Slow website? Ways to know if your site host is to blame

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You might already know this, but your site’s speed performance can make or break your business. And with more people today accessing the internet to purchase products or services at home because of COVID-19, you can’t afford your business to break.

If your site’s pages take more than two seconds to load – you’re already losing customers. You can quickly test your site’s speed now using various devices and browsers. A slow-loading site could be a sign that something wrong is going on.

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The longer you wait to solve the problem means the more traffic you’re missing out on. From coding issues to simply bad host services, here are some reasons why your hosting provider is to blame.

Problems with coding. Unclean coding can sometimes cause a site to slow down, plus it can lower SEO. Not all working code is working for your website if it isn’t written correctly. Messy coding can show via white space, unnecessary commands, or inline styling. You can always hire someone with web design skills to help you assess and clean your codes. Many online tools are also available to clean your stylesheets if you are comfortable dealing with code cleaning yourself.

Unoptimized media files. Large media files including audio, video, and images can be optimized to reduce bandwidth to load. More bandwidth used for loading media files means site load speed! Some web hosts optimize large media files automatically so check with yours. If not, look into best practices when uploading files to your website. The key is reducing the file size of the media before it is used.

Too many advertisements. Advertisements are used mainly if you’re trying to monetize your website – especially if you’re a small business. However, it’s not great for site speed. Multiple advertisements mean that your site is constantly receiving HTTP requests, which can overload and slow it down. The key is regulating advertisements. Avoid using advertisements that run on Flash (yes, they’re still a thing for some). 

Outgrown or bad web host. If you begin receiving more site traffic, there is a chance you’re your current host doesn’t have enough bandwidth to meet your needs. Check with them for a package upgrade with more bandwidth. They might offer multiple packages, and, normally, higher bandwidth costs more. You should quickly start seeing faster website speeds after upgrading.

In some cases, a web host might just be a bad fit for your needs. If you’ve looked into other reasons why your site host might be the reason and you have good reasons to believe that they won’t be able to supply your increasing needs, it might be the right time for a change. Always consider several web hosts and check user reviews before settling on the best web hosting provider. Proper research will save you from pain down the line.

If you suspect anything about your website smells fishy – glitches, slowness, broken links, don’t wait, and start figuring out why! If you’ve realized that your web host is to blame, consult with them first, and make severing the ties your last resort. If you however decide to pursue another provider, make sure to make ample research and prioritize sites with a great track record and review as a web hosting provider. A badly performing site will harm your business aside from being a total annoyance. Optimizing your site is also a way towards better web search results (SERP ranking), letting you start receiving even more organic traffic.