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Good or bad website page speed correlates directly to a positive user experience and is vital to a successful digital strategy in today’s competitive online environment. Furthermore, improving your website’s performance can enhance the user experience, support SEO efforts, drive higher leads and conversions, and positively reflect the brand, making them a priority for website owners and developers.

In this beginners’ guide, we will cover the main factors affecting website performance and introduce you to the Avada Performance Wizard. We will explain how the wizard works and cover each step in detail to ensure readers can effectively enhance their Avada website’s performance.

Overview

Why Is Website Performance Important?

An optimized website is vital to ensure a positive user experience. Think of it this way: If you sit down at a restaurant and order some food and the server takes too long to deliver your order, it will negatively impact your experience and likely cause you to not frequent the restaurant in the future.

Website Performance Factors

Here are some key reasons explaining why good or bad website performance is impactful:

User Experience and Retention

  • Fast-loading websites offer a smoother, more enjoyable experience, making users more likely to stay, browse, and return. Slow websites often lead to frustration, causing visitors to leave before they engage with content.
  • Fast sites build trust and can enhance the brand image, making users feel more confident in their purchases and interactions.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

  • Page speed is a critical ranking factor in search engines like Google. Faster websites are favored in search results, meaning a well-optimized site is more likely to attract organic traffic.
  • Google also focuses on mobile performance, so having a mobile-friendly, fast site can improve rankings, especially on mobile search, where more than half of web traffic now occurs.

Conversions and Revenue

  • A study by Portent shows that a load time between 0-4 seconds is best for optimum conversion rates. Therefore, even a second of page load time delay can lead to significant drops in conversions, meaning fewer purchases, sign-ups, or other desired actions.

Mobile Accessibility

  • Mobile users often have slower internet connections than desktop users, making load speed even more critical on mobile devices.
  • A high-performing mobile website improves accessibility and helps retain visitors who rely on their phones for browsing.

Reduced Operational Costs

  • Optimized websites consume fewer server resources, which can reduce hosting costs and minimize the risk of crashes during high-traffic periods.
  • Efficient sites with faster load times use less bandwidth, making it more economical to scale and handle peak traffic without sacrificing performance.

First Impressions and Brand Perception

  • Speed affects how users perceive a brand. A fast site creates a sense of reliability and professionalism, while a slow site can give the opposite impression.
  • First impressions are crucial; many users won’t return after a poor initial experience, meaning a slow website could cost a brand potential repeat visitors and future business.

Which factors affect site speed negatively?

Many factors can negatively impact site speed. Understanding these factors is essential for optimizing website performance. By addressing issues like unoptimized images, excessive plugins, and render-blocking resources and implementing best practices like caching, compression, and using a CDN, site owners can make significant strides toward a faster, more responsive website.

Website Speed Graph

Here’s an overview look at the main culprits that slow down website performance:

Large and Unoptimized Images

  • High-resolution images that aren’t optimized for the web can significantly slow down loading times, especially on mobile devices. Images not compressed or resized for the web can be much larger than necessary, consuming more bandwidth and load time.

Excessive HTTP Requests

  • Every CSS file, JavaScript file, image, font, and other assets require an HTTP request to load. A site with many elements will experience slower load times due to the high number of HTTP requests. Reducing the number of requests by combining files or limiting external resources can mitigate this issue.

Too Many Plugins

  • Plugins can be resource-intensive, especially on content management systems like WordPress. Too many or poorly optimized plugins can create extra HTTP requests, slow the server, and increase loading times. Outdated or poorly coded plugins (not coded according to WordPress and PHP coding standards) are particularly problematic.

Unoptimized JavaScript and CSS

  • Large or unminified CSS and JavaScript files can slow load times as they require more data transfer. In particular, JavaScript can delay a page’s rendering if it’s not optimized, causing a render-blocking effect. Inline or deferred loading of JavaScript and minifying CSS files can help improve speed.

Uncached Content

  • Without caching, every user request requires the server to regenerate the page dynamically, which can slow down performance. Cached content, such as images, CSS, and JavaScript, is stored locally on the user’s browser, reducing the need for repeat downloads. Not implementing browser or server-side caching can slow down returning user and server response times. If you are using Avada to power your WordPress website, the W3 Total Cache plugin is one of several that can be recommended.

Poor Server Performance and Slow Hosting

  • Shared hosting plans, underpowered servers, or hosting providers that can’t handle traffic spikes can lead to slow response times. A server’s resources, such as RAM, CPU, and bandwidth, significantly affect site speed. If the server struggles to keep up, the entire site can slow down, especially under high traffic. If you are looking for a trusted web hosting provider, we can recommend SiteGround for a full-service WordPress hosting for all types of websites

Too Many Redirects

  • URL redirects create additional HTTP requests, adding to the load time. Unnecessary redirects, such as multiple redirects leading to the same destination or outdated redirects, can negatively affect a website’s performance.

Third-Party Scripts

  • Scripts from third-party sources, such as ads, social media widgets, and analytics trackers, often load from external servers that may not be optimized. These scripts can introduce significant delays, especially if they are blocking resources. Managing or limiting the use of third-party scripts helps to minimize their impact.

Uncompressed Data

  • Serving data without compression can lead to slower load times as files take longer to download. Compression methods like Gzip or Brotli reduce file sizes before they are sent to the user’s browser, helping them load faster. Without compression, files are larger, taking up more bandwidth and time.

