The Balancing Act of Good Site Speed - Don't Fall for the Trap!

No one has patience for a laggy tool.

If you’re trying to use a tablet and every time you tap the screen it takes three seconds to react, you don't keep tapping (or maybe you actually do keep tapping, but it's an aggressive repeated tapping and you're saying "any day now" under your breath).

Once you get frustrated, you're not interested in that tool anymore.

That is exactly how a visitor feels when your site takes way too long to load. To them, your site feels broken. They aren't going to wait around for it to start working.

They’re just going to find a tool that actually works.

But there’s a trap here and it hits for most newbie website builders. Don't get obsessed with the red vs. green scores on a speed dashboard!

If you’re spending ten hours a week stressing over what can often be just milliseconds of difference between a "good" and a "bad" score, you’re wasting time that should be spent on content. Your site is going to function just fine as long as you don't actively sabotage it with these three things:

First, stop uploading billboard images. If you take a massive 10 MB photo and drop it straight onto your page without resizing or compressing it, you’re putting a lead weight on your site’s ankles. There are a number of free image optimizing plugins out there built specifically for this. Use any one you like

Second, quit the plugin addiction. Every cool animated widget you add is another bit of heavy code your visitor has to carry. If it’s not essential to making you money, just drop it.

Last, trust the engine you’re already using. The hosting here at WA is already built for speed. Your only job is to not load your site with bricks and wonder why it's dragging.

Stop over-engineering.
Compress your images.
Clean out the junk.
YOU GOT THIS!

1. Have you ever deleted a cool plugin just because you realized it was slowing you down?
2. Do you find yourself refreshing speed tests more often than you actually write new posts?