Aug 09, 2018
A slow Web site is the biggest frustration of Web site visitors. Research shows that nearly 75 percent of visitors drop out when a Web site takes longer than 2 seconds to load. That seems like a low number, but it certainly isn't. With some smart speed hacks, you can make your website a lot faster right away:
As software, Nginx or Litespeed is ideal. Quality web hosts include iXL Hosting, Combell and Xynta.
A Web site often consists of 3 types of code: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. By optimizing all the code as much as possible, your website speed will skyrocket. Do you use WordPress? Then WP Rocket and Autoptimize are your partners in crime.
Browser caching ensures that file types HTML, CSS and images are stored in the visitor's browser from the first visit. Thus, on the next visit, the user will first load all the code in the browser to quickly load the website. Browser caching can be done through plug-ins like WP Rocket, but also by adding the code below in the .htaccess file:
## EXPIRES CACHING ##
ExpiresActive OnExpiresByType image/jpg "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/x-javascript "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 year"
ExpiresDefault "access plus 2 days"
## EXPIRES CACHING ##
An image does not have to be 4000×4000 px in size to look good on a Web site. Reduce images and use the extension .jpg or .jpeg for the smallest possible files. Good WordPress plug-ins to optimize images are Imsanity and WP Retina 2x.
Want to resize images online? Then use Picresize, for example.
So you get a ranking advantage in Google mobile and your website loads a lot faster on mobile devices. Something to think about? Be sure to check out AMP for WP, the best free plug-in to generate AMP.
HSTS stands for HTTP Strict Transport Security. The purpose of HSTS is to enhance SSL certificates and put a lock on them. This way, all communication between visitor and website runs completely secure with no chance of leaks. Do you want to enable HSTS? You can do so by adding the following code in the .htaccess file:
HSTS
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header set Strict-Transport-Security “max-age=63072000; includeSubDomains; preload”
Header always set Content-Security-Policy: upgrade-insecure-requests
</IfModule>
Have you added the code? Then you can preload your website. Browsers will pick up that you are fully encrypted and so they can preload your entire website. Preloading means that browsers, including Google Chrome, store your website in their database and load it when a visitor requests it. Increased speed guaranteed!
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