In the world where every second is important; are you looking for the solution why is Wix so slow?
Welcome to the fast-paced digital world, where every second counts, especially regarding your website speed. Have you ever found yourself staring at a blank screen, waiting for a Wix site to load, and wondered, "Why is this Wix site so slow?" Well, you're not alone, and we've got answers.
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) indicates the time taken for the main content of the page to load, a critical factor in assessing website performance. Faster loading speed time for Wix website is 0.8s. For a more detailed understanding have a look at the bar chart below.
In this comprehensive blog post, we'll unlock the mysteries behind the performance of your Wix website. We'll embark on a journey through the inner workings of Wix, taking a deep dive into the specific elements that can cause your website to slow down.
But don't worry; it's not all gloom and doom. We will arm you with an arsenal of knowledge, showcasing not one, not two, but eleven surefire tips that can help speed up your Wix site, enhancing its performance and user experience.
These aren't just your run-of-the-mill tips. Each has been carefully researched and crafted to empower you in your quest for a lightning-fast website.
Lastly, we'll delve into the potential culprits causing your Wix site to lose its sprint. Understanding the causes behind your site's sluggishness is half the battle won, and we're here to guide you through every step of the way.
So strap yourself in because this will be a thrilling ride to the high-speed lane of the internet. You're about to become a master of the Wix speed game. Let's get started.
Understand: Why Is Wix So Slow?
Website performance has become critical in today's digital age, affecting user experience, search engine rankings, and overall online visibility.
As such, one common complaint among Wix website users is that their sites can sometimes be slow to load. This sluggishness could stem from various factors.
For users on the receiving end, a slow Wix site can lead to frustration and a less-than-optimal browsing experience. Internet users have become accustomed to fast-loading websites, and any delay can lead to an immediate loss of patience.
Slow page loading times could result in users abandoning the site, negatively impacting bounce rates and the site's SEO performance. From the perspective of a Wix site owner, a slow website presents a myriad of challenges.
A key drawback is the potential loss of visitors and, by extension, a decrease in conversion rates. If an e-commerce site, for instance, takes too long to load, potential customers might abandon their shopping carts, impacting the site's revenue.
Slow sites can also harm the site's reputation, as users often equate slow loading times with unprofessionalism or lack of credibility.
Furthermore, issues with Wix's shared hosting environment could contribute to the slowdown. Given the shared resources among multiple sites, if one website experiences high traffic, it could potentially impact the performance of other sites on the same server.
In essence, while Wix is lauded for its ease of use and flexibility, issues around site speed can pose significant challenges for users and site owners. Wix site owners need to be aware of these potential speed issues.
Quick Inquiry: Evaluating Your Wix Website's Speed Performance
Determining your Wix website's speed involves a few straightforward steps. Start by using online speed testing tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix. These tools offer immediate insight into your site's speed.
Enter your website's URL when you visit page speed insights and run the test. These tools will analyze your site's load speed and provide comprehensive reports.
These reports detail factors impacting your site's speed, enabling you to pinpoint areas for optimization.
Remember, multiple tests could give a more accurate average as speed can fluctuate due to various factors like server load and internet speed. So, regular monitoring is recommended.
11 ways to Fix Why is Wix so Slow and optimize our site's performance.
1. Have a Basic Yet Effective Homepage
A homepage, as the name suggests, is the main page of a website and the initial point of contact for most visitors. It plays a critical role in providing an overview of your business or service, guiding visitors to other sections of the site, and driving conversions.
Regarding loading speed, the homepage is often the first impression a user gets of your website. If it loads slowly, users may leave before they've had a chance to explore your offerings, potentially impacting engagement and conversion rates. Thus, speed optimization for the homepage is a crucial aspect of website management.
To avoid slow loading speeds, your homepage should be lightweight yet engaging. Minimize the use of heavy media files such as large images or videos. If such media is necessary, ensure they are optimized for web use.
Leverage browser caching and use a content delivery network (CDN) to serve your files quickly to users worldwide. Also, avoid excessive use of plugins and widgets, which can slow down your page.
Regularly audit your homepage's performance using tools like Google's PageSpeed Insights to keep it streamlined and speedy.
