Troubleshooting Issues When Your Blog Doesn’t Load Properly
Every blogger starts the year with a roadmap to success, planning their blog presence growth. More blog posts, more followers, more recognition as a blogger. These are pretty common aspirations for bloggers, and let’s be fully clear about it.
Running a blog is a lot of fun, and it is definitely a fantastic way to explore your personal;ity, your identity, and your need for self-expression. So, of course, the content you share is crucial to the success of your blog. But there’s more than just content. There are also some technical aspects that you want to consider, such as your blog’s loading speed.
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Essentially, a blog that loads slowly can be frustrating to your readers, and it is guaranteed to harm your search engine rankings. If you want to find out more about why site speed is important in 2023, take a look at this handy guide that explains the SEO impact.
If you are planning to grow your presence as a blogger, you want to present a site that loads quickly and without any issues. This will be an important part of your success for at least 4 reasons:
- Slow-loading blogs create a negative user experience and can deter visitors. Internet users have come to expect fast web pages and swift load times. A snappy blog load will keep your readers engaged.
- Did you know that search engines like Google take page speed into consideration when ranking websites? Faster sites are more likely to appear on top of search results, increasing your blog’s visibility.
- Many readers will access your blog via a mobile device. Responsive design is probably a term you’ve come across as a blogger. But it’s not enough to appeal to mobile readers. A fast-loading blog is important for mobile users who may have limited bandwidth.
- Finally, if you use ads to monetise your blog, a slow loading site will impact your revenue. Visitors are less likely to click on ads when the site is sluggish.
That being said, how can you troubleshoot load speed issues?
Contents
Image files
Images are essential for blogs, but if you have too many large image files, they can slow down your site. To troubleshoot the issues, you can:
- Focus on image compression; there are plenty of tools that can compress images without sacrificing quality.
- Utilise Content Delivery Networks: CNDs can distribute images from servers that are geographically closer to your users.
Too many plugins
WordPress and other Content Management Systems often rely on plugins. But, if you have too many of them this can cause sluggish loading times.
- Deactivate unnecessary plugins
- Choose lightweight alternatives
Browser cookies
This may not be an issue with your blog’s structure per se, but sometimes cookies and cache can lead to erratic browser behaviour, which can affect your blog’s performance for readers. It’s worth mentioning it to your readers on social media, and letting them know how to clear cookies and cache on iPhone and Android. This can help resolve common loading issues issues on mobiles!
Server issues
Server is the number one enemy of growing bloggers! If you’ve outgrown your current server capacity, it may be time to reconsider a new hosting plans:
- Upgrade hosting
- Use caching to store static content and reduce server load
Hopefully, these few tips can help you solve your load issues and improve your blog.
Ken Boyd
Author: Cost Accounting for Dummies, Accounting All-In-One for Dummies, The CPA Exam for Dummies and 1,001 Accounting Questions for Dummies
(amazon author page) amazon.com/author/kenboyd
(email) ken@stltest.net
(website and blog) https://www.accountingaccidentally.com/