Page load speed and the connection of it to their ranking algorithms is defined by each search engine differently. Focusing on Google makes sense since it is the most widely used search engine and an early adopter of measuring page load speed to improve the user experience.

Best Practices for Optimizing Page Load Speed

Google uses page load speed as a ranking factor in their algorithm. If your website performs poorly for page load speed, it can impact everything from indexing and ranking your pages on the search engines, but also how visitors engage with your content and the effectiveness of your lead generation and e-commerce programs.

Studies ranging from internet user feedback to technical examinations of backend processes have consistently highlighted how poor page load speed can turn people off, make them stay away and hurt business growth. The following are nuggets from a Neil Patel article:

• A one second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.

• If an e-commerce site is making $100,000 per day, a one second page delay could potentially cost you $2.5 million in lost sales every year.
• 73% of mobile internet users say that they’ve encountered a website that was too slow to load.
• 51% of mobile internet users say that they’ve encountered a website that froze or received an error.
• 38% of mobile internet users say that they’ve encountered a website that wasn’t available.
• 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.
• 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Some alarming data on the importance of optimizing and maintaining the optimization of a website’s page load speed. Other user experience issues can also be impacted: pages with a longer load time tend to have lower engagement rates and events per session.

Ways to improve page load speed:

Enable compression

Use Gzip, a software application for file compression, to reduce the size of any CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files larger than 150 bytes.

Do not use gzip on image files. Instead, compress these in a program like Photoshop to retain control over the quality of the image.

Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

Optimizing the code (including removing spaces, commas, and other unnecessary characters) can dramatically increase page speed. Also remove code comments, formatting, and unused code.

Reduce unnecessary page redirects

Each time a page redirects to another page, the user has to wait for the HTTP request to be completed. 301 redirects are necessary for good SEO so this process requires a balancing act, but each extreme (too many redirects or not enough to avoid site errors) is not recommended.

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Browsers have to build a DOM tree by parsing HTML before they can render a page. If the user’s browser encounters a script during this process, it has to stop and execute it before it can continue.

Google suggests avoiding and minimizing the use of blocking JavaScript.

Leverage browser caching

Browsers cache a lot of information (stylesheets, images, JavaScript files, and more) so that when a user revisits a website, the browser doesn’t have to reload the entire page. The “expires” header can be set for how that information should be cached. In many cases, unless the website design changes frequently, a year is a reasonable time period.

Improve server response time

Server response time is affected by the amount of traffic the website receives, the resources each page uses, the server software being used, and the website host. To improve server response time, look for performance bottlenecks like slow database queries, slow routing, or a lack of adequate memory and fix them. The optimal server response time is under 200ms.

Use a content distribution network

Content distribution networks (CDNs), also called content delivery networks, are networks of servers that are used to distribute the load of delivering content. Essentially, copies of the website are stored at multiple, geographically diverse data centers so that users have faster and more reliable access to it.

Optimize images

Be sure that images are no larger than they need to be, that they are in the right file format (PNGs are generally better for graphics with fewer than 16 colors while JPEGs are generally better for photographs) and that they are compressed for the web.

Use CSS sprites to create a template for frequently used images on the website like buttons and icons. CSS sprites combine those images into one large image that loads all at once (which means fewer HTTP requests) and then display only the sections that are designated to show. This equates to saving load time by not making users wait for multiple images to load.

Tools to evaluate page load speed

Evaluate page speed with Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Other recommended tools include GT Metrix and Pingdom Tools to gather recommendations and figure out how to address these issues.

Please contact us for any assistance with optimizing your company’s website performance or with questions of any of our other internet marketing services.