Remember, a fast-loading homepage improves user experience and contributes to better search engine rankings.
2. Restricting Page Elements for Speed
If you put too many things on your website, it can slow it down. Think of it like a car. The more stuff you put in it, the slower it goes. So, try to keep it simple. Ideally, you should not have more than ten things on each page.
Wix, a well-established web development platform known for its drag-and-drop website builder, offers an extensive repertoire of diverse elements that users can employ to mold their digital presence.
The Wix Editor (learn the use of Wix ADI and Wix Editor with visual steps), a feature-rich toolkit, comes equipped with an array of components that allow for rich customization, including but not limited to:
- Textual content
- Interactive widgets
- Multimedia elements like videos and music
- Lightboxes
- Static and interactive images
- User interface elements like buttons, boxes, lists, grids, menus, and more
- Storage databases
- Artistic content like galleries, vector art, strips
- Social interaction and blog features
- Contact forms
- E-commerce stores
- Member portals
- A wide variety of shapes
However, if you want your website to load quickly, it's best to have more text than other stuff. This is because text loads faster. It's like having a small backpack - it's easier to carry around than a big one.
Also, it would help if you thought about how people are viewing your website. If they're using a desktop computer, they can handle more stuff because they usually have a faster internet connection.
But if they're on a mobile phone, it's better to keep it simple, so they can still get the important information they need.
Following these tips will discover why your Wix website is slow and how to make it faster.
3. Efficient Use of Images, Videos, and Animations
The amount of space images and videos take on a website depends on their resolution, size, and format. High-resolution images and lengthy, high-definition videos can use significant storage and bandwidth, causing slow site load times.
Wix recommends using images and videos that fit the specific use case on your website.
Website Images
- Supported File Formats:
We offer extensive support for a variety of file formats, including JPG, PNG, GIF, JPEG, JPE, JFIF, BMP, HEIC, HEIF, TIFF, TIF, WEBP, JPEG 2000, and RAW.
The JPEG 2000 format encompasses a range of extensions such as .jp2, .jpg2, .j2k, .jpf, .jpm, .j2c, .jpc, .jpx. Additionally, we cater to a wide selection of RAW file formats: .arw, .srw, .nef, .cr2, .cr3, .crw, .rwl, .rw2, .raw, .raf, .pef, .orf, .mrw, .dng, .sr2, .srf, .kdc, .k25, .dcr, .x3f, .erf, .3fr.
Please note that animated WEBP images are currently not supported and will be converted to a static image format.
- File Size Constraints:
The maximum allowable size for images is 25MB, while GIF files have a limit of 15 MB.
Background Images
- Supported File Formats:
We accept the following file formats for background images: JPG, PNG, GIF, JPEG, JPE, JFIF, BMP, HEIC, HEIF, TIFF, TIF, and WEBP.
- Dimension Requirements:
To ensure high-quality visuals, we recommend background images have a minimum resolution of 3000 x 3000 pixels.
Discover more about the diverse range of video file types, size limitations, and suggested resolutions with Wix support.
Standard Videos
- Supported File Formats:
We readily support a broad spectrum of file formats such as AVI, MPEG, MPG, MPE, MP4, MKV, WebM, MOV, OGV, VOB, M4V, 3GP, DivX, XVID, MXF, WMV, M1V, FLV, and M2TS.
- File Size Limit:
We accommodate a file size of up to 4GB.
- Recommended Resolution:
For the best viewing experience, we suggest a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.
Background Videos
- Supported File Formats:
The range of supported file formats remains consistent with standard videos, including AVI, MPEG, MPG, MPE, MP4, MKV, WebM, MOV, OGV, VOB, M4V, 3GP, DivX, XVID, MXF, WMV, M1V, FLV, and M2TS.
- File Size Limit:
You can upload background videos up to 4GB.
- Recommended Resolution:
We recommend a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels for the optimal display of your background videos.
Please Note: While we strive to accommodate all aspect ratios, the look and performance of your video may be affected if you upload with an unusually distinctive aspect ratio like 19:321.
