The appearance of the CMS and specifically WordPress has sped up the process of website creation so much. Now, anyone with minimal tech skills can launch a website in a matter of minutes. The installation process is considered to be relatively simple, but there might be some questions connected with the customization. Especially with the huge theme library, it might be challenging to use the correct one in terms of speed optimization.
Here, we will explain how the choice of theme can impact performance as well as website ranking in the search engine. But before, we highly recommend to buy virtual server hosting from a reliable provider so that your website’s performance characteristics will improve even more.
In what way theme can impact the performance of the website?
Impact on SEO performance
Usage of the best SEO practices can directly impact the website’s ranking on the search engine. Among the most crucial factors that influence your website ranking are meta tags, internal links, proper keywords, meta description, and, of course, theme.
Search engines are evaluating websites in a totally different way than a human being can expect. Practically, the code related to the layout, visualization, and content is checked. In case of some issues with the structure, the website can be poorly ranked.
Here are some practical recommendations that can help with the website theme:
- For the easy accessibility of the search engine, the sections should be properly highlighted in the theme. Check whether the customized template has the necessary HTML tags.
- The chosen theme should properly suit the screen of all possible sizes. So that smartphone users will also have a good user experience.
- The theme should be structured accordingly so that it promotes HTML placement.
Influence user experience
A website should create a proper user experience where the structure is easy and understandable. The theme of the website is a significant factor that directly impacts the user experience. The selection of a theme that has too many plugins and graphics can negatively impact the speed. That’s why it is so crucial to pay attention not only to the visual characteristics but also to the practicality of the theme.
Here are some recommendations regarding the theme and improvement of user experience:
- When using the standard theme, tags and codes should be properly integrated. For instance, a great recommendation is to use only one H1 tag and several H3 and H2 tags to have better visibility. Also, double-check whether the size and type of the chosen font is the same on all webpages.
- It is highly recommended to use a filtering program for images, such as backgrounds and headers. For the significant speed improvement, it is better to utilize compressed images.
- If the chosen theme has some obvious issues, it is better to change it to a more appropriate one.
Affect the speed of the webpage
The speed characteristics are extremely important because they directly influence the search engine ranking as well as the general user experience. In case the webpages are loading slowly, it will lower your ranking.
There are some standard themes that might have issues with the coding and that affect the speed, and even make the platform more vulnerable to security risks.
There are some important strategies that can directly help with such problems:
- Try to orient on the content and exclude heavy elements such as widgets.
- Optimize the landing pages.
- At the initial stage, you should focus on the selection of the fast-loading themes.
Best practices to speed up the website
Besides the theme, other facts can impact speed and general performance. So, here are a couple of practices that can help:
- Minimize redirections. It is important to check available redirections on your website, because sometimes content is moved or the website is deleted, and you still have a redirection to this resource. During such scenarios, the speed can be slowed down a lot. That’s why it is necessary to use audit tools to check all the available redirections.
- Minimize HTTP requests. Those users who have minimal tech skills can minimize these requests by deleting unnecessary elements and using fewer plugins. For the most advanced techniques, it is possible to consult with developers.
- Usage of CDN. Content delivery network functions with the help of servers that help to deliver content to the users nearest to them. This approach works the following way: the main server might be located in London, and users from New York are accessing the nearest server in the US rather than using the main server. In such a way, the speed of the website is greatly improved.
- Usage of a reliable web hosting provider. The speed of the website is also greatly impacted by the quality of the hosting and its handling of unexpected spikes in the traffic volumes. Except of the choice of a reliable web hosting provider, you should also choose the most appropriate hosting type with the necessary amount of resources.
Summing up
Speed optimization plays an important role in the user experience and website ranking in the search engine. That’s why it is crucial to implement some practices that can directly impact the speed characteristics of your platform.