Imagine you go in for a job interview, and you are only given 3 seconds to impress the boss? Sounds impossible right? But that is exactly the case when it comes to attracting customers through your website.
Ever since Google announced that page speed is part of the ranking algorithm, businesses have tried innovative ways to ensure their company websites load a fast as possible. Given that there is a direct link between Google rankings and page speed, digital marketing agencies offer a host of SEO services that aim to improve the page speed. This blog will give you an insight into the technical details of page speed and what you can to improve it.
What is Page Speed?
The page speed is basically the amount of time it takes for the content on a web page to load so that it is fully available to users. It is important to note that the page speed and website speed are two entirely different concepts. The website speed, or the website performance, is the average time it takes for some sample pages from the same site to load.
The loading time of a single page may be different from the average page speed of the website. Hence, it is important to take enough time in order to test and optimize the speed of all your pages. You can work closely with a top digital marketing company to explore new ways to increase page speed.
Tips to Improve Website Page Speed
Since Google only categorizes page speed as ‘really good’ and ‘pretty bad,’ the no official “time” as such you need to aim for. Either way, here’s a quick look at 6 tips you can use to improve your page speed:
- Optimize your Images
- Optimize your Videos
- Enable Compression
- Enable Caching on your Website
- Remove Render-blocking Script
- Invest in a Faster Host
1. Optimize your Images: The primary cause of slow page speeds is the size and number of images used on the webpage. Since visual elements are an important aspect of SEO, they have to be included on your web page.
However, you should try and minimize the file size of the images using an image optimizer or take advantage of responsive images to increase the page speed. There are many companies that provide SEO services that include image optimization to ensure your page loads quickly.
2. Optimize your Videos: Users prefer to watch a video or presentation rather than read textual content on a webpage. However, adding too many videos can slow down your pages considerably, especially if you don’t optimize the videos.
The most efficient way to minimize the impact of videos is to use a streaming service. You can also try disabling the video autoplay option to improve the user experience.
3. Enable Compression: The size of your Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and JavaScript files also play a key role when it comes to page speed.
To improve the page speed, you should enable and test Gzip compression support on your web server and ensure your server is configured with recommended settings. You can look for SEO services in your area and collaborate with experts to learn how to use Gzip for file compression.
4. Enable Caching on your Website: The process of storing files in a cache, or temporary storage location is called caching. The main purpose of caching is so that data requests can be served faster and webpages load quickly.
The caching mechanism ensures that fewer server resources are required while loading the page. Even if you do not have technical knowledge of the website, you can use caching plugins like WP-rocket or WP Super Cache to enable caching on your website.
5. Remove Render-blocking Script: External script such as Google Analytics script or Facebook pixel is essential if you want your website to function properly. However, these scripts can act as a render-blocking resource and delay the loading of a page.
The best way to solve this issue is to avoid and minimize the use of blocking JavaScript. Since external scripts require technical knowledge of the website, you should consult an experienced developer at a digital marketing company to help you move render-blocking scripts and optimize the page.
6. Invest in a Faster Host: The hosting service you use plays a crucial role in the overall performance of your website, including how fast your website will load. It would be best if you worked closely with your hosting provider or a digital marketing company that offers hosting services, to improve the page load speed.
For online businesses and blogging sites, VPS web hosting is the best choice. Even though it is expensive, using your own Virtual Private Server (VPS) ensures that your website is more secure and delivers a better user experience.
Best Tools to Use for Page Speed
There are a number of free website speed test tools you can use to identify and analyze which elements of your page needs to be improved. You can use the following tools to gain insights that will make your page faster:
- KeyCDN Website Speed Test
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- GTmetrix
- Uptrends Synthetics
- WebPagetest
- Varvy PageSpeed Optimization
Conclusion
The success of your website can change any second, literally. When developing and launching a webpage, you should keep a target of 3 seconds. Anything more than that will increase the bounce rate and cause you to lose customers. The tips and tools mentioned above should be enough to help you optimize your webpage. You can also partner with a digital marketing company to get expert advice from developers to find out what more you can do to optimize the speed of all your pages.