Heavy Animations and Complex Code

  • Resource-intensive animations, complex CSS, or JavaScript animations can be resource-intensive for browsers to render, particularly on mobile devices. If too many animations are added or not optimized, this can lead to a laggy user experience and increase load time.

Poor Database Optimization

  • Sites with databases (like WordPress sites) can slow down if the database isn’t regularly cleaned and optimized. Large databases with unnecessary data, slow queries, or lack of indexing can make it harder for the server to retrieve information quickly, affecting performance.

Not Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

  • If a site serves content only from a single server location, users who are geographically far from that server may experience slower load times due to latency. CDNs store copies of content in multiple locations worldwide, reducing the physical distance between the user and the server, which helps to improve speed.

Non-Mobile-Friendly Design

  • A design not optimized for mobile devices will lead to slower loading due to non-responsive images, increased data usage, or resource-heavy elements better suited to desktop viewing. Google also penalizes sites that are not mobile-friendly, which can reduce search visibility and load times.

Excessive DOM Size

  • A large Document Object Model (DOM) with too many nested elements or excessive HTML tags can make the page take longer to render, especially on mobile devices. Streamlining the DOM by removing unnecessary elements can improve speed and performance.

How to Access the Avada Performance Wizard

The Avada Performance Wizard can be accessed by logging into our website and navigating to WordPress Dashboard > Avada > Performance.

Avada Performance Wizard Steps

From here, and before starting the performance process, users should run a PageSpeed Insights test to get an initial performance benchmark for the website.

Using the Avada Performance Wizard

The Performance Wizard is a step-by-step process that walks users through each of the website’s settings, focusing on which elements and functions can be turned off or adjusted to boost loading speeds. By navigating through global options, the tool pinpoints settings that could slow down performance and recommends improvement.

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Before diving into the optimization process, running a Lighthouse report in an incognito browser window (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) is recommended. This avoids interference from admin asset loading and provides you with a benchmark. Establishing a baseline load score will help identify areas of potential improvement, particularly on mobile, which is the focus of Google’s performance tests.

The Step-by-Step Optimization Process

For this example, we will examine the Avada Business website, one of more than 100 professionally designed pre-built websites that can be installed with a few clicks. First, we run the site through Google’s PageSpeed Insights to determine a baseline for mobile and desktop speeds.

Step 1: Start

Avada Performance Wizard Step 1

This is the main starting point. Run the site through Google Lighthouse to generate a baseline report, read the Avada documentation, and for best results, only run this process once your website is complete.

Step 2: Features

Avada Performance Wizard Step 2

The wizard’s second step allows users to turn off unused Avada features, helping reduce the website’s code base. By selecting the “Find Recommendations” button, the wizard scans the site and suggests which features are unnecessary. Recommendations are color-coded:

  • Red indicates settings that should be changed.
  • Green suggests that the current settings are optimal.
  • Blue requires user evaluation, as these settings cannot be automated.

Once satisfied with the recommendations, users can select “Apply All” to make the changes and save them before proceeding to the next step.

Step 3: Icons

Avada Performance Wizard Step 3

In step three, the wizard scans for the icons being used on the website. It identifies the specific icons and their locations, allowing users to turn off unused subsets. For instance, if only the solid icon subset is necessary, other options, like Font Awesome compatibility, can be turned off. Additionally, users may convert all Font Awesome icons into a custom icon set for further optimization.

Step 4: Fonts

Avada Performance Wizard Step 4

The Fonts step identifies fonts currently in use and recommends adjustments to reduce the number of variants loaded if applicable. For example, if a specific variant like Open Sans is used minimally, it can be replaced with a primary font to simplify the selection. The wizard also suggests changing the font rendering option to “Swap All” for better load times and preloading the essential fonts, such as headers, to improve initial load performance.

Step 5: Elements

Avada Performance Wizard Step 5

In this step, you can turn off any Design, Layout, or Form Elements you aren’t using. The wizard scans the site to determine which elements are used and automatically disables unused ones. Reducing unnecessary elements decreases DOM size and improves loading times. Users can re-enable elements later if they add new content, as all changes are reversible from the Builder Options page. We also suggest that you read this comprehensive Avada Optimization Guide.

Step 6: Optimization

Avada Performance Wizard Step 6

In this step, you can optimize how the CSS and JS assets should be queued. These options can significantly impact the page load’s performance, but some of them can also break functionality if you are using a caching plugin, so proceed with caution.

Step 7: Finish

Avada Performance Wizard Step 7

You have reached the final stage and completed the optimization of your Avada website. Critical CSS optimizes above-the-fold content, allowing the site to render key styles while deferring the rest. By generating critical CSS for all pages, users can ensure faster initial loading, enhancing the user experience. This step can take some time, based on the site’s content.

Retesting and Further Optimization Tips

After completing the wizard, users can clear the site cache and revisit the Lighthouse report for an updated performance score. Improvements in load scores will reflect the impact of the adjustments made. Avada suggests additional techniques for further optimization, such as using a CDN, selecting faster hosting, and ensuring all images are appropriately sized and optimized.

Resources

Summary

The Avada Performance Wizard is an excellent tool for users looking to improve their website’s performance. Following the wizard’s recommendations, users can make impactful changes with minimal effort, setting up their website for better loading speeds and a smoother user experience. Avada provides additional resources for further insights on optimizing above-the-fold content and advanced load time strategies.

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