Whether we are browsing the internet for a new product or building our own websites, we expect a few simple concepts to be in play. Whether we are browsing the internet for a new product or building our own websites, we expect a few simple concepts to be in play. For starters, we want websites and platforms that are easy to utilize and navigate. In addition to this, we want to be able to quickly find what we are looking for, instead of having to wait for page after page to load. Website speed has become a primary concern for many who rely upon appeasing the desires and impulses of customers, followers and subscribers in record time. A slow website can cause you to lose business, suffer in search and be perceived as minor league. Many people often resort to blaming their hosting providers, but this is often not their fault. Below, we’ll discuss some common issues that may be slowing down your website more than you think.

Spammers and Bots

The internet is saturated with traffic, so it comes as no surprise that there will always be some headed your way. While you may not have many people visiting your website as of right now, there is sure to be much more traffic under the hood than you might think. Bots that crawl the web in search of content, spammers who try to obtain links on your site via comments and internet security companies that may be testing out new strategies on your own domain to see how it holds up are just a few of these examples. Particularly true when there are bandwidth limitations, you may notice measurable increases in page loading times as pinging servers for information can add up when multiple entities are doing it simultaneously.

Sabotage

Have you considered the notion that your competitors may have something to gain from interfering with your website? It isn’t terribly rare for some people to engage in covert virtual warfare against their competitors, especially considering that it is not difficult to do. While search engines only reward or penalize a small percentage of sites for their overall page loading speeds, competitive niches have been a hotbed of dirty tactics for years. If you suspect that someone is pinging servers on your domain with the intent to slow down, then you must begin tracking all traffic that comes to your website and assessing which forms are not legitimate. You can block those who would interfere, change the directories of your dashboards and consult with your hosting company for additional solutions.

Governments

Last but not least, the governments of the world may be playing a role in how slow your website operates. While not a huge amount of overall traffic, government agencies are known to ping millions of websites in search of any measurable effects that this might have on the internet as a whole. With the role of cybersecurity now becoming more important than ever before, these institutions want to ensure that there is as much awareness of potential security issues as possible. By simulating attacks on various domains, these agencies are able to learn more and determine how best to thwart large-scale attacks by others in the future.