Imagine you need to buy a last-minute gift for your friend at an online store. You’re trying to open the website, but it goes on loading and loading, and loading…like forever. What are you going to do? You will leave the website and go to another one, where you will make your order more quickly and without any interruptions. Consumers have no time to waste. And you have no consumers to “waste” too!

The simple truth is that speed matters. A faster loading website will bring you more traffic and higher conversion rates. Did you know that if your website does not load within 3 seconds, more than half of its visitors will leave it?

 

Why do you need to improve your website speed?

• Website speed is essential for Google ranking.
• Consumers prefer fast-loading pages.
• The better the speed of your website, the higher your user satisfaction.
• Speed affects Bounce rates (the percentage of users that leave a site without looking at a second page)
• The faster your page loads, the more people will visit it.
• And more.

So, it seems rather obvious that a fast website equals a successful website. And now what?

 

How can I check my website speed?

Here are a few platforms that can help you analyze and optimize your website speed:

• PageSpeed Insights
• Pingdom
• GTmetrix

How do I increase my website speed? Here are some of our suggestions:

 

1. A trusty web hosting provider

The very first (and most important) thing is choosing the right web hosting provider.  The server on which all your precious data will be stored must be reliable, not jam-packed and able to respond quickly to requests.  Speedflow offers high quality hosting with lightning-fast performance:

• SSL certificates
• Linux server environment
• Customization and scalability
• Connectivity all over the world
• 24/7 support
• And more

 

2. Gzip compression

The bigger a web page, the longer it takes to load. When a user clicks on a link, the server receives an automatic command to begin loading all page elements. If these items are too big, it will take a lot longer to visualize them in the user’s browser. Gzip compression solves this problem.

Gzip compresses the elements of your site into a zip file, thanks to which your web page information reaches the user’s browser much faster. Most servers provide this type of compression. To check if your website employs Gzip compression, try these tools here or just type in the search engine search bar “gzip compression checker” and check any of the first few results.

To enable Gzip compression on your server, use the following modules:

• For Apache: mod deflate
• For Nginx: HttpGzipModule
• For IIS: HttpCompression

 

3. Lazy Loading

Lazy loading is extremely useful because it allows your page elements to load at different times – only when the user actually needs to see them. Choose the parts of your website that have to be loaded with priority and those that can be loaded after the user scrolls down to them. Lazy Loading has many advantages. It:

• Reduces page loading time
• Saves bandwidth
• Improves user experience.

 

4. Image optimization

If you optimize the images on your page the right way, you can improve your website speed by 80%! Light images are mandatory for any site, and often is a neglected step in eCommerce website development where they play a very important role in sales. Try the following tips:

• Format your images before uploading them online.
• The best image format is the JPEG format.
• Avoid using BMP and TIFF formats.
• Your image size should match the width of your page. If your page width is 570 pixels, so should your image width too.
• Decrease color depth to a minimum, only if it does not distort the image.
• Eliminate all white spaces around your images.

 

5. Cache your browser

Caching allows browsers to remember your website after it has been loaded on them even only once. Consequently, the browser will not have to reload all the items from the server again. On the contrary, it will load the information directly from the user’s local computer. This is an extremely useful feature especially for regular users because the website will load much quicker with every subsequent visit.

So, how can you enable this feature? First, you need to adjust your HTTP headers and indicate the expiry times of specific file types. Thus, the browser will know whether to request information from the server or from the browser cache. Keep in mind that your CMS system may also have cache extensions or plugins. If not, you can enter cache parameters in your .htaccess file (in the root of the domain). This will help the browser know which files to cache. If all this seems like a foreign language to you, contact us or send us an e-mail at info@speedflow.bg. We will help you enable your browser cache.

How about your website? Is it fast enough? Do you need to increase its speed? We can show you how to turn on the “turbo” immediately.

 

Check also “How to improve your website speed? – Part 2“

Even if you are convinced that no one is going to hack your website, because it does not contain any secret or valuable information, this does not mean it is impossible. Did you know that according to a recent study done by Sucuri 83% of the hacked websites in 2017 were WordPress based? A breakthrough in your platform does not necessarily mean that the perpetrators will steal your sensitive information, but there is a big probability that they would use your server to flood users with spam messages and emails.

Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the most popular tips and tricks that you can implement to make your website less vulnerable and more secure for both – your personal use and your clients’.

