5 ways to improve website performance without a redesign

Improving website performance is essential for attracting and maintaining customers. However, statistics show that over 82% of websites have numerous performance issues, significantly affecting their overall effectiveness. Also, 44% have at least one critical performance-related problem. 

And in a world where every millisecond of loading time counts in terms of bounce rates and user experience, many businesses are looking to do something about it. Most often, they turn to a website redesign, hoping that this will entice people to linger more. But the matter is that most users are not always receptive to this type of change, even if it gives the website a more modern feel.  

It's why improving website performance should always take center stage, even if we're talking about a redesign or not. In many cases, an increase in performance is all a website needs to generate better results. That said, here are five ways to improve website performance without a redesign. 

Create an Improved XML Sitemap

The way your internal linking is structured plays a massive role in your search rankings, and by extension, your website's performance. The XML sitemap is a way of informing search engines about the content hierarchy on your website. One way of improving site performance is by discovering top-performing pages and move them up this hierarchy. Look for these best-achieving pages that require more than 2 or 3 clicks to reach from your site's homepage and figure out a way to make them more easily accessible. 

Optimizing Image Sizes

Keep in mind that 61% of an average website's page weight on a desktop comprises of the images displayed. By adopting new image formats such as JPeg XR pr WebP, you can reduce the burden of these images by as much as 20 or even 50% without sacrificing their quality. 

Take a Mobile-First Approach

With smartphones being the preferred method of accessing the internet, it only makes sense that you optimize your website accordingly. You need to code your site with mobile users in mind, then progressively enhance the experience to incorporate tablets and desktops. This way, you will reduce the number of total dependencies. You will first have to check your website’s usability on mobile by using Google’s Mobile Website Auditor. You can then optimize your UI and UX in terms of SEO optimization, flow strategy, voice search, readability on all devices, etc. 

Asynchronous JavaScript Loading

Many of today's websites integrate with many third-party contents such as various chat features, social media, information feeds, commenting services, etc. The overall loading time is increased, based on how many features exist. And if one or more of these third-parties crashes, your website's loading time will also rise. But by loading them asynchronously, your website's performance will have less to suffer. 

Opt For A Cloud Hosting Solution

Another factor that directly influences your website performance is the hosting solution you currently have in place. On the one hand, there is shared hosting. This option is the least expensive, but it also implies that you share a server with other websites. If one or more of these sites experience a spike in traffic, your performance will be negatively affected. On the other hand, there is a dedicated (VPS) hosting. With this option, you have sole access to a server. 

A better option is cloud hosting. Giant public clouds such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services will ensure that, no matter how much traffic you or others are experiencing, there will not be a decrease in performance. Similarly, your hosting provider can build the best configuration for you without having to move or rebuilding anything. 

Ameex will help you improve your website's performance through these techniques and more. Contact our consultant for a customized solution that will best suit your needs.