Transparent Videos
- Supported File Formats:
For transparent videos, we accept Apple Animation (MOV), Apple ProRes 4444 (MOV), PNG Sequence (MOV), GoPro Cineform (MOV), AVI uncompressed (AVI), vp6a Flash Video (FLV), and vp8 & vp9 (+alpha) (WebM).
- File Size Limit:
The maximum file size limit for transparent videos is 4GB.
Wix Video
- Supported File Formats:
Wix Video accommodates all popular video formats, including but not limited to Quicktime, AVI, and MP4.
- File Size Limit:
We allow an impressive maximum file size of up to 15GB per video.
To avoid slowing down your Wix site with images and videos, consider the following:
- Image optimization: This involves compressing your images without significantly reducing their quality. You can use online tools for this purpose.
- Video Optimization: Consider hosting your videos on platforms like YouTube or Vimeo and embedding them on your site. This way, the video load time won't affect your site speed.
- Lazy Loading: Implement 'lazy loading,' which loads images only as they're about to enter the viewport. This technique can significantly improve your site's initial load time.
4. Designing an Uncomplicated yet Effective Header
The header of a website plays a significant role in the overall loading speed and user experience. It is the first element that users see when they visit a website, and it can impact their initial impression and decision to explore further. Optimizing the header for speed ensures a fast and seamless user experience.
To optimize the speed of the header, it should only contain essential elements that convey information quickly and efficiently. Here are some key considerations:
- Logo: Include a streamlined and appropriately sized logo that represents your brand without compromising loading speed. Optimize the logo file size and format to reduce its impact on loading time.
- Navigation Menu: Keep the navigation menu clean and straightforward. Include only the most critical and relevant menu items that guide users to essential sections of your website. Avoid cluttering the menu with unnecessary options that can slow the loading speed.
- Key Information: Display key information, such as a concise and impactful tagline or value proposition that immediately communicates the purpose and benefits of your website or business.
- Call-to-Action: Include a clear and prominent call-to-action (CTA) in the header if applicable. The CTA should be visually appealing and encourage users to take the desired action without overwhelming the header.
- Responsive Design: Ensure the header is responsive and adapts to different screen sizes. This allows for a consistent and optimized experience across various devices, enhancing loading speed and usability.
Crafting a header that delivers information quickly and simply is essential. People are more likely to engage with websites that provide easily digestible information.
Note: By designing a tasteful and clear header, you can capture visitors' attention and encourage them to explore your website further, resulting in a positive user experience and improved engagement.
5. Upgrading Your Wix Plan
Upgrading your Wix plan can indeed have a positive impact on optimizing the speed of your Wix site.
While the free plan offers basic features and functionality, upgrading to a premium plan provides several benefits that can enhance the speed and performance of your website.
Are you wondering if Wix is a good value for the price? We've created a guide that compares Wix's pricing to other website builders. Visit our guide at How Much Is Wix: Pricing & Comparison to learn more.
Here are some ways upgrading to a premium plan can improve your site's speed:
- Increased Bandwidth: Premium plans often come with higher bandwidth allocations, allowing your website to handle more incoming traffic without experiencing slowdowns. This can significantly improve the loading speed for your visitors, especially during peak usage periods.
- Advanced Website Optimization: Premium plans provide access to advanced website optimization features and tools. These may include options to minify code, compress images, enable browser caching, and utilize content delivery networks (CDNs). These optimizations reduce file sizes and enhance the overall loading speed of your site.
- Priority Support: Upgrading to a premium plan usually includes priority support from the Wix team. With faster response times and dedicated assistance, any technical issues affecting your site's speed can be addressed more efficiently.
- Premium Apps and Plugins: Premium plans often grant access to a broader range of apps and plugins, many of which can help optimize site speed. These may include caching plugins, image optimization tools, and performance-enhancing add-ons, allowing you to further improve your site's speed and performance.
While the speed difference between the free and premium plans can vary depending on your specific website and its content, upgrading to a premium plan generally results in noticeable improvements in loading speed.
The increased bandwidth, advanced optimization features, and priority support all contribute to a faster and smoother user experience.
6. Use The Wix Mobile Editor
Optimizing the speed of your Wix site is crucial for providing a seamless and enjoyable user experience. One effective tip to avoid slowing issues is to utilize the Wix Mobile Editor.
