The Ultimate Guide to Bigcommerce Speed Optimization To Increase Organic Traffic

1. Introduction

In the world of e-commerce, having a reliable platform to sell your products is crucial. BigCommerce is one such platform that has gained popularity among online merchants for its robust features and user-friendly interface. However, even with such great features, your online store may still not perform optimally if its speed is slow. In today’s fast-paced digital world, customers expect websites to load quickly, and any delay can result in lost sales. That’s why optimizing the speed of your BigCommerce store is critical.

We cannot deny the fact that speed is everything in today’s digital world. In today’s fast-paced world, instant gratification is the norm. Customers have come to expect immediate results, and any delays can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction. If your BigCommerce website is slow, it could drive away potential customers and damage your business. Don’t let this happen! Let us help you maintain your BigCommerce website and ensure that your customers have a seamless and enjoyable shopping experience. In this blog post, we will thoroughly explore everything you need to know about Bigcommerce site speed optimization. From understanding the page speed to helping you analyze and reach your website optimization goals, we will cover it all.

2. Page Load Speed and Why It Matters

2.1 What is Website Speed?

Website speed is the rate at which your website loads in a web browser. This metric is determined by the time it takes for your website to load fully and can be influenced by various factors. Some of these factors include your web pages’ size, as too many images and videos can increase their weight. Additionally, your hosting provider can play a role in your website speed, with servers closer to your location typically resulting in faster loading times.

The number of ads on your pages and how much revenue they generate can also affect your website speed, as ads can add more code to load and slow down your website. Finally, the server response time can be affected by the number of visitors to your site and the level of traffic. Conducting a speed test during high and low traffic periods can help you understand how these factors impact your website speed.

2.2 Importance of Page Speed For Bigcommerce Store

The speed of your website plays a crucial role in determining the number of conversions you can achieve. A faster loading time ensures that visitors spend more time browsing through your products or services, increasing the likelihood of them making a purchase. However, a slower website load time can discourage potential shoppers from making a purchase. This is especially important for Shopify stores. To learn more about how to improve the speed of your Shopify website, check out our blog post!

2.3 Website speed and its impact on user experience

Website speed is a critical factor that can impact the user experience in various ways. A slow-loading website can result in frustrated users who may leave the site and never return. Slow websites also tend to have lower conversion rates, meaning that businesses lose potential customers and revenue. Regarding user experience, website speed affects not only the time it takes for a page to load but also the site’s overall usability. Slow-loading pages can make it difficult for users to navigate the site and find the information they need. This can lead to increased bounce rates and a negative perception of the brand.

Additionally, website speed can impact search engine rankings. Google has indicated that site speed is a factor in its algorithms, meaning that slower sites may rank lower in search results. This can significantly impact a business’s online visibility and ultimately lead to fewer clicks and visits. In summary, website speed plays a crucial role in user experience and overall business success. To ensure a positive user experience, businesses should regularly monitor and optimize website speed, focusing on factors such as image file sizes, server response time, and caching.

2.4 Correlation Between Website Speed and Search engine ranking

Website speed is one of the crucial factors that impact the user experience of a website. A slow-loading website can frustrate users, leading to a negative experience, resulting in higher bounce rates and lower conversion rates. According to research conducted by Google, if a website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, 53% of users will abandon it.

Slow website speed can also negatively affect search engine rankings, as search engines consider page load time as a critical factor in determining the user experience. A faster website improves user satisfaction and increases the likelihood of users returning to the site, resulting in increased engagement and loyalty. In short, website speed has a significant impact on user experience, and website owners must focus on optimizing their website’s speed for better engagement, conversions, and search engine rankings.

When a website takes too long to load, users are more likely to leave and look for information elsewhere, resulting in a high bounce rate. This can negatively impact SEO, as search engines use bounce rates as a signal of a website’s relevance and quality. Moreover, low engagement and high bounce rates signal to search engines that users are not finding what they are looking for on the website, leading to a lower ranking in search results. This can ultimately result in a decrease in organic traffic and conversions.

