Why Is a Plastic Surgery Website Loading So Slowly?
According to Google’s survey, a visitor leaves the website if it isn’t loaded within two seconds. Not only does the website lose a visitor, but it also gives a red flag to Google’s Algorithm. Hence, lower ranking, and ultimately, de-indexing. In short: Every website should be optimized for speed, no matter what CMS is used, and where it is accessed around the world. So, we have prepared this guide to the core reasons why your plastic surgery practice websites load so slowly.
Lack of Caching
Caching refers to the practice of temporarily storing files and data in temporary storage locations known as caches for faster loading. This cached memory eliminates the need to retrieve information directly from sources.
Caching has many functions in web browsing:
- Browsers cache requested HyperText Markup Language (HTML) files and JavaScript to load websites faster.
- DNS servers store DNS records to speed up lookups
- CDN servers store content to reduce latency
When caching isn’t implemented properly, website performance can become seriously impaired and become one of the major factors impacting page and site speeds. Ensuring your caching methods are up to date is important to maintain optimal loading times and overall website performance.
Unoptimized Images Cause Slow Loading
Unoptimized images are one of the main culprits behind slow website loads. Utilizing JPEG formats that aren’t optimized for web use and improperly sizing and compressing images can significantly slow page load times.
Image and landing page optimization techniques like compression and lazy loading help reduce image sizes while increasing performance and site speed. But the best way to do it is to convert the images into WebP format.
Plus, you won’t encounter those annoying “Main UI thread blocked” issues that happen when a browser struggles to resize large images. Such delays can seriously disrupt performance and ruin the user experience.
Excessive HTTP Requests
Visitors who arrive at your website initiate a request with your server for the files that comprise it, which in turn are sent back out and displayed by their browser on either computer or mobile device screens.
Utilizing a web host with excellent network infrastructure will make this process much more efficient. For example, if your server is located in the US and visitors come from Denmark, their browsers will have to ping twice as far and load your website more slowly as a result.
Another way to reduce HTTP requests is to use a plugin or library that enables websites to load JavaScript and jQuery asynchronously. This speeds up page loading time without compromising functionality.
Too Many Web Pages
Having too many web pages can also drag down your website’s loading speed. Each page adds more assets that your server has to handle. When these pile up, your site takes longer to process requests and deliver content to the visitor.
This issue is especially common in large plastic surgery websites with multiple procedure pages, galleries, and blogs. While it’s great for SEO to have detailed content, you have to manage it smartly. Combine or streamline pages where possible, remove outdated ones, and make sure each page is fully optimized.
Too Many Plugins Slows Website
Note that WordPress plugins aren’t an issue here. Unused and non-active plugins are. It’s not about how many plugins there are – rather, it should focus on their effectiveness and whether or not they provide high-quality services to your visitors.
Low-quality plugins may add extra scripts and styles, increase HTTP requests or database queries, create inefficient code that slows down site performance, or cause unexpected errors or crashes that are difficult to diagnose. These issues can cause your website to start loading slowly, significantly affecting user experience and search engine rankings for plastic surgery websites.
The number of plugins installed on a WordPress website shouldn’t be seen as an indicator of its performance or be the focus of your business strategy. Instead, focus on how efficiently your website can serve web content to visitors, as this directly impacts loading speed and user experience.
Content Delivery Network
Content delivery networks accelerate web performance by caching copies of web content on servers close to end users. This approach, known as edge caching, reduces latency, bandwidth costs, and scalability concerns.
Successful marketing campaigns and SEO can cause sudden increases in demand that strain website servers. CDNs use load-balancing technology to distribute this burden evenly among multiple servers to avoid server failure and ensure page and site speed remain consistent, no matter how much traffic a website receives. This reduces downtime while improving user experience and protecting against denial-of-service attacks.
Server Bad Hosting
Website speeds depend heavily on the quality and price of the hosting service provider. Inexpensive hosting options may provide subpar server performance and significantly decrease website loading speeds.
To improve the load time of your website, begin by running a basic speed test using tools such as GTmetrix or WebPageTest. After doing this, slowly disable plugins until you identify which is causing slowness on the site and switch internet service providers accordingly.
Excessive Flash Content
An old saying suggests that “slow and steady wins the race”, but in terms of website performance, this doesn’t hold water. Even a one-second delay can mean lost traffic, revenue, and credibility for any given site.
Flash content can add interactivity to websites, but its large file sizes often slow page load speed significantly. Therefore, whenever possible, it would be wiser to switch over to HTML5 alternatives with smaller file sizes instead.
Plus, excessive JavaScript or jQuery files also slow page load speed significantly; to minimize their presence and avoid script bloat where possible, it’s wiser to audit and reduce these files wherever possible.
Conclusion
A slow website will frustrate your visitors and ultimately send them to your competitor. When your plastic surgery website takes too long to load, you’re not only losing potential patients but also hurting your rankings in Google’s search results. The good news? Each of these issues can be fixed with the right strategy and expertise. Your website should reflect the precision, professionalism, and trustworthiness of your practice, and that starts with speed and performance.
Ready to Transform Your Plastic Surgery Website?
Plastic Surgery Dr. Marketing can develop a website that looks visually stunning and performs at its best. We understand that a plastic surgery website isn’t just a digital brochure; it’s your online reputation, your lead generator, and often the first impression a potential patient gets of your practice.
Our team combines design, development, and digital strategy to create sites that are not only visually stunning but also technically optimized. Partner with Plastic Surgery Dr. Marketing and let’s give your website the speed, design, and performance it deserves.