 

1. Make updates a tradition

It’s not just about updating your platform, but also about updating any script, code, software, or extension you’ve installed on it and are currently using. Hackers work hard to find the weakest system spots. And outdated software platforms seem quite tempting for them because they make room for malware action.

 

2. SSL certificate must be ON

The SSL certificate is a key element of the website security and a safer Internet surfing. It encrypts and protects the information that is being exchanged over the worldwide web. It makes sure that your personal data reaches its final destination intact. You can easily check if your website has an SSL certificate by simply looking at the URL. If it starts with HTTPS and not HTTP, then your website is OK (secure). Even for Google. The Internet giant announced that from now on it will prioritize HTTPS websites in SERP (search engine results page). You can find more information on this topic in our blog article we wrote earlier and gives you the 4 main reasons why you need an SSL certificate.

*Useful: 20 Less Known factors for Better Google Ranking

 

3. Forget about easy passwords

Nobody likes to come up with, memorize, and enter complicated passwords. However, easy and short ones are an open book for hackers that in the 21st century are armed with specialized software exactly for such purposes. Therefore, if you want higher website security, it is extremely important to implement a strict password policy. Apply it not only to the passwords you use for web administration and support but also for the ones that your users use to log in. What is the perfect anti-hacker password?

• At least 10 characters long
• Contains uppercase and lowercase letters
• Includes at least one special character
• Contains digits
• Does not match your username, domain, email, etc.
• Does not contain consecutive digits or letters
• Does not match other passwords of yours
• Is changed frequently

 

4. Backups are your best friend

Backing up your website is not just an effective defense wall against hackers. In fact, it is the only automatic tool you can use to restore your website in case a problem occurs. You will be grateful for the existence of backups in the event of a system crash, bugs, data loss, virus, malware, an update that failed completely, or an unintended mistake done by your web administrator or support team. Reasons are endless, but at the same time backing up your website regularly is not costly or time-consuming at all. On the contrary, it will save you time and money. Just imagine if you were to rebuild your website or restore it manually from scratch.

 

5. Scan your systems

In general, we are quite busy with website search engines optimization, link building, updating and adding new blog content, providing excellent customer service, and so on. But we should not forget to keep an eye on and improve its security. It is advisable that you perform regular system scans to detect potential threats and attacks. You can use online tools for this purpose like ScanMyServer, SUCURI, or hire a specialist to do a professional analysis for you and advise you what steps should be made for better web security.

 

6.One website – one server

Yes, it is much more practical and inexpensive to host multiple sites on a single server. Experts, however, say that this is the far less safe option. They recommend (if possible) having just one Content Management System (CMS) such as WordPress per server. Why? Because if there is a breach in one of the websites on the server, the rest may be affected too. The problem becomes particularly big if one of them is an online shop where your store customers’ data and their orders history.

How about you? What tips and tricks do you use to make your website hacker-proof? Share in the comment section below or email us at info@speedflow.bg in case you need to improve your website security.

There are quite a few tips and tricks you could use to improve your website speed. We discussed in details some of them in our previous blog articles “How to improve your website speed? – Part 1” and Part 2. We have prepared for you today Part 3 as well. So, let’s see what else you might try.

 

1. Defer loading of JS files

Unless set otherwise, JavaScript files will interrupt the parsing of the HTML document in order to be fetched and executed correctly (unless already embedded in the code). This way the HTML takes longer to load, making your website slower. The defer loading of JS files helps a lot in this situation because it will not allow the JavaScript to be executed until all the content on the page has been fully loaded.

 

2. Fewer redirects

When you minimize the HTTP redirects on your website, you will reduce the RTT (round trip time). Redirects take longer to be processed, so by diminishing their number, you will help the users access the information they need faster, improving their web experiences.
However, we should agree that there are lots of case, where using redirects is very important and quite useful. Their core purpose is to help the user reach a resource that has been moved to a new web location. Some of the top reasons for this:

• A change in the website domain
• Accessing the website from different domains
• Changes in the website structure and URL’s
• An update or maintenance
• Temporary access restrictions
• And more

s include:

However, it is advisable to avoid using redirects when possible, especially for the homepage of your website. Try to minimize their number and only use them when it is absolutely needed.

