Even if your website has spectacular content, do you think people will pay to be there if the loading speed is too slow?
Although the speed of the Internet in Latin America is well below the average, some websites are very heavy and make this situation even worse. Unfortunately, they develop without due regard to the loading speed and end up becoming a real test of the user’s patience.
Consider this situation: it has been 15 minutes since you placed your order at a restaurant, specifically one that is known to deliver orders in 5 minutes. Would you cancel the order? And your other establishment offered you the same in a period of 3 minutes?
It happens in a similar way on the Internet, but the period becomes seconds. You’ve also experienced it, when you want to tackle certain content, you visit a website and it takes more than 10 seconds to load. Before you know it, you’re already googling for another option, every second that goes by feels like forever!
Today, time is more valuable than money. Immediacy is the main currency of exchange in today’s world, especially in the world of the Internet. As a result, our audience is becoming more demanding. Even if your website has quality content, will people come to see it if it takes more than five seconds to load? Learn here how to improve page loading speed, as well as test a website load time.
What is a good page load speed? According to Google’s announcement, page load speed is one of more than 200 rating factors. Therefore, the time it takes for your website to load compared to your competitors represents one of the main factors influencing your organic rankings, compared to the main search results page. A website that loads so slowly is penalized immediately.
Page speed is a measure of how quickly the page content is loaded. To increase the speed of your website, here are some tips:
The page speed for a sample of pages on a site is different from the "site speed", that is, the page speed for the entire site.
It is possible to describe the page speed in terms of "page load time": the time it takes for a specific page to display all your content; unlike "time for first byte", that is, how long it takes your browser to receive the first byte of information from the server. Have you tried to test a website load time?
Under these considerations, Google PageSpeed Insights lets you measure the speed of your page. Based on data from CrUX (Chrome User Experience Report), PageSpeed Insights Speed Score measures two important performance metrics: First Contentful Paint (FCP) and DOMContentLoaded (DCL).
Among the signals used by Google to classify pages is the speed of the site and therefore page speed SEO. A recent study suggests that Google may use the time to the first byte as a factor in determining page speed. In addition, a slow-loading page could prevent search engines from tracking all of your pages using your tracking budget, so that it has a negative impact on indexing.
User experience is also affected by page speed. The bounce rate and average page time are lower on pages with long load times. Conversion rates may also be negatively affected by longer lead times.
Server response times depend on traffic, resource usage, the software you use on your server, and the hosting solution you use. Try to fix these performance "bottlenecks," such as slow database queries, routing, or insufficient memory to improve server response time. Under 200ms is the optimal response time of the server. Discover how you can optimize the time up to the first byte, as would be most ideal.
You should make sure that your images are not larger than they need to be, that they are saved in the correct format and that they are compressed for the web. PNG files are generally better for graphics with less than 16 colors, while JPEG files are better for photos.
Make a template of images on your site that you use frequently, such as buttons and icons, with CSS sprites. Using CSS sprites, you can combine any number of images into a large image to preserve bandwidth (reducing HTTP requests) and then show only the parts you want to display. This means that not loading multiple images at once saves your users time and makes their experience more enjoyable.
Also try to find your indicated free stock images, of which we have spoken before.
There are many cached items (stylesheets, images, JavaScript files, etc.) that allow the browser to reload the page when a user returns. Find out if you have already set an expiration date for your cache. You can use tools like YSlow. Specifies how long you want that information to be cached when setting the "expires" header. Most of the time, a year is a reasonable period, unless your site design changes frequently.
If your CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files exceed 150 bytes in size, use Gzip, a file compression software application.
It is better to reduce the quality of the images by using a program like Photoshop or TinyPNG.
Your page’s performance can be dramatically improved by optimizing code (including removing commas and spaces). Remove all unused code, code comments, and format as well. CSSNano and UglifyJS are recommended by Google.
The HTTP request-response cycle continues to run every time one-page redirects to another.
Let’s say you have the following mobile redirection pattern:
example.com -> www.example.com -> m.example.com -> m.example.com/home
These two additional redirects make page loading much slower.
JavaScript which representation blocks should be removed
Rendering takes place after the browser has built a DOM tree by parsing HTML. While this process is ongoing, your browser can find a script that has to be executed before continuing. Blocking JavaScript should be avoided and minimized, according to Google.
A content distribution network (CDN), also known as a content distribution network, is a network of servers used to distribute the content delivery load. Data centers that store copies of your site are distributed around the world so users can access your site faster and more reliably.
As we can see, there is no point in having an innovative website with a great design that does not prioritize loading time, because, in the end, it will give results below the competition.
Therefore, the speed at which your website loads is critical to your digital marketing strategy. It directly affects your organic rankings on Google and other search engines improve user experience and increase conversion rates.
Several of the optimizations listed here may already be installed on your website, so some may not have a significant impact on loading time. However, there are diagnoses of websites and prioritization of actions that should be handled ideally by testing tools.
Remember to test a website load time, even those that represent your competition. Now that you’ve seen everything in action, please share what you’ve experienced in the comments section. Did you learn how to improve page loading speed? So if you’ve already optimized your website and want to see other tips or tools, don’t hesitate to check other articles on this site: