We’ve all been there: You type in the URL, click enter, and start waiting for the webpage to load. But then you wait… and wait… and nothing seems to happen. Why do webpages take so long to load? This article digs deeper into why this happens and what you can do about it.
1. What Causes Slow Page Loading?
Slow page loading is predominantly caused by inadequate website hosting. If your website hosting is not sufficient to handle the amount of traffic coming in, then you’re likely to experience slow page loading. Similarly, if your hosting provider is slow to respond to requests or doesn’t deploy infrastructure to meet traffic, then this will cause delays in loading times.
But hosting isn’t the only factor. Here are a couple more to consider:
- Bloated code: HTML, Javascript, and CSS files being too large and complex can cause slow page loading, as the web browsers need to process it all.
- Browser incompatibilities: Different browsers interpret codes in different ways, which can slow loading speeds. If your webpage isn’t designed to be compatible for a range of browsers, then this could affect your loading times.
- Heavy embedded content: Bandwidth and loading time will suffer if your webpage contains a large of amount of media content.
- External HTTP requests: If your webpage calls sources from external hosts, then this will also add time onto page loading.
Fortunately, there are a range of techniques you can adopt to reduce page loading times.
2. Popular Factors That Impact Page Load Times
The loading speed of webpages is a major factor in user experience. Slow load times can cause users to bounce from a website and hurt the bottom line. So what factors can make a website take longer to load?
- Bandwidth – The amount of data a web user can get from a website within a given time-frame depends on their broadband connection. The lack of bandwidth available can increase page load times.
- Server Speed – The physical server used to serve the website can have an impact on how quickly a page renders. If the server is busy or lacks resources, page loads may be slower.
- Size of Media Files – Images, video and other media files are larger than textual content and can significantly increase page load times. Minimizing or compressing file sizes can help.
- Cacheability – Caching stores copies of webpages locally, so when users revisit those pages, they load quicker. Poor or non-optimized cache settings can cause pages to take longer to load.
- External Resources - External resources such as embedded content, graphics, JavaScript files and other dependencies can have a major impact on page load speed.
Each of these factors can, individually or collectively, have an effect on page load times. Understanding how they work can help you to improve the loading speed of your website pages.
3. Simple Ways to Improve Website Performance
In general, webpages take too long to load mainly because of the following two factors:
- The size of the webpage
- The speed of the network connection
However, if both of these factors are tested and found to be in top condition, some other general improvements can be made to improve the loading time of the webpage.
1. Optimize Images: Including images on webpages is a great way to enhance the look and feel of the content. However, images that are too large will significantly increase loading time. Therefore, it is important to optimize images for page size while keeping the image quality. Tools like tinyPNG can be used to easily compress images.
2. Minimize HTTP Requests: Every single element of a website, such as scripts, stylesheets, images, etc., requires an HTTP request to load. Therefore, minimizing these requests can reduce loading time. You can do this by reducing the amount of elements, consolidating files, using sprites, and optimizing code.
3. Enable Caching: Caching can reduce the load on the server and reduce loading time for website visitors. You can enable browser caching by adding the necessary code to the .htaccess file. Caching also helps reduce bandwidth usage, as the webpage does not need to be re-downloaded on each visit.
4. Conclusion: Understanding Why Pages Load Slowly is Key
If you want to know why webpages take so long to load, the answer is simple: the resources that must be loaded and the time the browser takes to render them. In order to optimize the user experience, page speed, and website performance, it’s up to webmasters to understand what is causing the page to be slow.
- Inspect page elements – Look at the page code to identify large files, excessive use of AJAX, or other elements that may be slowing down the page.
- Check HTML code – Make sure HTML tags are properly closed, and check the code to ensure there are no errors.
- Look at images – Resize and compress images to reduce their file size.
- Evaluate 3rd-party elements – Advertising, analytics, and social media plugins can all slow down a page, so think critically about which ones to keep on the page.
Once you understand the underlying factors that are causing the page to be slow, you can take steps to optimize and improve page speed. Keep in mind that page loads are not the same across different browsers, devices, and connection speeds, which means that the work to optimize your page must be ongoing.
Conclusion
With broadband technology continuing to improve, webpages should eventually load faster. In the meantime, understanding the reasons why webpages take long to load can help us be more patient and find ways to speed up the loading process.