With an increasing number of users accessing websites through mobile devices, optimizing your site specifically for mobile screens is essential.
The Mobile Editor allows you to create a mobile-friendly design by adjusting layouts, fonts, and images to ensure optimal display on smaller screens.
You can reduce page size and improve loading speed by tailoring the content specifically for mobile devices. The Mobile Editor also provides access to mobile-specific features and functionalities, such as touch-friendly navigation menus and optimized image loading.
Additionally, as search engines prioritize mobile-first indexing, optimizing your site with the Wix Mobile Editor ensures that your website ranks well and loads quickly on mobile devices.
Incorporating the Wix Mobile Editor into your website optimization strategy can enhance site speed, improve user satisfaction, and boost overall performance.
7. Why You Should Limit Third-Party Apps on Wix
Wix allows users to add apps to their site through the Wix Web Application. This feature provides a range of apps developed by Wix, offering various functionalities and enhancements to your website.
The Wix App Market offers a diverse selection of apps that can be easily integrated into your site, including tools for e-commerce, forms, social media integration, analytics, and more. Users can customize and enhance their websites with additional features and functionality by utilizing the Wix Web Application.
When it comes to optimizing the speed of your Wix site, limiting the use of third-party apps and focusing on apps made by Wix can be beneficial. While third-party apps may offer unique functionalities, they can impact site performance and loading speed.
Each additional app adds code and resources that need to be loaded, potentially increasing the page size and slowing down loading times. By relying primarily on apps made by Wix, you can ensure better compatibility and optimization for your site's speed.
The apps developed by Wix are designed to integrate seamlessly with the platform, undergo rigorous testing, and are optimized for performance. Therefore, using Wix's apps can contribute to a faster-loading website and a smoother user experience.
Are you ready to dive into the revolutionary world of Wix Apps, where creativity, innovation, and unparalleled user experience converge? Let us surprise you by unveiling the secret behind the powerhouse guide What is Wix App?
8. Reducing Add-Ons for a Faster Site
Wix offers a feature called "Add-Ons," which allows users to enhance their websites with additional functionalities and integrations.
Add-Ons provide a wide range of options, such as social media streams, chatbots, booking systems, and more. These features enable users to customize their sites further and add interactive elements to engage visitors.
When it comes to optimizing the speed of your Wix site, limiting the number of simpler add-ons to around five can be beneficial.
While add-ons offer valuable features, each one adds extra code and resources that need to be loaded, potentially impacting the overall performance and loading speed of your site. By keeping the number of add-ons to a reasonable amount, you can minimize the potential impact on your site's speed.
In the context of social media stream add-ons, it's important to note that they can sometimes slow down a Wix site. Social media streams often require frequent API calls to fetch and display dynamic content from social media platforms.
These calls introduce additional network requests and processing time, which can contribute to slower loading times for your site. If you have multiple social media streams or widgets on a single page, the cumulative effect can further hinder site speed.
To mitigate the potential slowdown caused by social media stream add-ons, it is recommended to carefully evaluate their necessity and consider alternatives.
For example, you can manually embed social media posts or utilize static images instead of live feeds. By reducing the reliance on dynamic content and limiting the number of social media stream add-ons, you can help improve the speed and overall performance of your Wix site.
It's essential to strike a balance between functionality and performance when utilizing add-ons in your Wix site. Carefully selecting and optimizing the number of add-ons, especially simpler ones, can contribute to a faster and smoother user experience, ensuring that your site loads quickly and efficiently for your visitors.
9. Harnessing the Power of Wix Turbo
Wix Turbo is a performance optimization feature offered by Wix. It is designed to improve the loading speed and overall performance of Wix websites.
Wix Turbo is a feature that works in the background to enhance your website by optimizing different aspects of it. As a result, your website loads faster, and your users have a better experience.
Wix Turbo utilizes a range of techniques to enhance website speed, including advanced caching, content delivery network (CDN) integration, and optimized resource loading. These optimizations help reduce server response time, minimize the amount of data transferred, and improve browser rendering.
