Page Speed — 2021 Website Best Practices
When we create a website that generates leads, the website has to be search engine optimized, for which, page load speed is important.
Since Google is concerned about speed and user experience, it considers website speed as a ranking factor for SEO.
Criteria such as image size, structured data, content relevance, backlink or internal linking, and responsiveness play an important role for any website to rank. However, website speed is the most important factor of all.
There are two methods for determining page speed:
Page load time refers to the time taken for the browser to submit a request to the server and for the page to load completely displaying all of its content
Time to first byte: This is the duration between sending a request to the server and getting the first byte of data to the browser.
Why Is Page Load Time Important?
Before we look at how to improve page load time, it’s necessary to understand why it is important. Page speed for mobile sites was included as a criteria for website ranking in 2018. Google continues to retain page speed as a key factor for ranking the website.
SEO experts soon began attempting to optimize on-page components to exceed the search engine cutoff score. Those who did not do so were left behind. Today, more than ever, website performance is crucial as Google has stated that page experience ranking signals, based on Core Web Vitals, will be applied globally on all browsers on mobile devices.
The time it takes for a page to load has always been significant for one reason: conversions. The sites that load faster generate more conversions, whereas slower sites have high bounce rates.
According to a Google study from 2020, a 0.1-second boost in mobile website speed resulted in an 8.4% increase in conversion rates for businesses. Bounce rates are also affected by site speed and users will exit a website if it is too slow. Moreover, the bounce rate of a website can be increased by 103% with a two-second delay in page load time.
Tracking the page load time
The first step in getting a picture of your website and creating before and after benchmarks for the optimization process is to assess your current page performance. Understand the importance of doing numerous tests and averaging the findings. In the options menu of the Web Page Test, you can perform this automatically. There are many tools available to check the page speed of your websites.
Page Speed Waterfall Charts
If you want to understand how to speed up page loading time, look at the waterfall charts to see which parts are slowing it down. Making slight changes can certainly help a website load faster.
***data sourced from Neil Patel blog
***data sourced from Neil Patel blogHow to Use Web Content to Reduce Page Load Time
Image Compression and Optimization
Image compression is an excellent place to start when searching for ways to speed up page load time. Often, site designers create graphics with high resolutions that are unnecessary. High-resolution pictures take up more storage, server space, and can dramatically increase load time.
It is recommended that pictures are scaled properly. There’s no need to make an image 1000 x 1000 if it’ll just take up 100 x 100 pixels on your site.
Extensions for Image Types
Knowing which extension to use when saving photos is crucial. Is it better to use .jpg or .png? Many people believe that .png (Portable Network Graphics) is the superior option since it compresses pictures as much as possible while maintaining quality. This is somewhat correct, but there are some exceptions to the norm. When utilizing photos, for example, JPEG files perform considerably better.
The best way to understand the use of an image extension is to test how alternative options of storing your file influence the size and quality when shown on a preview. If you detect a significant difference, go with the better extender.
Site Content Should Be Compressed
Images aren’t the only thing that has to be compressed. You should also compress CSS, HTML, and JavaScript components on your site. GZip is a highly recommended compression tool that Google recommends testing before using in a production setting. Rather than making a site-wide transition, it is advisable to compress the content on specific pages.
Web design should be simple
In many situations, simple web design has been shown to increase user experience. One of the perfect ways to improve page performance in a short period is to use a simpler website design. However, rather than making an immediate change, it is recommended to perform A/B testing to evaluate how these changes work.
Instead of adding more functionality to core sites, why not go with something simpler and faster? For instance, a page will generally load quicker if it contains fewer HTTP requests.
How to Use the Host to Improve Page Load Time
Clear Cache of your browser
Browser caching is used to enhance page loading times. This approach will allow the browser to save a range of information, including stylesheets, pictures, and JavaScript files so that the page will not have to be reloaded every time a user views it.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A Content Delivery Network (CDN), sometimes known as a “content distribution network,” is a network of computers that can aid in the speed of page loading. It accomplishes this by hosting and distributing static content copies from servers all over the world.
It can improve performance by decreasing the distance that data requests must travel between devices and your host’s servers. A CDN reduces network latency and produces reduced TTFBs by loading content for a web page from a server close to each visitor.
Remove the unnecessary plugins
Having too many plugins might slow down your website. Additionally, old or poorly maintained plugins might be a security risk. and may slow down your site’s performance. So, it’s a good idea to keep the number of plugins on your site to a minimum. You can test each plugin separately to see if it’s causing your page speeds to slow down.
Conclusion
Your website must be user-friendly and should be optimized for a variety of devices. A faster-loading website will improve user engagement, conversion rates, and SEO rankings. Hence, site optimization should focus on delivering outstanding information as soon as possible, even if that means less than 2 seconds.
iGenero can not only give you the best-crafted website for your business goals but will also provide you with end-user monitoring services. Visitor insights remove the surmise from determining how visitors interact with your site, who the most important visitors are, what’s creating performance issues, and much more.
