Optimizing your React website is essential for fast loading time and a smooth user experience. Users often get loading-related issues i.e. images take more time to load but content gets loaded quicker. It does not give a good user experience. This blog is about following some techniques and little DIYs you can use to improve your website’s performance. These approaches were implemented on a website hosted on Godaddy, but should also work fine for websites hosted on other platforms. Before we jump to those methods solutions, please read this out:
1) Check the Network Provider (Testing Different Providers)
Before you ensure your website is slow and needs more optimization, please check the issues on different network providers. For example, in my case, the website was not performing well on Jio Fiber(5G), but it worked fine on Airtel’s 4G network. You can also use tools like Lighthouse or WebPageTest to test the load times from different geographical locations and networks.
2) Lazy Loading
You can always use Lazy Loading technique to improve user experience. If your image takes more time to load, you can use lazy loading so all the content of your webpage(including images) gets loaded on the same time.
If the issue persists, here are some methods you can try to resolve it:
1) Optimize in GoDaddy Settings (Using the “Optimize Website” Option)
GoDaddy provides an option in its hosting settings to optimize your website. Enabling the “Optimize Website” feature compresses and caches static content, which improves loading time.
To enable this:
- Log in to your GoDaddy account.
- Go to Web Hosting.
- Open CPanel and scroll to Software.
- Navigate to the Optimize Website option, where you compress content.
2) Use SVGs Instead of JPEG or PNG
Switching to SVGs instead of JPEGs or PNGs improves the website’s performance. SVGs are vector-based(they can scale without losing quality). SVGs can look sharp on any screen resolution without taking a lot of memory.
Why use SVGs?
- Smaller file sizes: SVGs are smaller than JPEGs/PNGs/JPGs, which means faster load times.
- Scalability: You can scale them to any size, and they won’t lose quality. It makes them ideal for responsive designs.
3) Use Optimized Images
Even if using SVGs is a better option than JPEGs or PNGs, you should avoid using them directly. You can use tools like Photoshop or Illustrator to optimize images locally. You can also use SVGO (SVG Optimizer), a tool for optimizing SVG files that reduces file size by removing unnecessary data and helps keep SVG files more efficient. Additionally, the images don’t lose their quality.
To use SVGO:
- Install it through npm: npm install -g svgo
- Optimize SVGs by running: svgo your-file.svg
You can also learn more about it by following its official documentation.
4) Use the Waterfall Analysis to Check What is Taking Time
To further optimize your React website, you must know what’s slowing down the load time. The Waterfall Analysis is a great way to visualize your website’s performance, as it gives a detailed breakdown of each resource request and loading time.
To use the Waterfall model in Chrome DevTools:
- Open Chrome and go to your website.
- Press F12 to open DevTools.
- Go to the Network tab and right-click on any network request. You’ll find a checkbox to enable it or a sort option to sort the list using Waterfall.
In the Waterfall analysis, you’ll see a detailed timeline of all resources. You can see if DNS lookup, Initial Connection, or Content Download is slowing down the process.
Conclusion
We hope some of these solutions work for you. By implementing these strategies, your React website will load faster and provide a better user experience.