Your website doesn't just have to look nice (and be mobile friendly, easy to navigate, etc. etc. etc.), but it needs to be fast, too.
40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. I'm not just saying that - there's actual research that has been done. And if you're selling products online, a speedy website is even more important: even a 1 second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.
According to 2018 research by MachMetrics, the majority of websites have a load time of 8 to 11 seconds. Likely, your website is one of them. So what causes these annoying slowdowns? Here's just a few reasons.
Malware
If your site gets infected with malware, a slow load time is going to be the least of your worries - but it is one of the many side effects. If you're using WordPress, the most popular website builder on the internet, it is vulnerable to malware attacks if not updated and maintained frequently.
Unoptimized Images
Having beautiful photographs on your website will definitely catch the eye of visitors, but if you haven't optimized those images they will drag your speed waaaaay down. For starters, ensure you are compressing every image on your site using a free tool like TinyPNG that will reduce their size without compromising quality.
Outdated Plugins
With WordPress, you're likely using a number of plugins to add critical features to your website, like WooCommerce for shopping. However, the developers of these plugins often release updates to address security issues, bugs, and the like. You need to keep your plugins updated and remove ones you are no longer using. Not only will they slow your site down, but they'll make you vulnerable to the dreaded malware attack, too.
These are just 3 of the reasons for a slow website, but there are many more (bloated databases, poor configuration...the list is endless).
If this seems like a lot to worry about, you're kinda right. But that's where Rebel comes in. Not only do we offer Managed WordPress, a robust and speedy package that will have your site loading in 200 milliseconds or less, but we offer a Performance Tune-Up if you find yourself plagued by a slow website and don't know how to start fixing it.
Make the move to Rebel Managed WordPress and say goodbye to manual updates, malware removal, and plugin optimization - we'll do it for you. Save 70% right now.
