If you are an online business, then fast internet and loading speeds are the absolute bedrock for the stability and profitability of your company. While the digital world is getting bigger and better, and we can use our browsers now for almost anything, this increase in the scope of the internet can lead to slow loading, lagging or even crashing. Below we explore how you can speed up your load times without needing to spend money on faster broadband speeds.

Update your browser

Google Chrome is the most used browser on the internet (having recently overtaken Internet Explorer), but pretty much all browsers work the same way with similar features. One of the first things that you can do to speed up your browser is check for any updates; your browser will not always update automatically, so this step often gets overlooked.

Not updating your browser could mean that you are running on an older, slower version, or one that is having bug issues. To find out if your browser has been updated, simply type in “update [name of your browser]” into the browser you use and follow the steps provided.

Disable any toolbars, extensions or plugins

Toolbars, extensions, and plugins are like add-ons or apps for your browser, and some have many useful functions and purposes. However, it may be that you have accidentally installed some that you do not need, or that you no longer use, and deleting or disabling these can help to speed up your browser.

You can usually view your toolbars, extensions and plugins from the settings menu in your browser of choice.

Clear history, cache, and cookies

Another useful way to speed up your internet browsing is to clear your history, cache, and cookies.

Cache: your internet cache is locally stored image and content files from websites that you have visited. This is useful as the next time you visit that webpage, the content and files will load quickly. However, as your cache builds, it will take longer for websites to source through your growing stock of locally stored content.

Cookies: cookies are also locally saved files, but on you as the user, such as usernames and passwords.

History: this is your browsing history, keeping a record of every site you have visited.

Clearing these three saved pieces of data and information can help your browser to run faster. However, it can also cause inconveniences, such as with you having to enter your user name and password again.

Sit nearer the router

This one is not always practical for everyone, but the further away you are from your internet router, the slower your internet is going to be, especially if the signal has to travel through solid objects like walls. If possible, consider moving closer to the router.

Use minimal tabs

There will be points while you are working that you need several tabs open, and modern browsers are designed to support this. However, the more tabs you have open, the slower your browser will be, especially if each page is rich in content, audio or visual files.

If possible, aim to have the absolute minimal number of tabs open; perhaps by working your way through each tab individually and closing it once you are done with it.

Extensions

Although we talked earlier about disabling any unnecessary or un-used extensions and plugins, there are some useful add-ons available that can help with the speed of your browser. Extensions such as Google’s Data Saver work by running some internet traffic through Google’s servers, thereby reducing the downloads per page and helping to speed up slower pages.

Turning off prefetching and automatic loading

Modern browsers attempt to predict where you will head next on your webpages, and while this can be extremely useful, it can also slow down your browser, especially if it gets its predictions wrong!

We’d only recommend this for really slow browsers, and if you feel that yours is one of these, simply type “turn off prefetching in [name of your browser]” into your search engine and follow the steps that are listed.

Minimise the other tasks that you are doing

If you have multiple documents, applications, and e-mails open on your desktop, regardless of whether it is on a browser or not, it is going to slow down the processing speeds of your computer, and therefore, your internet. Keep your computer running as little tasks as possible, so that when you need to use the internet, it can run at full power.

You have probably heard the term “web analytics” bandied about, but you might be unsure about what it means and how it can help your website, no matter what industry you are in. If you are unclear about web analytics and want to learn everything you need to know, read ahead, because this article is for you.

What are web analytics?

Simply put, web analytics are the measurements that analyse how your site is performing on the internet, information that can then be used to assess your site and optimise it for the future.

Your site analytics can provide data on:

• The demographics of the people who visit your site.
• How they got to your site (i.e. did they come from an external link on someone else’s site, a Google search or by typing your web address directly into the search bar.
• What they did once they were on your site, and the order in which they navigated your different pages.
• How much time in total did they spend on your site?
• Where they went after visiting your website. Did they follow one of your internal links?

What applications can you use to attain your web analytics?

There are countless different applications and tools that you can use that will help you assess how your site is performing. Some of the best options out there include:

• Google analytics – One of the best options is the most obvious. Google Analytics offers a whole suite of online performance trackers that help you understand your users’ behaviour and optimise the way that you relate to them. In their own words, “the Google Analytics 360 Suite delivers the customer and advertising insights you need to set your marketing strategy, drive sales, and ultimately outperform the competition.”
• Crazy Egg – Crazy Egg is a useful tool that enables you to create a ‘heat map’ that tracks your users’ clicks in order to see exactly how they interact with your website. This helps you to assess your site’s usability and make any necessary changes to increase your average user’s experience when on your page.
• Kissinsights from Kiss Metrics – Kissinsights provides businesses with the ability to install a Javascript plugin that will instantly ask your website’s users a series of simple questions and ask for valuable feedback. You can choose exactly which questions you would like to ask your site visitors, and review the answers in order to learn about how they experience your website.

What information do web analytics applications usually provide?

Web analytics tools can provide you with truly valuable insights, not only about your own website, but also about the people who visit your site.

This can include (but is not limited to):

Campaign Data

• The specific campaigns that were most successful in driving users to your site.
• All of the domains that referred your site’s traffic
• The keywords that people used in order to find your site

Your Audience

• The number of visits that you have had to your site
• Demographic information about your users, including the countries in which they are located
• Whether your visitors are new or returning users
• The browser they are using to access your site, whether it be Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or other options

Other Audience Metrics

• Which page on your website visitors landed on, and which page they exited from (i.e. your homepage, About Us, a specific product or FAQs)
• Which of your pages are the most popular
• The amount of time that each of your visitors spent on your site

When you are reviewing the information gleaned from your website analytics, you may find that some terms are used that you are not familiar with – click here for some of the most commonly used terms and their definitions.

You have the analytics information – now what?

Once you begin to examine the analytics reports about your website, you may feel that the sheer volume of information you are provided with is overwhelming. Indeed, trying to make sense of this vast quantity of data all at once is almost impossible – you should instead ensure that you have decided the goal of your enquiry before you start your examination by setting out clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This will help you to get the most from your data.

The metrics that you choose to prioritise will depend on what you hope to improve about your site at this time – engagement, length of time spent on a specific page, the actual number of visitors or which links users choose to follow (if any) from your site.

Once you have decided which metrics are most important to track at this time, you can easily set up a series of scheduled reports to be emailed to you on a regular basis. These emails can remind you to check your analytics, assess new developments and make changes when necessary.

Analytics – Always Important to your Success

As you can see from the information above, tracking your website’s performance is easier than you think – but this should not make you underestimate its importance.

Once you understand your visitors’ online behaviour you are then able to change your site in order to optimise your success. This data can help you make educated and calculated changes to your website based on accurate and actual data – this prevents you from making wild guesses and changes the things you think might make a difference.

Assessing your analytics will also help you choose advertising and promotion techniques that are most suited to your site. Based on this data, you can see how many users are being driven to your site by any advertising campaigns you have done, and ensure that these users are members of your ideal audience.

In addition, analytics are also a simple way to track any broken links or faulty code on your site. They can help you notice a 100% decline in customers to a certain part of your page, alerting you that a page is down and giving you an opportunity to fix it before too many sales are lost.

Don’t delay – start tracking your analytics today.