If you run an online business, then you know how important it is to establish a strong online presence. This is especially the case when it comes to starting a website. And luckily, there are a lot of platforms that make it easy for you to get started.
Squarespace has gained popularity over the years due to how easily and quickly you can set up a new site. And the best part is, you don’t need development skills to do it. However, there are instances in which you may need to learn more about the technical side of this platform. For instance, how do you speed up a Squarespace website slow to load? Let’s take about a few things that could be slowing your Squarespace website down.
1. Large Images
Most people understand the importance of making their website visually appealing. However, what most don’t realize is that you must pay careful attention to the file size of your images. When a file is too large, it causes the page to load more slowly. So how do make your images smaller? The answer is simple–you optimize them. Image optimization is the process of compressing an image so that it decreases in size. The goal is to make it small enough so that your page loads as quickly as possible, but large enough that it still appears to be of high quality visually. Luckily there are a lot of compression tools available online.
2. Code Injection
Though Squarespace offers a nice layout, there’s a good chance that you may still be interested in adding or removing a few functionalities here and there. And in these instances, it usually requires you to modify or inject your own code into the CSS area. While this may result in the changes you want, it may also slow things down a bit. You see, although Squarespace allows you to make CSS changes, it warns that adding third-party code could cause issues. So remove all of the extra code from your site and add it back little by little until you can find out which part is the problem.
3. Too Much Embedded Code
In some cases, it may not be the code itself that causes your Squarespace website slow loading time. Sometimes it’s the sheer amount of code that you add to the CSS. Squarespace allows you to add embedded code almost anywhere you like. However, you should keep in mind that these blocks of code must load every time someone enters your page. So if you have 30 embedded code blocks on one page, it may cause issues. So try to only use these blocks when absolutely necessary.
4. Too many URL Redirects
At some point, your website may undergo changes. You may even do business at an entirely different URL. The good news is that you can always redirect your old URL to your new URL. This means that when your visitors type your old domain into the search bar, they will automatically be taken to your new setup. The problem is overuse. You may have a lot of redirects, but it’s very important that you do your best to streamline the list.
5. Large Pages
Whenever your browser loads a page, it will download all of the content on that specific page. This means, if the page contains a significant amount of content, it may take a while to load. So it’s a good idea to keep the size of your page as small as possible. Also, try to choose a template that allows Ajax loading so that each page is loaded one at a time.
If you are not sure how quickly your page is loading, you can check it with the free website speed testing tool Dotcom-Tools. This is a free tool that gives you the ability to test your website for performance issues in a detailed waterfall chart and take away all of the guesswork of website slowdown issues.
