When it comes to web hosting, there are two things that matter most: reliability and speed. You want for your website to be online and available 24/7 and you need for it to load quickly each time someone ends up at your domain. Why? If your website doesn’t load completely in less than five seconds, current studies estimate that you’ll lose one-third of your visitors.
What causes website slowdowns
There are a number of things which can impact how quickly your web pages load, including all of the following:
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Large image files
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Poorly coded scripts and web pages
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Excessive JavaScript
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Poorly maintained web hosting server
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Overloaded web hosting server
How to test your website speed
If you’ve optimized your web pages and ruled out any trouble on your end, it’s time to test the speed of your web hosting server and you can do that in just a few seconds with any of these free website tools.
Vertain
Vertain.com measures website and web server speed and compares it against industry benchmarks.
Website Goodies
Website Goodies free test will measure the size of your index page and tell you how quickly it loads.
Free Speed Test
Free Speed Test tests your website from five different locations around the world, which will help rule out network difficulty as the cause of slow load times.
Pingdom
Pingdom tests and analyzes the load time of all website objects like HTML, images, JavaScript, and CSS. The detailed summary shows you which specific elements of your website are slow to load.
Load Impact
Load Impact is a unique tester that will determine how well your website can handle large amounts of visitors. The free test simulates load impact from 50 users and registered users have additional options.
Site Perf
Site Perf claims to give the most accurate speed test results by emulating natural web browser behavior. Self Perf downloads website elements—just as a visitor to your domain would do—and its thorough report shows you if there are any trouble spots.
What to do if your web host is to blame
Once you’ve thoroughly tested your website you’ll be able to determine the exact cause of slowdowns. If your web hosting company is to blame, there are a few steps you can take to remedy the problem.
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Write your web hosting company. Send a quick email off to your web hosting company, along with the results of your speed test. This will give your host a chance to correct any server issues.
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Ask to be moved to a new server. One of the things that cause slow websites speeds is an overloaded web hosting server. If your host fails to fix the load time issue, ask to be moved to another server.
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Find a new web host. If your attempts to work with your web host fail, it’s time to find a new web hosting company that will help your website succeed. Read some quality web hosting reviews and move to a host with a solid reputation.
There’s no excuse for slow loading websites and continuing to endure poor server performance will have a negative impact on your domain’s success. Do your part to correct any website issues and then work with your web hosting company to ensure that your web hosting server is operating as it should be.