for providing a better user experience and achieving higher search engine rankings. Here are ten ways to boost website loading speed:
Optimize Images:
Large images can slow down a website. Compress and resize images to reduce their file size without compromising quality. Use modern image formats like WebP for better performance. Additionally, you can download or purchase applications that minimize the image size without affecting its quality. Also, compress the large format videos for fast loading.
Enable Browser Caching:
Browser caching stores website data on a user's device. This means returning visitors can load your site faster because their browser doesn't need to download everything again. Browser caching will show the data they have already redownloaded on their storage. This process reduces the time your store takes to show the data on the user's browser.
Minimize HTTP Requests:
Elements of a website, such as images, crips, and videos, require a request to load. Reducing the number of requests, like combining multiple CSS files into one, speeds up loading. By combining multiple files into one, you can increase the loading time of your BigCommerce store.
Use Content Delivery Networks (CDNs):
CDNs store website content on servers in various locations. When a user visits your site, the CDN serves content from the nearest server, reducing loading times. They send the content of your website to the user browser from their nearest server. Adding CDN will boost the speed of your website.
Optimize Code:
Clean and efficient code can improve website performance. Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to remove unnecessary characters, spaces, and line breaks. Remove all the codes that you don't need anymore and contain only the required ones.
Reduce Server Response Time:
Faster server response times result in quicker loading. Upgrade hosting, use content caching, and optimize database queries to achieve this. It would be better if you choose private hosting rather than sharing one. Private hosting quickly loads your website content.
Leverage Browser Rendering:
Place critical content at the top of HTML and use asynchronous loading for non-essential scripts to ensure faster rendering and display of your page. Additionally, implement the folding technique, in which the most important elements of your website load first, then the rest.
Implement Lazy Loading:
Lazy loading delays the loading of non-visible images and content until users scroll down the page, reducing initial load times. It is a process where the important content loads first, increasing the chance of the viewer to stay, and when they scroll down, the rest of the content appears. It is a way of improving the loading speed and reducing the bounce rate.
Prioritize Above-the-Fold Content:
Ensure that essential content, such as text and images, loads before anything else so users can interact with your site while the rest continues to load. As per research, users engaged with websites that have visually appealing elements. It can be an image, videos, and more. Thus, showing them first will increase the chance of staying longer on the site.
Regularly Update and Maintain:
Keep your website, plugins, and themes up-to-date. Updates often include performance enhancements and security fixes, which contribute to faster loading times. Regularly monitor the importance of any plugin or check if you need to remove or add one. It doesn't contain any unrequired app or plugin that just fills the storage and is not in use.
By implementing these strategies, you can significantly enhance your website's loading speed, providing a smoother experience for visitors and potentially improving your search engine rankings.
Conclusion
In this blog, we have explained why BigCommerce is a trending ecommerce platform and why people choose it over others. After that, we moved towards the things that are necessary for a high search engine ranking, and we found that the speed at which a website loads is a significant factor that can impact the other working of the website.
We highlighted the reasons that cause a slow loading store, from unoptimized images to HTTP requests, and we discussed everything. At last, we mentioned 10 top ways to boost the BigCommerce store speed. Also, we found that if you don't perform this task well, your website will lack in terms of fast loading speed. Consequently, to boost the speed and conversion, you can hire a conversion rate optimization service provider.
There are many e-commerce service providers, and MakkPress Technologies is one of them. MakkPress Technologies is a global company that has been running the ecommerce market for 10+ years. Here, we are ending this blog, with the hope that you will get the right solution for your BiCommercs store slow speed.
