Optimise website speed and loading for SEO

Design Industry

Wordpress has become a popular and dynamic CMS, sometimes it can become bogged down with the loading of resources especially when multiple plugins are loaded. For some years now Google has specified that the speed at which a website loads is a consideration in search, they even deployed some tools to test your sites speed.

Our process in improving the load speed of a website follows proven methods that deliver a slick, light weight and fast loading site across multiple devices. Firstly we look at page weight and the amount and size of resources being loaded above the fold, this can be image size, scripts, css and plugins. In our optimisation processes we change the way the assets are being delivered to ensure the once heavy and slow loading is reduced, for static resources this can mean implementing a local cache or even a CDN, for dynamic content we update and reduce the loading cycles. The result is a much faster loading site which is good for site visitors and liked by search engines.

API not updating some records

Members Organisation

We were asked to investigate why some data was not updating correctly when passed to an API through a posted JSON request. Setting up a local install of the API software gave us more reach in error reporting and diagnosing each step without affecting the live version.

Sending posted data to a copy of the API locally we could see that some of the requests were trying to update records that had not been previously created. We updated the logic of the API to run an initial step of querying whether the record exists before preforming an update. If the record does not exist we created logic that would turn an update into a create and follow the process to create the record instead.

Auto email approval service

Agriculture

Dissemination of information and approval is crucial in business, ensuring all stakeholders are notified and decision makers are given their responsibility in the pipeline. Building a system that is customised enough to meet these needs was a challenging opportunity, lucky we had built many similar systems in the past.

When we build systems of this type its usual to wire frame the processes and identify the flow of data and logic to ensure the build meets expectation on all sides. The resulting code base was built to react to timed events and process input data through custom filters, data flagged as needing approval was then emailed to multiple accounts dependant upon responsibility levels. The emails contained links to actions to further process the product or to hold the product and pass back feedback notes.

Create a new website

E-commerce

Over the years we have built many websites although every site needs careful consideration and analysis as technology changes and so does the pace of design. Our process is simple we listen, listen to the experience of the industry from the client. We then work with the client to identify and draw out the user journeys of the site visitor and agree the call to actions. This knowledge can then be produced through a series of wire frames and design templates all before the build phase. Communication is a key concept through out the build phase and even after launch we continue the relationship.

Fast loading across all device types was high on the list so we stream lined our code to only load and process the necessary. Large libraries and bloated CMS’s were a no no this was about delivering top notch user experiences. The site is due to launch soon and we’ll provide a full write up in the our work section.