Website speed matters in everything. Poor website speeds will cause site visitor to become frustrated and kill the overall user experience. Yet, website owners don’t pay as much attention to website load time as they should. Even when they do, they often run into false information that provides no help, and only works to make matters worse without directing readers to a credible solution.
Here are 8 common misconceptions about website speed, and how a widely used and credible platform such as WordPress could help to eradicate them.
1. There are No Website Speed Effects on SEO
This one is perhaps one of the most blatant lies present in various online forums. According to Google, website speed is one of the many factors that influence its search results. Google gives priority to the overall user engagement and user experience than just the mere practice of keyword stuffing to provide relevant results to its users.
WordPress provides its users with recommendations to optimize their website for search engines. Use these suggestions, they will help to improve website speed. A great recommendation that we’ve come across is Yoast.
2. Mobile Websites Are “Smaller,” So They Load Faster Anyway
This is also right among some of the most misleading statements out there. A website in its mobile version is not a microsite. It is still your original website, which is just optimized to be viewed on mobile devices with all its images, content and other features intact.
The truth of the matter is that the speed of mobile websites does matter. In fact, according to Google, it matters to the point where 53% of mobile users go as far as abandoning a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Specialized mobile optimization features in WordPress can provide you with tools that specifically address this issue.
3. e-Commerce Website Speed Will Always Be Slow
This is also not true. While e-commerce websites have various products, features, and services embedded on them, this should be a factor that slows down website speeds. All of these features can act in an interconnected manner without putting too much load on your hosting server, especially if you are using secure WordPress hosting.
WordPress allows you to use third-party plugins and themes, which all load as individual elements without affecting your e-Commerce website speed as a whole. Through the use of quality plugins, the website loads your most important elements first, while these plugins load on their own, which translates to a smoother user experience.
4. WordPress Website Speed is Slower Than Other Websites
WordPress is actually one of the most reliable platforms for website speed due to being built on a foundation of collaborative functions. With it’s easy to use features and plugins that are dedicated to improving website speed, WordPress can help you prevent any website speed issues before they take place. WordPress provides you with recommendations as you build your site.
WordPress allows you to check if changes are affecting website speed, allowing you to stay on top of website speed continuously.
5. Too Many Plugins Can Affect Website Speed
Whether you are using WordPress or any other website building platform that utilizes plugins to add more functionalities to your website, it is always the quality of the plugins that have an effect on your site, not the quantity.
You could have double the amount of popular plugins on your site and still have your site function well. By using WordPress, you have the power to add or remove as many plugins as you may like to your website.
6. Secure WordPress Hosting Doesn’t Have Any Effects on Your Website Speed
A fast and secure hosting server can do wonders for your website by providing great response times to both users and search engines. A secure WordPress hosting server makes sure that its response time is according to the recommendations provided by industry leaders such as Google, which leads your website to become a faster loading platform for its users.
7. Too Many Images Slow Down Website Speed
Regardless of how many images you have on your site, they will only cause load time issues and slow down website speed if they are not compressed. While you need to compress images manually if you are not using a content management system (CMS), you can do this task through any of the various plugins if your website is built on WordPress. This would help you manage your website speed and have it load faster even while having several images on the website.
8. Your Website Speed Will Be Optimal if You Have a Caching Plugin
While a caching plugin can benefit your website speed, having just a caching plugin as your primary solution may solve all of your website speed problems. A WordPress CMS and a secure WordPress hosting service can provide an all-around solution to achieve an ideal website speed.
Use these tips and turn your WordPress website into a powerhouse from your website speed to aesthetics, functionalities, user engagement, and user retention.
When Speed Matters, You Need BionicWP
Don’t rely on “free” WordPress hosting companies to provide you with the website speed your business website needs in order to thrive. At BionicWP we offer real-time uptime monitoring, daily malware scans, automatic updates, 90 days off-site backups and of course, reliable high-performance servers and connection speeds for your customers. Don’t let your search engine rankings or even your leads and sales suffer because of slow website speed, visit our website to find out how we can help get you up to speed faster than ever.