Are you tired of slow loading times on your website? As a small business owner or solopreneur, your website is a crucial part of your online presence. A professional and visually appealing website can help attract and retain customers, but it's not enough to just look good. The speed and performance of your website is also important, as a slow-loading website can lead to higher bounce rates and a frustrating user experience for visitors.

Improving the speed and performance of a website can seem like a daunting task, especially if you don't have a technical background. But don't worry – there are several techniques you can use to boost your website's performance, even if you're not a tech expert.

In this blog post, we'll cover several tips that can help you improve the speed of your DIY website without needing a tech degree.

Choosing the Right Platform

One of the most important steps when building your own website is choosing the right platform. The platform you choose can have a big impact on your website's speed and performance.

Popular options for DIY websites include WordPress, Carrd, Webflow, and Wix. All four platforms offer a range of features, but it's important to consider the specific needs of your website and how the platform can meet those needs.

WordPress

WordPress is a versatile platform that allows for highly customised websites. However, it can be slower than other options, especially if you use a cheap hosting provider. To get the most out of WordPress, it's important to choose a reliable host and optimise your website for speed.

Link: https://wordpress.org/

Carrd

Carrd is a user-friendly platform that is particularly well-suited for one-page websites. It offers a range of templates and features, but may have limitations in terms of customisation compared to WordPress.

Link: https://carrd.co/

Webflow

Webflow is an excellent no-code builder that allows for maximal flexibility, but it may be too complicated for those with a non-technical background. However, it is a great option in terms of speed and performance.

Link: https://webflow.com/

Wix

Wix is a user-friendly platform that offers a range of templates and features, but it also has limitations in terms of customization and flexibility.

Link: https://www.wix.com/

When choosing a platform for your website, it's important to consider your specific needs and how the platform can meet them. Speed is a critical factor that can impact your website's performance and user experience, but there are other considerations as well, such as pricing, customer support, and scalability. By carefully weighing your options, you can choose the platform that's right for your website and help ensure it performs well for your users.

Improve your Hosting

Hosting is an important factor that can impact the speed and performance of your DIY website. If your website is hosted on a slow or overloaded server, it can lead to slower loading times and a frustrating user experience.

For website builders like Carrd, Webflow, or Wix, hosting is typically not a concern as it is built into the platform. However, for self-hosted content management systems like WordPress or custom-coded websites, hosting can be a significant factor in website speed and performance.

To improve hosting for your website, consider the following tips:

  • Choose a reputable hosting provider: Research and compare hosting providers to find one that offers reliable and fast servers.
  • Upgrade to a higher tier of hosting: If you're experiencing slow loading times or other performance issues, upgrading to a higher tier of hosting may help. Speak to your web hoster’s customer service to find out about the differences in speed.
  • Optimise your website for the server: If you're using a self-hosted website, optimising your website for the server can help improve performance. This includes things like compressing images, minifying code, and reducing the number of plugins and third-party scripts you use.

Minimising Bloat

Bloat refers to "non-essential components on a page", such as unnecessary information and scripts that are not necessary for the page to be loaded. These components can create a bottleneck in page speed and lead to slower performance if they are not optimised.

To minimise bloat on your website, it's important to regularly audit your page elements. Examine each page and remove any unnecessary information, navigation menus, comments, and other design elements that are taking up space and slowing down the page load. Additionally, limit the number of plugins and third-party scripts you use on your website. Every plugin or script adds a bit of bloat, and it all adds up quickly.

You can further reduce the size of your web pages by optimizing images and other elements. Compressing images can reduce the file size and keep your images from taking up too much space – more on that later.

By minimising bloat on your website, you can significantly improve its speed and performance. Audit your pages regularly to remove excess information and plugins, and optimise images and other elements.

Optimising Images

Optimising images is an important aspect of improving the speed and performance of your DIY website. Large, unoptimised images can significantly slow down the loading time of your pages, which can lead to a frustrating user experience.

To optimise images on your website, consider the following tips:

Choose the right format for your images

Different image formats are better suited for different types of images. For example, the new WebP format is generally smaller and faster than JPG, but it is not supported by all web browsers. As an alternative, JPG is usually the smallest and most widely supported format.

Compress images

Compressing images can significantly reduce the file size without affecting the quality of the image. There are a variety of tools available that can help you compress images, including TinyPNG or Kraken.

Use lazy loading

Lazy loading is a technique that delays the loading of images until they are needed, which can help improve the initial loading time of your website. This can be especially useful for websites with a lot of images or long pages. Most website builders and platforms have an option for this within their editors. If you cannot find it, reach out to their customer service to see how you can enable it.

Conclusion

In this blog post, we've covered several techniques you can use to improve the speed and performance of your DIY website without a technical background. By choosing the right platform, minimising bloat, optimising images, and improving your hosting, you can deliver an optimal experience for your users and help your website perform better.

Remember, a fast and well-performing website is essential for attracting and retaining customers. By following these tips, you can help ensure your website delivers the best possible user experience and helps your business succeed.