If your website is slow, people may never see your website in the first place. Slow-loading websites make people want to click away and maybe even go to your competitors instead. Page speed also affects your Houston SEO rankings. Therefore, ensure your site is fast, attractive, and easy to use. Get a faster website by working with professionals for your site design needs.
How Does Houston Web Design Affect Load Speeds?
There are many things about your website design that can make your site load slowly. However, there are a few solutions to help make your website faster. One of the first things you should do is make sure any images are compressed, both in file size and screen size. This will help optimize pictures for your website and also helps your site’s page speed for Houston SEO.
File size refers to how much storage space your image takes up. The smaller the file size, the quicker images load. Therefore, you want to ensure that all images on your website are compressed without changing the quality of your images. Your website design experts know how to do this effectively to increase your site’s speed.
Another important thing to keep in mind about your website is how many images are on each page. If you have an image-heavy page on your website, it’s likely going to load slower than a page with fewer images. Therefore, be sure that your web pages aren’t overloaded with many pictures. This not only makes your site load slower but can also distract from your content. Instead, ensure that your website features a few relevant images that enhance your content, not detract from it.
Additionally, prioritizing your above the fold content helps provide a better user experience to your visitors. Above the fold means anything a user can see on your page without scrolling. As part of your website design, ensure that each page of your site shows content that loads very fast above the fold of your page. Showing your content as quickly as possible makes a great first impression for your website visitors and for Google.
Template vs. Custom Houston Web Design for Fast Load Speeds
However, even if you make sure your images are compressed and your content above the fold loads quickly, there are other issues behind the scenes that can make your web pages load slowly. That is why it’s best to work with a digital marketing team for a custom-built site, rather than using a template. On average, websites built with templates load slower than custom sites.
The problem with website templates is that they generally come with a lot of extra code, which makes them load slower. Templates generally have unnecessary code and style options, which allows you to “personalize” your site. However, this comes at a cost, including slow load speeds, which can affect Houston SEO. For instance, say you want your website to be red and black. To accommodate this, a template usually has code that allows you to choose from several different colors. By contrast, a custom website will feature code only for those colors.
Another issue is that templates often come with many extra features so they can offer functionality for many types of websites. Once again, this sounds like a perk, but can actually sacrifice your load speeds. Even if you disable these extra features you don’t need, they can still impact your speeds. For example, a template might include the ability to add a photo gallery to showcase your work. Some businesses may not need this gallery for their website. While in many cases you can turn this feature off, the code for the feature remains. A custom website, however, will only have the features that are meaningful and valuable for your site. Therefore, a custom website design helps optimize your site for fast speeds by including only what’s essential for your business.
Load Speeds are Important for Houston SEO
Why is speed so important for Houston SEO? First, it negatively affects user experience. No one likes a slow-loading website. In fact, 47% of surveyed consumers want a page to load in two seconds or less, while 40% said they would leave the site entirely if the page takes more than three seconds. Therefore, site speed affects how many conversions you receive and how much revenue you bring in.
Also, website speed directly affects your Houston search engine optimization efforts. Search engines rank your website on a number of factors, one of those factors is page speed. However, even more insidious is the ranking factors that page speed indirectly affects. For example, slow websites affect your bounce rate. High bounce rates can make your organic rankings fall. In addition, slow speeds can also affect the amount of time people spend on your page, which also affects your search engine rankings.
Work with Houston SEO Professionals for a Fast-Loading Website
Therefore, ensure you work with a professional website design team that understands how to make your website as fast, functional, and attractive as possible. This will help you improve your Houston SEO strategies and your users’ experiences. This, in turn, can help your business achieve even higher levels of success.
At Bizopia, we provide advanced web design and digital marketing services to businesses. Our experts handle website design, search engine optimization, Houston social media marketing, and pay per click advertising to help you attain and exceed your business objectives. We sit down with you to fully understand who you are as a brand and what your goals are. Then, we take care of everything while you focus on your day-to-day operations. When you work with us, you get a dedicated team of experienced professionals working to strengthen your online presence. Fill out our free website analysis or call us today at (832) 327-3230 to discuss your digital marketing needs with our specialists. We are here to serve you.