3. Impact Of BigCommerce Speed Optimization On Conversion Rates, Customer Satisfaction & SEO

3.1 How Does Website Speed Affect Conversion Rates?

Website speed is a crucial factor affecting your website’s conversion rates. This means that if your website is slow, you are likely to lose potential customers. In contrast, a faster website can lead to an increase in conversion rates. According to various studies, a one-second delay in page load time can lead to a 7% reduction in conversions. This means that if your website takes five seconds to load, you may be losing out on 35% of potential customers.

3.2 Faster websites Result In Improved Customer Satisfaction

Website speed also plays a crucial role in customer satisfaction. A slow-loading website can frustrate customers, leading to a negative experience. On the other hand, a fast-loading website can provide customers with a more positive experience, making them more likely to return to your website in the future. In addition, a fast-loading website can also lead to improved engagement. Customers are more likely to engage with your website if it loads quickly, leading to more time spent on your website and a higher likelihood of a conversion.

3.3 The impact of website speed on SEO and Search Engine Ranking

Website speed is also a critical factor in SEO and search engine ranking. Google considers website speed when ranking websites. The faster your website loads, the higher your website will rank on search engines. Additionally, a fast website can improve your website’s crawl rate, leading to more pages being indexed by search engines.

A slow website can negatively impact your website’s SEO and search engine ranking. A slow website can lead to a high bounce rate, which can lead to a decrease in website traffic. Additionally, a slow website can lead to a decrease in backlinks and social shares. Backlinks and social shares are essential factors for SEO and search engine ranking.

3.4 Other benefits of BigCommerce speed optimization include:

– Improved mobile performance: With more people using mobile devices to shop online, it’s essential to have a fast website that’s optimized for mobile devices.

– Improved server response time: A fast server response time can boost website speed, leading to a better user experience.

– Improved website security: A fast website can improve website security, leading to a decrease in website vulnerabilities.

To reap these benefits, it’s important to identify and then prioritize the speed optimization goals. This is what we are going to discuss in the next section.

4. Identifying and Prioritizing Your BigCommerce Speed Optimization Goals

BigCommerce is a powerful and reliable ecommerce platform, but even the most well-designed website can become bogged down with slow page loading times and sluggish performance. A poorly optimized website can lead to a loss of customers, decreased search engine rankings, and ultimately lower sales. In order to maximize the performance of your BigCommerce store, it is essential to identify and prioritize your speed optimization goals.

4.1 Analyzing your site’s current performance

The first step in optimizing your BigCommerce site’s speed is to analyze your current performance. This will involve running speed tests and analyzing the results. There are a number of tools available for this, including Google PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom, and GTmetrix. These tools will provide you with a breakdown of your site’s load time, page size, and other important metrics.

It is important to run these tests on both desktop and mobile devices, as mobile optimization is becoming increasingly important in the age of mobile commerce. Once you have gathered this data, you can begin to identify areas for improvement.

4.2 Identifying areas of improvement

Once you have identified the factors that are affecting your website’s loading speed, the next step is to prioritize the areas that need improvement. This will depend on the specific needs of your website and the goals you have set for your speed optimization strategy.

4.3 Render blocking & Core Web Vitals

For example, your website speed is slow and is causing delays in loading the entire web page content. This happens because of the scripts and stylesheets that must be loaded before the page can be displayed. Using techniques such as lazy loading can help to defer the loading of certain resources until after the main content has been loaded. This allows the page to render faster and improves the overall performance of the website.

You must also work on the Core Web Vitals of your website. Working on Core Web Vitals is crucial for improving site speed and providing a better user experience. These metrics represent key aspects of website performance, such as loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. By optimizing core web vitals, you can ensure that your website loads quickly and smoothly, which can lead to lower bounce rates, higher engagement, and better search engine rankings.

