Everyone wants fast websites. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking up the latest trend in sneakers or just want the weather in Syndey, a website that won’t load and deliver the goods is not worth your time.
As a not for profit, the same is true. You want potential clients, donors, volunteers, and stakeholders to all be able to quickly access the critical information about your brand and services on any device. The majority of users will bounce after a 3-second delay on mobile devices when loading a website, and you don’t want to be included in that statistics.
What is Page Load Speed?
Page speed, sometimes called “load speed,” refers to how quickly your entire website loading page loads on a device. This is a crucial factor in giving readers the information they want, as well as optimising your SEO strategies.
Google loves to rank pages higher when they directly respond to the needs of a search query. That is also true for how quickly you get the information where it needs to be.
There are all kinds of factors that can impact your load speed. The most common are:
- Large image files
- Poor on-page HTML optimisation
- Slow host providers
- Complex features that don’t translate to different devices
- Loading a full-page site on a mobile device
- And more
Being based in Australia, there is another factor many organizations forget – the outback. Not everyone has access to high-speed internet. You want your website to load quickly with as little bloatware so people out in the wild can get access to your content just as much as if in a city.
How to Boost Your NFP Load Speed
When you’re considering using your NDIS funds for a new website or to improve your already existing not-for-profit online presence, you want to optimise everything for speed. A quality web developer/designer like our team at WEB 105 will do this for you, but it helps to have a good understanding going in so your maintenance team will know how to adjust as you add content.
1 – Start with a Great Host
The average web page loads in about 2.5 seconds on a PC and 8.6 seconds on a mobile device. If you want to match those statistics, you need a quality website host provider that offers around-the-clock support and little to no downtime. If they are not optimising your servers so your site loads quickly, you may want to consider moving to another competitor.
If your host provides a CDN (content delivery network), then you know you’re in good company. This will speed up the delivery of your various features because the content is distributed to different geographical servers closer to your relative users.
2 – Image Optimisation
This is probably one of the easiest ways to boost your load speed. As a not-for-profit, you probably have engaging client stories with videos and supporting images. While high-resolution images can improve your engagement, they can also bog down your site.
Embrace digital tools like plugins for WordPress or online browser options that optimise your images for load times without compromising compression quality. You may want to consider different image formats like WebP or JPEG and PNG for graphics.
3 – Reduce Unnecessary Plugins and Scripts
Every additional script and plugin you run on your website takes processing power. Most will improve the user experience and streamline how you deliver your client interaction online. A few, especially ones from untrustworthy sources, will slow down your website response.
While you check these options for speed, be sure to look at security. You don’t want to include a plugin that is also risking the overall safety of your client information, customer data, or business operations.
4 – Minimising Languages (CSS & JavaScript)
Overhead HTTP requests will throttle website speeds. If you minimise and combine your CSS and JavaScript files into a single repository, you will shed unnecessary weight. There are many tools that can do this, but your best bet is to work with a professional website designer like our team at WEB 105.
A quick pro tip to achieving this is to shorten the variable and function names inside the code work. You want as few bytes of data being processed by the host as possible. While you’re at it, try to minimise your HTML as well. Keep things as low as possible, preferably below 4,000-5,000 lines of code (which really should only be for Auction or content aggregator websites).
5 – Clean Your Resources
Most websites have media libraries and databases attached to their resources. These are referential items that can clog up your website. Whenever the code runs a search to include an image of your healthcare provisions, team members, or critical contact information for specialists – you run the risk of media files taking way too long to find.
If you delete any items in your databases and media libraries, you reduce the time it takes to fetch this data. Less time retrieving is less time loading.
6 – Mobile Responsiveness
A great test for how quickly your NDIS-funded website will load is to check it on a mobile device. You want to aim for 6-8 seconds or less. If your website cannot load a uniquely mobile-ready website for your brand, you need to optimise it.
Start by ensuring you have a mobile-friendly and responsive site structure. You shouldn’t have to play nine rounds of “get the phone angle right” to view all the content you worked hard to create.
How to Fix Load Speed
As you prepare to revamp or build a new website for your NFP, look at page load size through audits. The easiest way to do this is with the free tools available online. You can run a ping test through Pingdom Website Speed Test.
However, the gold standard is the Google PageSpeed Insights tool. This will score your page’s responsiveness, speed, and several other critical factors that can give you a lot of insight into what to change for a higher page rank and user experience.
You’ll want to schedule regular audits about every two months. As plugins are updated, and hosts change server grids, your page load time can shift.
Of course, the best option is to work with our professional team at WEB 105. We have the experience, skills, tools, and training to turn your NDIS-funded NFP website into a streamlined resource for your target audience. Reach out today to schedule a consultation, and let’s create a lightning-fast website for your organization’s needs.
FAQ
Is WebP really better than JPEG?
Yes and no. WebP offers faster load times because the file sizes are about 30% smaller than traditional JPEG. There are some arguments that you lose quality, but most users won’t tell the difference.
What causes high page load time?
There are many factors that can slow down your page load time. The most common are oversized images, bad host providers, and lack of mobile responsiveness.
What is a healthy page load time?
The faster, the better. If you are on a PC, you want under 3 seconds. If you’re on a mobile device, try for 6-8 seconds.