Why is it essential to improve your website loading speed? When performing an SEO audit, your page loading speed is flagged up. According to Google, under three seconds is the optimal amount of time to load a page, as online audiences have little patience with loading times.
Up to 40% of people abandon a webpage that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Apart from the loss of prospective customers, what does this mean? Even with the best SEO plan, a high bounce rate will lower your rank in Google and affect your Domain Authority score.
According to Google's recent benchmark report, most sites are nowhere near their 3 seconds recommendation. Their analysis found that 70% of pages took over 7 seconds to load. This resulted in a probable bounce rate increase of 113%.
The upside to this is, if you put effort into improving your site's loading speed, you will be ahead of the competition. That is why we have written nine tips on how to improve your websites load speed performance.
1) Minimise HTTP request
To load each element of the site, an HTTP request has to be made. The more components, the longer it takes for the page to load. Since up to 80% of a web page's loading time is spent downloading the different elements e.g., images, stylesheet and script, it is vital to minimise the number of components on a page. Remove any unnecessary or repeated elements.
2) Minify and combine files
Now you have the essential files for the site, it is time to streamline them. Start with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, as they contain the information for the appearance of your site and are the bulkiest files.
Minify and combine to reduce the number and size of the files. Remove unnecessary formatting, whitespace, and code, i.e., eliminate extra space, line breakers and indentation. The goal is to have the leanest page possible. If your site is using WordPress, it is worth looking at the Plugin: WP Rocket.
3) Use asynchronous loading
Review the way your site loads. Improve website loading times by optimising the way the elements on your page load. Elements like CSS and JavaScript scripts can load in two ways:
- Synchronously, loading one item at a time in the order it appears. This type of loading can be slow due to the other elements not loading until their predecessor has completely loaded.
- Asynchronously, all files will load simultaneously. This can increase loading times as the browser loads a page from top to bottom. However, if one element is struggling to load, the browser can continue loading the rest of the page.
4) Deter JavaScript Loading
Deferring a file prevents it from loading until after the other elements have loaded, e.g., JavaScript files tend to be big and cannot be used until the whole site has loaded. By deferring JavaScript files, you ensure that the rest of the content can load without unnecessary delay.
5) Minimise time to first byte
Now you know the amount of time it takes to load a page, it is now time to understand how long it takes before a page will load.
Time to first byte (TTFB) measures the time a browser waits before getting its first byte of data from the server, Google recommends less than 200ms.
Three steps that happen between the initial request and the first byte data:
1)DNS lookup
2)Server processing
3)Response
Remember, response time can be affected by internet connection, although, most common TTFB issues are caused by slow network issues, dynamic contact creation, web server configuration or traffic. Out of these four issues, there are two you have control over - dynamic content control and server configuration.
6) Reduce server response time
An important factor that can quickly reduce your page loading time is to reduce the time your DNS lookup takes. DNS (Domain Name System) is a server with a database of IP addresses and their associated hostnames. When a user types a URL into their browser, a DNS server translates that URL into the IP address. Think of DNS as a computer looking up a number in a phonebook.
If you suspect that you have a slow server time, you should contact your web agency. DNS contains very complected code that requires an advanced website developer to look at.
7) Choosing the right hosting option
There are three options for types of hosting:
- Shared hosting is a dedicated server that is shared between many different sites. You will share resources from that server. This can be a good option for a small, low trafficked website, however, the server may struggle with high traffic spikes. There is a possibility that your site could be impacted by traffic spikes from another site on the same server, as you all share the same space.
- VPS hosting – Sites still share a dedicated server, but each site has its own portion of server resources. This will protect you from other sites without the cost and maintenance of a dedicated server.
- Dedicated server – All of the resources of the server belong to you. However, all responsibilities and maintenance fall to you as well.
8) Enable browser caching
The first time you visit a webpage, your browser downloads the HTML documents, stylesheets and JavaScript files and images needed to open the page for you to view. The data from the site is temporarily stored in your hard drives cache. The next time you visit the site, your browser can load the page without sending another HTTP request to the server. Therefore, loading the webpage fast to provide a better UX and reduce the bounce rate.
If your site used WordPress, have a look into W3 Total Cache Plugin.
9) Reducing image size
Images are incredibly useful, particularly when trying to increase your conversion rate. Salsify found that 66% of customers they asked wanted to see at least three images of a product before buying. However, image files tend to be very big, which slows downloading speeds.
However, resizing an image from 22Mb to 300kb can reduce loading time by 70%. One of the ways to compress an image is through Photoshop.
Next, save the image as an appropriate file type. A file type can affect file size and quality, resulting in a slower page loading speed.
Improving website loading speeds can be a challenging undertaking but will have a significant impact on your Ranks and UX.
Are you looking for a website development company to help you improve your website's loading time and user experience? If so, contact us today, we are always happy to chat.