4.4 Monitoring performance and analyzing results

Once you have implemented your speed optimization strategy, it is important to monitor your website’s performance and analyze the results. This will allow you to identify any areas that still need improvement and make adjustments to your strategy accordingly.

Tools such as Google Analytics and WebPageTest can help you monitor your website’s performance, Increase website speed and identify any areas that are still slowing down your loading speed. By regularly monitoring your website’s performance, you can ensure that your speed optimization strategy is working effectively and making a positive impact on your business.

5. Essential Tools for BigCommerce Speed Optimization

To achieve the best Bigcommerce site speed for your website, you need to use the right tools to measure and optimize the speed of your site. Website speed measurement tools are designed to help you understand how fast your website loads and identify any issues that may be affecting its performance. These tools analyze your website’s elements, such as images, scripts, and code, and provide feedback on how to optimize your website for better speed. Here are some popular website speed measurement tools that you can use for BigCommerce speed optimization:

5.1 Webpagetest

WebPageTest is a tool for measuring web page performance that is open source and provides diagnostic information. It allows for testing to be conducted on real browsers from various locations worldwide, under a range of customized network conditions. An online version is available for each test.

5.2 GTMetrix

GTmetrix is another popular tool for measuring website speed. It provides detailed reports on page load time, page size, and TTFB, as well as recommendations on how to improve your website’s speed. GTmetrix also allows you to compare your website’s speed against your competitors’ websites, which can be useful for benchmarking.

5.3 Pingdom

Pingdom is a website monitoring tool that also provides speed testing capabilities. It measures your website’s page size, load time, and TTFB, and provides recommendations on how to improve your website’s speed. Pingdom also alerts you when your website is down or experiencing slow response times, allowing you to take action before it affects your users.

5.4 Google PageSpeed Insights

Google PageSpeed Insights is a free tool that analyzes your website’s speed performance on both desktop and mobile devices. It provides a score on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better speed performance. Google PageSpeed Insights also provides recommendations on how to improve google page speed score, which are tailored to your specific website.

6. Elements That Affect Page Load Speed & how to optimize them to Boost Website Speed

Page load time is one of the most important factors that can influence the success of your BigCommerce website. Not only do slow-loading pages result in poor user experience, but they can also negatively affect your search engine rankings, your bounce rates, and your conversion rates. The good news is that there are several strategies you can use to improve your page load time and give your website visitors a seamless browsing experience. In this section, we’ll discuss the various elements that affect page load and the strategies you can use to leverage BigCommerce features and improve speed.

6.1 Optimizing image files

The images on your website can significantly impact your page load time. Large image files can take longer to load, slowing down your website’s performance. To optimize your website images, you can use image compression tools to reduce their file size without compromising their quality. These tools, such as TinyPNG, can be used to compress your images before uploading them to your BigCommerce store.

6.2 Utilizing Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) can improve your page speed by distributing your website’s content across multiple servers around the world. This way, when a user accesses your website, they are served the content from the server that is closest to them, reducing the time it takes to load your website’s pages. BigCommerce offers built-in CDN support through Akamai, making it easy to utilize this feature.

6.3 Leveraging a Content Acceleration Network (CAN)

A Content Acceleration Network (CAN) is a next-level version of a CDN that works by optimizing website content delivery for mobile devices. A CAN uses advanced algorithms to detect the type of device being used to access your website and then delivers optimized content accordingly. BigCommerce offers a built-in CAN feature through Akamai, which can significantly improve your website’s mobile performance.

6.4 Minifying code and files

Minifying your website’s code and files involves removing any unnecessary characters, such as white space and comments, to reduce their file size. This technique can help to improve your website’s load time, especially for users with slower internet connections. There are several tools available online that can help you minify your website’s code and files, such as HTML Minifier.

6.5 Enabling Gzip compression

Enabling Gzip compression can significantly reduce the file size of your website’s pages, making them load faster. Gzip compression works by compressing your website’s files before sending them to the user’s browser, reducing the amount of data that needs to be transmitted. BigCommerce supports Gzip compression, and enabling it is as easy as adding a few lines of code to your website’s .htaccess file.

