For any website, site speed is incredibly important. When a site takes too long to load, people generally do not stick around and wait for it; they close the tab and find another site to meet their needs. When your site is advertising a business, it’s especially important that its speed is suitable to keep potential clients interested.
In addition to keeping potential customers hooked, site speed is also important for search engine optimization. As outlined in this guide to SEO for law firms, site speed plays a part in technical SEO, one of the three main pillars. Essentially, building a strong website infrastructure is important in making sure Google can index your site. The key point is that if your law firm website is fast, it will yield more search results, and thus make it more visible to potential clients.
Because building a faster law firm website comes with so many benefits, firm owners should take additional steps to optimize their site speed. What may seem like a small change can actually have huge rewards for law firms.
Ensure Your Current Web Host Is Beneficial to Your Firm
Changing website hosts may require a little bit of legwork, but it’s worth it if the one you are currently using is not the right fit. As your website generates more traffic, or as other needs arise, you may need to transition to a new hosting site. There are about six types of hosting websites, each with its own distinct pros and cons.
Evaluate which needs of your website are being met, which are not, and if you could benefit from a new web host. This change holds great potential for your site speed, and therefore, the optimization of your website. Research what your current hosting website is currently used for, as well as other options you might use to replace it. Weigh the benefits and drawbacks of remaining with your current hosting website, then you can determine if switching to a new one will be most beneficial.
Adjust Image Size to Enhance Load Times
This step is incredibly simple. It costs nothing, should not take long, and can make a huge difference in how quickly your site loads. Because images are such large files, they can slow your website down considerably. Fortunately, there are many ways to combat this.
Before reducing the size of the images on your website, ask yourself if each of your images is necessary. On your law firm website, you might have pictures of staff, a picture of your office, or perhaps a graphic displaying features of your firm. Every law firm is different; they have different brands, different goals, and different messages they need to communicate. Because of this, advice for removing images is not a one-size-fits-all strategy.
However, you should evaluate how necessary each of your images is, and if they are worth slowing down your website. Removing all images is likely not the right move, but there are many ways to reduce them. First, you could crop the image to a smaller size, making sure that the important parts are still visible. You can also use the features and tools of your hosting site to compress your images.
While it may seem like a small detail, resizing images should be one of the first steps you take to improve your website speed. With these changes, you will be shocked to see how much of an improvement your site makes.
Use Plugins Sparingly
Plugins are very useful tools for websites, especially those hosted by WordPress. They are easy to install and help create a user-friendly experience on your site. However, they may be slowing down your site speed. Because of this, you should aim to reduce the number of plugins you use.
You don’t have to go in and remove all the plugins you have accumulated, but you should run performance tests to see which ones, in particular, are slowing down your site. Some browsers, such as Chrome, have easily accessible ways to test this. Once you have identified which plugins are holding you back, determine how much they benefit your site, if they can be removed, or if their benefits are greater than their costs.
Don’t Neglect Your Mobile Site
In recent years, mobile browsing has soared, making it very likely that a decent portion of your traffic comes from your mobile site. This makes it extremely important to focus on your mobile site and decrease its speed as well. Fortunately, there are many distinct ways to improve your mobile site speed.
One important technique to improve that is called browser caching. Essentially, this technique works by saving all the data and information browsers gather from visiting websites. Then, the next time someone visits your site, the browser will already have the information stored, making the loading process much faster.
Another technique to improve the speed of your mobile site would be to use diagnostic tools to identify what specifically might be slowing it down. One tool to use would be the Google Page Speed Insights, which generates a list of factors that are contributing to your slow mobile site. It’s easy to use, clear-cut and provides individualized advice.
One good example of a fast loading law website is the Simon Law firm website. They have an 85% score on the GTmetrix test which is very good if we take in calculations how dynamic the website is.
Your marketing plan likely includes social media, and on these social media pages for your law firm, you likely have your website listed. Because of this, many potential clients will first be viewing your site from their phones. This makes it important to upkeep your mobile site just as much, as it will be the first impression for many potential clients.
Wrapping Up
Slow site speed, while an easy problem to fix, can have major negative implications for your law firm if left unaddressed. By following these tips, you will be able to improve your web and mobile sites to ensure it’s fast and responsive across multiple devices. This will improve your search engine optimization, as well as your viewer experience on your site. Putting in this extra effort will have long-term rewards for your law firm.