 

3. Turn Keep-Alive on

Keep-Alive uses the same TCP connection for every HTTP request instead of initiating different ones. In other words, it allows the browser to receive and load multiple different files at a time. To enable Keep-Alive, you need to edit the PHP code and add an HTTP header at the top:

header (“Connection: keep-alive”)

In case you do not have access to the web server config file, you can enable Keep-Alive by using a .htaccess file. Just add:

 

<ifModule mod_headers.c> Header set Connection keep-alive </ ifModule>
If you have access to the Apache config file, add the following:
#
# KeepAlive: Whether or not to allow persistent connections (more than
# one request per connection. Set to “Off” to deactivate.
#
KeepAlive On

#
# MaxKeepAliveRequests: The maximum number of requests to allow
# during a persistent connection. Set to 0 to allow an unlimited amount.
# We recommend you leave this number high, for maximum performance.
#
MaxKeepAliveRequests 100

#
# KeepAliveTimeout: Number of seconds to wait for the next request from
# same client on the same connection.
#
KeepAliveTimeout 100

 

4. Eliminate bad requests

Bad requests occur when an external source or user attempts to open a web resource that no longer exists or is distorted in any way. The server tries to process the request but fails. This has a negative impact on user experience and website speed. What can you do to avoid such situations?
Of course, we can not constantly know about everything that is going on with our website. Therefore, we recommend using tools and extensions that can automatically run tests and detect broken links, such as GTmetrix or the Crawl option in Google Search Console.

 

5. Asynchronous loading of Analytics and Ad Networks codes

You are most likely using some kind of an Analytics tool on your website (Google Analytics for example) or an ad network (like AdSense). Their codes, unfortunately, may additionally slow down the website. We recommend that you configure all tracking codes to load asynchronously. Thus, if the server of the external web services you are using is slow, it will not affect the website speed negatively.

 

6. Try a PHP accelerator

PHP accelerators are extensions developed specifically to improve the functionality and performance of any PHP software. They cache the PHP byte-code and so it will not have to be compiled over and over again with each execution request. They save CPU but slightly increase memory usage. Try to install OPcache and most likely your website loading time will drop in half.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact our team at info@speedflow.bg. Our specialists are at your disposal!

WooCommerce has been downloaded almost 50,000,000 times, which makes it the most widely used e-commerce plugin in the world. According to research done by Biultwith, 22% of all e-shops in the top 1 million are built on it. What makes the platform the NUMBER ONE choice among e-merchants? You want to create your own online shop, but are not quite sure if WooCommerce is the right one for your business? We are going to give an answer to this question today.

 

Technical Support

WooCommerce is an e-commerce plug-in developed for WordPress CMS. It serves the interests not only of small to medium businesses but also of big market players. Keeping in mind that WordPress is the most popular website platform with a CMS market share of 60%, it comes as no surprise that WooCommerce offers a secure environment for eCommerce website development and top-level technical support.
Anyone who has an online shop wants it to function perfectly without any bugs. Impeccable User Experience (UX) is extremely important so that visitors can quickly and easily finalize their orders. With WooCommerce you can be sure that the website system will be working properly and will be updated simultaneously and according to the latest internet changes. There is a team of developers and specialists, a cooperative community that contributes to the improvement of its functions.

 

Professional results (for free!)

This is another big advantage of the plugin – anyone can download and install it absolutely free of charge. However, being free does not make it of poor quality. WooCommerce will make the looks of your online shop quite professional, as well as its user experience, functions, and features. Client browsing and check-out processes are facilitated and your workflow is optimized. The plugin offers options such as:

• Order tracking;
• Purchase history;
• Delivery status updates;
• Tax/Fee calculations;
• Promo codes, discounts;
• Stock Control;
• Delivery options;
• And more.

 

Overall, you can get anything you need. That’s the perfect choice for anyone looking to start their own online business without a big initial investment in web development. Keeping in mind how many other expenses an online shop has, it is always nice to save up some money whenever you can. And in this case, there is nothing better than a reliable, cheap and functional platform plugin like WooCommerce.

 

Open source

WooCommerce is an open source platform when integrated with WordPress, which allows software developers from all over the world to create an extension for it, increasing its capabilities even more. It is very much likely that whatever gadget, plug-in or extension you need for it to have already been developed. People around the world actively contribute to perfecting the plugin and WordPress. This makes it even more attractive, flexible and full of endless possibilities.

 

Personalization

The fact that WooCommerce is the most widely used e-commerce plugin in the world does not mean that your online shop will look like all the rest on the internet. On the contrary, there are plenty of themes you can choose from, you can also play with colors and style, as well as personalize different options. If later on, you decide to switch from one theme to another, it can be done rather quickly and smoothly. WooCommerce will make your e-shop look like a professional and integral website. You can even add a blog section if you want.