6.6 Reducing HTTP requests

Reducing the number of HTTP requests your website makes can help to improve your page load time. HTTP requests are made every time your website loads a file, such as an image or JavaScript file. You can reduce the number of requests your website makes by combining files, such as CSS and JavaScript files, into a single file. This technique can significantly reduce your website’s load time.

6.7 Utilizing caching

Caching involves storing frequently accessed website content in the user’s browser or on a server, reducing the time it takes to load a page. BigCommerce supports server-side caching, which can be enabled in your website’s control panel. You can also use browser caching, which involves setting the HTTP headers to tell the user’s browser to cache certain files.

6.8 Using a good hosting provider

The hosting provider you choose can have a significant impact on your website’s page load time. A good hosting provider will ensure that their servers are optimized for performance and have a high uptime guarantee. BigCommerce offers reliable and scalable hosting solutions that are optimized for the platform, ensuring that your website is always performing at its best.

6.9 Addressing render-blocking & JavaScript errors

Render blocking occurs when a website’s page has to wait for a JavaScript file to load before it can be rendered. This can significantly slow down your website’s load time. Addressing render blocking involves optimizing your website’s JavaScript files and ensuring that they are loaded asynchronously. BigCommerce has built-in JavaScript optimization features that can help improve your website’s load time.

6.10 Lazy loading:

Lazy loading is a technique that loads website content only when a user scrolls to that section of the page. By using lazy loading, you can reduce the number of HTTP requests made by a website, resulting in faster loading times. BigCommerce offers built-in lazy loading features, which you can enable with a few clicks.

6.11 Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that Google uses to measure the user experience of a website. These metrics include (Largest Contentful Paint) loading speed, (First Input Delay) interactivity, and (Cumulative Layout Shift) visual stability. Improving your website’s Core Web Vitals scores can help to improve your search engine rankings and your website’s overall performance.

6.12 Core Web Vitals Tips For Bigcommerce Stores

As you commence the optimization of your store, it’s essential to bear these suggestions in mind to improve your Core Web Vitals Score:

In case your theme is considerably outdated, running on Blueprint, or overly bloated, contemplate transitioning to a new or updated theme operating on Stencil to leverage the most recent updates and enhancements. For instance, the BigCommerce Cornerstone theme integrated a responsive image component, beginning with version 4.0. Ensure that you sidestep themes that are sluggish, even in demo environments when no scripts are in operation.

7. Common Mistakes to Avoid When Optimizing BigCommerce Speed

When it comes to eCommerce websites, speed is everything. Slow-loading pages can lead to decreased user engagement, higher bounce rates, and a negative impact on your SEO rankings. For BigCommerce stores, optimizing website speed is crucial for success. However, there are common mistakes that store owners make that can hinder their speed optimization efforts. Here are some common mistakes that you should avoid when optimizing Bigcommerce website speed.

7.1 Ignoring image optimization

Images play a crucial role in improving the aesthetics of your website, but they can also slow down your website if they are not optimized correctly. When optimizing your website speed, you must pay attention to image optimization. This involves compressing images, resizing them, and using the appropriate format. You can use tools like JPEGmini, Kraken, or TinyPNG to optimize your images for the web.

7.2 Neglecting to update your website

Another common mistake that businesses make when optimizing their BigCommerce website speed is neglecting to update their website. BigCommerce regularly releases updates to improve website performance, security, and functionality. Failure to update your website can lead to slow load times, security vulnerabilities, and compatibility issues. You must keep your BigCommerce website up to date to ensure optimal performance.

7.3 Using too many third-party apps and plugins

While third-party apps and plugins can add functionality to your website, they can also slow down your website. The more third-party apps and plugins you have on your website, the more HTTP requests your website will have to make. This can lead to slower load times and poor website performance. You must carefully evaluate every third-party app and plugin you want to add to your website and only choose the necessary ones.

