How Page Speed is Key to Website Speed Optimization
Your website is the place where first impressions matter most. We’re not talking just about content and design. Speed optimization is another important factor in determining its success.
Slow loading websites can harm your reputation, cause you to lose traffic and converts, which will ultimately lead to you losing money. A high-performing website will have a positive impact on your business’s success. It will bring in more visitors, which in turn will increase sales, leads, and ultimately, customers.
A website builder that provides optimized technology is the first step to ensure your site loads quickly. Your job doesn’t end there. You have to ensure that your website’s performance is maintained.
There are many things to take into consideration, but this article will help you to make the best decision. This article will teach you everything you need about website speed optimization.
What is page speed?
Page speed is the time it takes for content to load on your website. This can be measured in many ways, including speed index, speed index, large contentful paint and first contentful. However, the best way to determine page speed is to use time to interactive.
Time to interact is the time it takes for a page’s content to load and allow users to interact with it. It could be clicking on a CTA or choosing to play a movie, or any other action a user can perform on a page.
Next, you might be asking, “What is considered good website performance?” Although the answer is specific to each industry, it is highly recommended that your pages load in an average of three seconds. Page speed times may vary between pages on the same website, mobile and desktop.
Page speed is important
When it comes to website speed optimization, there are four main reasons page speed is important:
Usability
Although it may seem obvious, faster pages load the quicker a website can become interactive. This refers to loading visual content, buttons, and other items that help visitors take action on your website. These features will be more visible and easier to use by optimizing page speed. This will result in happier visitors. It’s that simple.
Users
Your website will be more popular if users can navigate through the process faster. If a checkout page takes longer than two seconds, potential buyers may abandon your online store.
This applies to any action that a user attempts to take, like filling out forms and jumping between pages. Speed issues on websites can limit user engagement and reduce conversion rates.
Conversions
Conversions are a common goal for site owners. A study found that even a 0.1 second increase in website speed can make a difference to your conversion rate, funnel progress and customer engagement. Visitors will abandon your site if they can’t use your features quickly enough.
Search engines
Google considers website speed when ranking websites (known as SEO, Search Engine Optimization). If you want your website to rank higher in search results for specific keywords, it will be easier to do so for each millisecond that your pages are visible to the eyes.
How to measure page speed
There are many ways to determine page speed for your website. Google PageSpeed Insights is one of the most popular and reliable methods to measure page speed. Simply submit your site URL and wait for Google PageSpeed Tolls to provide a report about your site’s performance.
Core Web Vitals are a collection of metrics that Google uses to determine how high a page should rank in search results. A high score (usually green) may improve your site’s overall ranking and individual page rankings in Google search. Low or warning (red) scores can have a negative impact on your site’s overall rankings and individual page rankings.
Google PageSpeed Insights will give your website a score of 100. A score between 90 and 100 is considered optimal. Anything lower than 59 is considered warning. This should prompt you to prioritize website speed optimization.
WordPress is the best platform to create a website.
WordPress Analytics provides page speed insights as well as current loading speeds. This data is pulled directly from users of your site and Google PageSpeed Insights. It makes it easy to measure page speed.
Different performance testing tools will result in different page speed scores. Every platform collects analytics and data differently, which can have an impact on your page speed score. We will discuss below the most important things you can do to improve your score.
How to speed up your page
Most of the steps required to increase page speed and website performance are built into the website builder you choose. You will only need to measure your page speed periodically and understand the impact of your content and design on your website’s performance.
You’ll find out how to improve a website’s speed and performance. This will ensure that your customers are happy and Google is satisfied. You will also find some useful tips to optimize your website’s speed.
These are the fundamentals of website speed optimization:
- Optimizing media
- Code simplified
- A CDN is a good choice
- Utilizing lazy load
- Avoiding plugins
- Mobile first
- Implementing caching
- Optimizing content
1. Optimizing media
It is possible to slow down page speed by using large images. Image quality is essential, but it must be balanced with page speed. There are many ways to compress images.
Elementor is the best website builder. It automatically optimizes media by cropping, transforming, and resizing it. This optimization ensures the highest quality across a variety of devices.
Your website’s load speed can be improved by changing how you save images. You can improve the speed of your website by using JPG images instead of PNG. Also, JPG files load faster and are smaller than SVG files. SVG files work well for shapes and logos. Finally, you can place larger images farther down the page to allow them to load slowly while your content above the fold loads.
Animation GIFs are the best way to make a page stand out. We love animated GIFs, but there is nothing that can slow down a page more. You should think carefully about using them. If you have to, consider placing them lower on your page. Design features can have a negative impact on page speed by limiting the animation’s frames and keeping the dimensions small.
Video is a great option for website speed optimization if animations are not an option. It uses smaller files than animations and has a higher quality.
Experts agree that simplicity is often better. “Reducing your site’s complexity is one of the best ways to improve site performance,” says Nolan Locke, WordPress.com Performance Tech Lead. This starts with your design and content–specifically your images–and extends into the setup and functionality of your website.
2. Code simplified
Page speed can be slowed down by complex code or poorly formatted code. Google will crawl your site faster if you use simplified code. This makes pages load faster and makes Google’s job easier. You can trust that your pages will be optimized for speed by choosing a website builder that uses simplified code.
3. A CDN is a good choice
A CDN (content distribution system) is a network of servers and data centers located in different geographic locations that deliver content to websites within their area. This increases content delivery speeds and reduces load time. CloudFlare’s global network of CDNs ensures that your pages are optimized for performance no matter where you are located.
4. Utilizing lazy load
Lazy load is the delay in loading website content or media that is not visible to the user. Many website builders use lazy loading to automatically load their pages. It is possible to do your part and place larger, or more detailed elements lower down on your page. This will allow them to load faster before users scroll down.
Consider what pages load first on each page of your website. You should prioritize the content above the fold, since this is what visitors see when they visit your website. It is important to keep the content simple but effective, so that visitors can see it while the page loads.
5. Avoiding plugins
Third party tracking codes, analytics and plugins can slow down your website’s speed. It is important to ensure that your website builder has all this functionality. This will allow you to avoid the often complicated dance of gathering as much user behaviour data as possible while optimizing your website for speed.
Do you still need additional data about your users or site performance? We recommend that you prioritize the use of tracking codes and plugins that analyze how users interact with your website. This will provide you with more useful feedback about its functionality. To fully understand the impact of plugins or pixels on page speed, it is possible to evaluate your site’s performance and page speed.
6. Mobile first
Optimizing your website’s performance is all about making sure that users and search engines enjoy the best mobile experience. This should be an integral part your website launch checklist. Google crawls mobile first and users are browsing more on mobile devices. Your mobile website should be considered a priority when optimizing page speed.
7. Implementing caching
Automatic caching is when a portion of your website’s content is saved and shown exactly the same way each time they visit again. This is an important factor to consider when improving page speed. It reduces load times by saving content and delivering it to repeat visitors to the site.
The popular WordPress plugin WPRocket automatically caches all pages so you can focus on building your website and not worrying about how fast it is loading.
8. Optimizing content
There are many meanings of content optimization. It refers to how content is displayed on a page so that it does not affect page speed or time to interact.
WordPress’ built in video player is a great example of content optimization. This allows you to display video on your pages without having to rely on external sources such as YouTube videos embedded. This can have a significant and negative impact on page speed. These features make it easier to design a site that is performance-driven.
Be aware of how many fonts you use and what size they are. Your page will load slower if you use more fonts and have more color options. Choose a few options that make an impact and stay with them. This applies to any website, no matter if you’re building one from scratch or optimizing an existing site to speed up its pages.