 

Stats and Analytics

If you have an online shop then it will be quite beneficial for you to use some analytics tools to keep track of everything happening on the website. Of course, when you have just started your online business, this technical part may seem a little bit overwhelming and confusing (at first). The good thing about WooCommerce is that it comes with integrated analytics system that is easy to use and understand. It provides information about:

• Orders sorted by data for example;
• Individual client purchase stats;
• Total number of completed orders;
• And more.

Generate graphs and pie-charts to get valuable information about how things are going with your online shop. These stats will help you see the big picture and what you need to do to improve it. If you decide that you need more complex and detailed data, you might go ahead and easily integrate Google Analytics for example.

 

Payment and Security

Online payment security is crucial for both end-users and business owners. WooCommerce performance ranks pretty high on this matter. The plugin is secure and accepts any type of payment methods –credit, debit cards, PayPal and more. Whatever payment system you might need, it can be easily integrated without the need to have it specifically developed.

 

Conclusion…

From all said so far, we can definitely see why WooCommerce is such a successful product around the world. It provides quick, easy, cost-saving and professional integration of many useful e-shop elements. With little investment, you get great results!

Ok, now let’s say you have decided to use WooCommerce as your e-commerce platform. What’s the next step? Our blog article “8 key elements for a successful online store” will shed some extra light on additional questions you might have. In case you need professional advice, we will be happy to help you out. Just contact us at info@speedflow.bg.

Today we present you the second article of our “How to improve your website speed” series.  A faster website leads to better UX. So, here is what you should do:

 

1. Reduce HTTP requests

HTTP is a protocol through which the browser requests a file to be loaded, and the server sends this file to the browser. Having fewer requests will considerably improve your website speed. To reduce them:

• Combine as many CSS/JS files as possible into one or at least into a few
• Try to reduce scripts and position them at the bottom of the page
• Remove any unnecessary images and reduce the size of the rest

 

2. Reduce (optimize) resources (CSS/HTML/JS files)

The next step of speeding up your site is to eliminate all unnecessary data. Why? Because it negatively affects the way in which browsers processes resources. Therefore:

• Eliminate empty spaces, redundant lines, comments and formatting, unused codes, etc.
• Use shorter variables and functions.

Thus both browsers and search engines will process HTML, CSS and JavaScript files much quicker.

 

3. Use fewer plugins

You want to optimize your website and enhance its features, you add plugins. But at one point it becomes slower. Having too many plugins can create technical problems such as bugs, system, crashes and even compromise your web security. So, you need to clean them up! Disable those you don’t use or don’t need anymore. Do the same for the ones that hinder the speed of your website the most after a check-up.

Tip: Do a speed test after every plugin deactivation. See how your speed has improved. Thus, you will optimize your website speed more effectively.

 

4. Load CSS files asynchronously

Typically, browsers block the rendering of a web page until all of its external CSS files have been downloaded completely.  They might even display a blank page until the download is finished.  This is also a possible reason for the low speed of your site.

While there are several well-known techniques for loading JavaScript and Images asynchronously when it comes to CSS files the question is often overlooked. We recommend you to try LoadCSS – a quite handy plugin with very good user reviews.

 

5. Remove all query strings

Query strings are those URLs that contain the “?” And “&” symbols. Unfortunately, CSS and JavaScript resources with such strings are not cached by most proxy servers. This also affects the speed of your website and you need to remove all of them.

You can do this, using plugins such as:

• Remove Query Strings From Static Resources
• W3 Total Cache
• Query Strings Remover

or manually:

• Insert the following code into the functions.php file of your WordPress theme:

// * TN – Remove Query String from Static Resources

function remove_css_js_ver ($ src) {

if (strpos ($ src, ‘? ver =’)

$ src = remove_query_arg (‘ver’, $ src);

return $ src;

}

add_filter (‘style_loader_src’, ‘remove_css_js_ver’, 10, 2);

add_filter (‘script_loader_src’, ‘remove_css_js_ver’, 10, 2);

 

6. Specify the character set

“Character set” is the set of symbols used by a website. When someone visits a site, the first thing the browser does is to determine which character set it uses. Thus, browsers are able to successfully display web content to the user. If you don’t specify your character set in advance, the browser has to figure it out alone. And eventually, it will. However, if you want your content to be displayed immediately, you have to have a character set specified.

Where: The HTTP response headers

Example: Content-Type: text / html; charset = utf-8

 

7. Try a CDN

CDN is a content delivery network which helps users located in different parts of the world retrieve web content (usually images and Javascript) in a fast and efficient way.  If your website is international – try a CDN. If not, we don’t recommend you to use one, as it may worsen your website speed.