7.4 Not optimizing your hosting environment

Your hosting environment plays a crucial role in determining your website speed. If you are using a shared hosting plan or a cheap hosting plan, you may experience slow website speed. You must choose a hosting plan that is optimized for BigCommerce websites and provides fast load times. You can also consider using a content delivery network (CDN) to improve website speed.

7.5 Not Addressing render blocking

Render blocking and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) are two important website speed metrics that you must pay attention to when optimizing your BigCommerce website speed. Render blocking occurs when your website is waiting for resources to load before it can display content. CLS occurs when content shifts as the page loads, leading to a poor user experience. You must address these issues by optimizing your code, using asynchronous loading, and minimizing the impact of third-party scripts.

8. Results of Successful BigCommerce Speed Optimization

8.1 Improved website speed and page load time

The most significant benefit of successful BigCommerce speed optimization is improved website speed and page load time. A slow-loading website not only affects user experience but also discourages customers from exploring your online store. Like we mentioned earlier also, 53% of mobile users abandon a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load.

By optimizing your website’s speed and performance, you can significantly reduce your website’s page load time, resulting in a better user experience. This not only helps to retain your existing customers but also attracts new customers to your website.

8.2 Enhanced user experience and higher search engine ranking

A faster website not only improves user experience but also helps in boosting your search engine ranking. Google considers website speed as a crucial factor in its algorithm, and websites that load faster tend to rank higher in search results. A higher search engine ranking means more visibility and traffic to your website, leading to increased sales and revenue. Moreover, a faster website also leads to higher customer satisfaction, as users spend less time waiting for pages to load, leading to a seamless browsing experience.

8.3 Increased conversion rates and customer satisfaction

Finally, successful BigCommerce speed optimization can lead to increased conversion rates and customer satisfaction. A fast-loading website not only improves user experience but also encourages visitors to explore your online store and make a purchase. According to a study by Kissmetrics, a one-second delay in page load time can result in a 7% reduction in conversion rates. By optimizing your website’s speed and performance, you can significantly reduce page load time, resulting in increased conversion rates and revenue.

9. Conclusion

In conclusion, website speed optimization is a crucial element in the success of an online business. A fast-loading website not only improves user experience but also helps to boost search engine rankings, increase traffic, and ultimately, revenue. As the online marketplace becomes increasingly competitive, it is more important than ever to ensure that your website is optimized for speed. By implementing the tips and techniques discussed in this content, you can give your Bigcommerce website the competitive edge it needs to succeed. Remember, a fast website equals happy visitors, higher conversion rates, and ultimately, a successful online business.

9.1 How Website Speedy Can Help You In Bigcommerce Speed Optimization?

If you are looking to optimize the speed of your Bigcommerce website, then Website Speedy can be an effective solution for you. This SaaS-based website optimization tool has various features that can help you to improve the loading times of your website.One of the most significant benefits of using Website Speedy is that it can instantly reduce your Bigcommerce loading times. This means that your website will load much faster, providing a better user experience for your visitors.

• Fixes core web vitals
  Our core web vitals optimization service tool fixes core web vitals which are important metrics for website performance, By optimizing the core web vitals, you can ensure that your website is performing at its best.
• Eliminate Render-blocking
  “Render blocking” refers to the delay in loading web page content caused by resources that must be loaded before the page can be displayed. Our website speedy tool addresses render blocking issues and helps sers improve the loading speed of their website which results in higher search engine rankings.
• Lazy loading images
  Website Speedy Tool uses lazy loading technique to improve the performance and speed of webpage loading. It helps reduce the initial load time and improves the overall user experience of your website.
• Automated monitoring of website speed
  Another useful feature of Website Speedy is its automated monitoring of website speed. This means that you can track the performance of your website over time and make adjustments as needed.
• Monthly Reporting
  The monthly reporting feature of Website Speedy provides you with detailed information about your website’s performance. This information can help you to identify areas where you can make improvements to further optimize your website speed.