While Wix Turbo is primarily focused on improving site performance, it does not directly bring traffic to your site. Instead, its purpose is to enhance the user experience for existing visitors by reducing load times and providing a more seamless browsing experience.
A fast-loading site can potentially lead to improved visibility and increased organic traffic over time. Wix Turbo is designed to optimize the speed and performance of Wix websites.
It helps deliver a faster browsing experience for visitors and indirectly contributes to better search engine rankings. By utilizing Wix Turbo, you can enhance your site's speed and improve the overall user experience, which can positively impact your site's visibility and attract more traffic over time.
10. Enable Caching on Your Wix Site
Cache is a temporary storage location storing frequently accessed data or information. In the context of websites, caching involves storing web page elements, such as images, scripts, and stylesheets, on the user's device or intermediary servers.
This allows subsequent visits to the same website or page to load faster because the cached data can be retrieved locally instead of downloading it again from the server.
Caching is highly beneficial in optimizing the speed of a Wix site. By storing elements locally or on intermediary servers, caching reduces the need to fetch resources repeatedly from the web server, resulting in faster loading times.
When a user visits a website that utilizes caching, their browser or the intermediate server checks if it already has the requested resources in its cache.
If the resources are available, they are loaded quickly from the cache instead of being downloaded again. Using a cache is particularly advantageous for subsequent visits to a website.
Once the elements of a site are stored in the cache, the browser or server can retrieve them without making additional requests to the web server. This significantly reduces the loading time and improves the overall user experience.
In the context of a Wix site, implementing a cache effectively means returning visitors can experience faster load times because the elements required to display the site have already been stored in their cache.
This includes images, scripts, stylesheets, and other static content. By leveraging caching mechanisms, Wix sites can reduce the amount of data that needs to be downloaded, resulting in quicker loading times and improved performance.
11. Use Standard Fonts on Your Wix Site
Using standard fonts for your Wix site can greatly enhance its loading speed and overall performance. This happens due to several reasons:
- Lesser HTTP requests: When you use custom fonts, they have to be fetched from external sources or uploaded and served from your server. Each of these operations requires a separate HTTP request, which slows down the loading speed of your website. In contrast, standard fonts are built-in and do not require additional requests.
- No Extra Data to Load: Custom fonts require additional data to be loaded onto the user's browser. This can be quite large depending on the font and its variants (bold, italic, different sizes, etc.). On the other hand, standard fonts are pre-loaded in browsers and do not require any extra data to be downloaded, which results in faster loading times.
- Browser Caching: Standard fonts can be cached by the browser, which means once loaded, they are stored locally on the user's device. This makes subsequent page loads much faster since the browser doesn't need to re-download the font. Custom fonts, especially if hosted externally, may not benefit from this caching mechanism, resulting in slower loading times.
- Rendering and Fallback: When a browser encounters a custom font, it must download and render it, which takes some time. During this process, the browser may use a fallback font to display the text, resulting in a flash of unstyled text (FOUT) or invisible text (FOIT). These flashes can negatively affect user experience. Standard fonts are immediately available and don't have these issues.
Therefore, using standard fonts on your Wix site for optimal speed and performance is recommended. If you must use custom fonts, ensure they are optimized and used sparingly to minimize their impact on your website's speed.
Want to add your desired font to Wix? Our visual step-by-step guide will walk you through the process, so you can easily add the perfect font to your website. Visit our guide at How to Upload a Custom Font to Wix (Visual Step by Step Guide) to learn more.
Reasons Why a Wix Site is Slow
- Heavy Media Files: Large, uncompressed images, videos, or audio files can slow down your website as they take longer to load. Compressing and optimizing media files before uploading them to your site is recommended.
- Too Many Fonts or Unoptimized Fonts: Using many different fonts or font styles or unoptimized custom fonts can slow down the site. Each font style requires an extra HTTP request, and custom fonts can be large files.
- Excessive Use of Widgets or Apps: Third-party widgets or apps can slow down your site if they are not optimized for performance or simply too many on your site.
- Complex Animations or Scripts: Complex animations, parallax scrolling, or extensive JavaScript can slow down your site. While these features can make your site look visually impressive, they can also be resource-intensive and cause slowdowns.