 

We hope to have helped you improve your website speed with these tricks. Stay tuned as “How to improve your website speed? – Part 3“ is a fact!

Last weekend Speedflow.bg team attended WordCamp Sofia 2017, which took place on November 11-12 at Arena Mladost. The conference has been organized for seven consecutive years in Sofia to present all the latest updates and practices related to WordPress. It is the meeting point for hundreds of experts and enthusiasts with extensive experience in Web Development not only from Bulgaria, but also from all over the world.

 

 

About the event:

The two-day program was visited by local specialists as well as by WordPress gurus from Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Serbia, Greece and Macedonia. All of them lectured on different topics ranging from web design and web development to online business management and the implementation of effective marketing strategies. On the second day, the so called Contributor day, several workshops were carried out. One of them was organized especially to promote web programming among the youngest audience.  During the practical course children were guided by professional volunteers in creating their own WordPress website.

 

WordCamp Sofia was a good opportunity for the Speedflow.bg team to collate the latest trends in WordPress and Web Development. We were also able to meet with other like-minded professionals, as keen as us on the efficacy and variety of opportunities WordPress offers to website creators and users.

If you want to learn more about our thoughts on the topic, you are welcome to read our article Time for a new website? Why not WordPress?

Sooner or later the time will come for you to have your own little place on the Internet. Whether you decide to grow an online shop business, tell the story of your journeys in a blog, or build a forum for your friends – chances are you will reach a point where you will need to build a new website. And then you will surely need a reliable partner…

 

WordPress is the most popular across-the-board application that you will run into during your researches. Statistics speak for itself:

 

• Around 30% of the whole Internet is powered by WordPress
• Over 60% of the global market for web building platforms
• Around 45000 new WordPress websites are created daily
• Over 25% of the top 10000 websites in the Web use WordPress
• Over 37 million searches for “WordPress” in Google every month
• You can see all WordPress stats for 2018 here

 

But we are not here to just suggest the most popular tools out there – in this article, we will do our best to convince you WHY YOU SHOULD CHOOSE WordPress for your new website and why this can be your best decision.

 

1. Open Source

 

Don’t break your piggy bank just yet as WordPress is completely free, thanks to its open source code. Everyone can contribute to the platform’s improvement or bug cleaning. The ever-growing WordPress community is the thing that makes the difference – addressing the needs of so many users requires its fair share of extra help if we want some quality results, right?

 

2. Personalization

 

This is where WordPress mostly excels. Thanks to its open code, practically every little detail can be tweaked and customized. Colors, structure, extra functionality, design – there is no element that you cannot alter according to your liking. It’s up to you and your choice. And no, you don’t have to be an experienced developer or write tons of code – the application relies on its simplicity and ease-of-use, even for the beginners.

 

3. Diversity

 

About 10 years ago WordPress was making its way through the ranks as the best blog application. So everyone logically associated it solely with blog creation. But the platform grew so quickly that it had to branch out. Pretty soon it became a preferred tool for building all kinds of websites. Choosing WordPress for online shops, community portals, informational pages became common – it was all made possible with the right set of plugins and customization.

 

4. Security

 

Around the Web, people are voicing some concerns about WordPress security. Truth is that, when being operated properly, WordPress provides one of the most reliable protection for your websites. Due to its incredible popularity, WordPress isn’t a stranger to hacker attacks, that’s a fact. However, the same reason applies when it comes to a lightning-fast reaction and swift threat removal. What you can do is make sure that all your themes and plugins are properly updated and only use safe and secure passwords.

 

5. SEO Optimization

 

We have already discussed the basics of SEO optimization and how important it is for our online ranking. Now imagine most of these SEO activities are embedded in your platform and fully automated. Because this is exactly what WordPress provides. The platform ensures good website speed, optimized images and permalinks, smooth navigation, sitemap generation and many more.

 

6. Integration with other platforms

 

We already mentioned plugins, which are an integral part of creating new WordPress functions. Not just that but it’s worth noting that the application is very easily integrated with other platforms too. This means that there is no need for any crucial changes in your existing infrastructure should you decide to go for WordPress.

 

Convinced yet? If you are impressed by the CMS capabilities and ready to choose WordPress but don’t have the time or confidence to do it on your own – contact Speedflow.bg and we will make sure you get an amazing and profitable new website.

 

Updated 29.08.2018