- Lack of Caching or CDN: If your site is not properly cached, or if you're not using a Content Delivery Network (CDN), your site can load slowly, especially for users who are geographically distant from your server.
- Unoptimized Code: Sometimes, the website code itself might not be optimized. This could be due to excessive inline CSS or JavaScript or redundant or bloated code. This is less likely on Wix since it's a managed platform, but it can still happen if you have added custom code to your site.
- Server Performance: Finally, if the server hosting your site is slow or experiencing high traffic, it can affect your site's performance. Wix generally manages this, but server performance can occasionally be a factor.
What to Do When We Face Wix Down?
Here are the concise points for handling Wix downtime:
- Check Wix Status: Visit the Wix status page or their social media.
- Test Internet: Ensure your connection is stable.
- Use Different Devices: Try accessing from another device or browser.
- Clear Cache: Clear your browser's cache and cookies.
- Disable Extensions: Turn off any interfering browser extensions.
- Contact Support: Reach out to Wix customer support if needed.
- Be Patient: Wait for Wix to resolve any server-side issues.
Wrapping Up
Optimizing the speed of your Wix site is a multifaceted endeavor that requires strategic actions and an understanding of potential speed bumps.
Upgrading to a premium plan, utilizing Wix Mobile Editor, limiting add-ons, and using standard fonts are among the measures that can boost your site's performance significantly.
Incorporating features like Wix Turbo and caching mechanisms can further improve loading times. However, it's crucial to be mindful of factors such as large media files, excessive use of apps or widgets, complex animations, unoptimized code, and server performance that can negatively impact your site's speed.
By taking a balanced approach between enhancing functionalities and maintaining performance, you can provide your visitors with a swift, efficient, and user-friendly digital experience. Now, it's time to implement these insights and move towards a faster, smoother Wix site.
FAQs
How can I speed up a slow loading website?
Speeding up a slow-loading website: To speed up a slow-loading website, optimize image sizes, leverage browser caching, minimize HTTP requests, use a content delivery network (CDN), and optimize your code by reducing JavaScript and CSS.
How to Improve Wix Site Speed
To boost the speed of your Wix site, start by optimizing images and media files to ensure they are not unnecessarily large. Streamline your homepage to include only essential elements, and minimize the use of heavy scripts and widgets. Utilizing Wix Turbo can also significantly enhance your site's performance through advanced caching and more efficient resource loading. Regular audits with tools like PageSpeed Insights are vital for ongoing optimization.
Why is Wix Website Editor So Slow?
The Wix Editor might experience slowness due to several factors such as overloaded browser cache, poor internet connection, or extensive use of high-resolution images and complex widgets within the site. To mitigate this, try clearing your browser’s cache, checking your internet speed, and simplifying the design of your site by reducing the number of complex elements.
What to Do When We Face Wix Slow Loading Speed
If your Wix site is loading slowly, first check the Wix status page to ensure there are no ongoing issues. Improve load times by compressing images, reducing the number of fonts and widgets, and avoiding excessive animations. Consider upgrading to a higher-tier Wix plan for increased bandwidth and better performance tools. Regular monitoring and optimization based on performance analytics can also help maintain faster loading speeds.
What is Wix turbo and how can it help us?
Wix Turbo is a technology by Wix that enhances website performance by optimizing JavaScript execution, using advanced CSS rendering, and leveraging global Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). It ensures faster load times and a smoother user experience, making websites more efficient and responsive.
How do I make my Wix website more responsive?
Making a Wix website more responsive: To enhance the responsiveness of a Wix website, use Wix's mobile editor to adjust layouts for mobile viewing, keep design elements simple, compress images for faster loading, and avoid using excessive animations.
Is Wix better than WordPress?
Wix vs. WordPress: Wix is known for its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, making it ideal for beginners. WordPress offers more customization and control, especially with plugins and themes, catering to users with more technical expertise.
Is GoDaddy better than Wix?
GoDaddy vs. Wix: GoDaddy is primarily a domain registrar and web hosting provider known for its hosting services and customer support. Wix specializes in website building with its intuitive design tools and is favored for ease of use in website creation. The choice depends on your specific needs – hosting and domain services or website-building capabilities.
