{"id":11879,"date":"2019-05-07T14:31:36","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T09:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rankwatch.com\/blog\/?p=11879"},"modified":"2023-06-21T10:24:46","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T04:54:46","slug":"improving-your-page-load-speed-and-why-it-matters-for-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rankwatch.com\/blog\/improving-your-page-load-speed-and-why-it-matters-for-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving Your Page Load Speed And Why It Matters For SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Improving<\/a><\/p>\n

In 2010, <\/span>Google released a report<\/a><\/strong> stating that it takes site load speed into consideration when ranking search results. And, although it\u2019s not clear how exactly they do this, it is clear it\u2019s something online businesses should factor in to their SEO strategy. <\/span><\/p>\n

Slower page load speed is also directly correlated with cart abandonment and bounce rates. Two metrics many companies keep a pretty keen eye on. <\/span><\/p>\n

But, it\u2019s one thing to know that it matters and another to understand how to do something about it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading many of the posts online about reducing page loading speed is enough to give a non-techy some serious nightmares. It can feel like you need a masters in engineering just to pick up the jargon. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since most of us didn\u2019t go to MIT, what can we actually do to speed up our sites and hold on to those valuable hits? <\/span><\/p>\n

In this post, we\u2019ll look at some of the simplest ways to relieve your website of a little weight and to stop it creaking like an ageing Tour-de-France.<\/span><\/p>\n

The best part is, you won\u2019t need to drop thousands on a professional web developer or pay through the nose for expensive software to put these tips into practice. <\/span><\/p>\n

What even is your page speed?<\/h2>\n

\"PageSpeed<\/a><\/p>\n

The first thing you need to do before considering altering your site is to find out how fast it is at the moment. You can do this using Pingdom or Google\u2019s PageSpeed Insights. Both are simple and intuitive. Just enter your website URL and click \u2018analyse\u2019. That\u2019s it! <\/span><\/p>\n

Both applications look at your website\u2019s load speed, which isn\u2019t going to be exactly the same as the load speed for each individual page (because different pages have varying amounts of data), but getting an overall view is good enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

If your site\u2019s load speed is more than 2 second, you\u2019ve got some work to do, especially if it\u2019s <\/span>affecting your bounce rate<\/a><\/strong> (which it almost certainly is). <\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t skimp on your web host<\/h2>\n

The absolute easiest win in page speed optimisation is to reassess your web host. <\/span><\/p>\n

The quality of your web host has a big impact on your page loading times because it determines the response time of your server, or how quickly your website\u2019s data can be fetched for rendering (appearing on a screen).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Page<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re getting a message like \u201cimprove server response time\u201d when you run a page speed test, you can be 100% sure you need to upgrade. Your server response time depends on your level of traffic, the resources used by each page and your web hosting service.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most people don\u2019t consider what type of host or what features of hosting they need when they choose a provider. A lot will <\/span>choose a free web host to save<\/a><\/strong> on costs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Free hosting is only viable for the smallest of websites. We\u2019re talking low-traffic blogs and simple, static web pages, e.g. ones that temporarily exist to advertise an event.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone else should be using a paid host and choosing a plan based on how much disk space and bandwidth they need. If your plan and your needs don\u2019t match, upgrade for a quick speed boost.<\/span><\/p>\n

Avoid data overloading<\/h2>\n

The amount of data your site uses determines how must disc space you need. If you\u2019ve outgrown the amount available in your hosting plan, your website will slow down. But if you don\u2019t want to pay for more, what are your other options? <\/span><\/p>\n

There are a lot of ways you can trim the fat from a website. Most pages will contain around 1-2MB of data. None should have more than 2MB. If any of them do, there are a few things you can do to take them down a notch or two. <\/span><\/p>\n

Compress to impress<\/h3>\n

Large, high-resolution images are the nemesis of a speedy page. In fact, they take up 70% of the bandwidth of all websites worldwide. Get into the habit of doing the following to keep them in check:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Compress large images using image optimisation software like kraken.io (not free) or smush.it (free). You can reduce the size of your image library by up to 80% this way.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Always use PNGs for graphics and JPEGs for photographs.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Use CSS sprites \u2013 used to combine separate image elements into one that loads at once, rather than having many trying to load at the same time (this saves on requiring <\/span>multiple HTTP requests<\/a><\/strong>).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    De-clutter your design<\/h3>\n

    Complex, design features like parallax scrollers and image galleries stretch a site\u2019s bandwidth and slow down page loading. Although it\u2019s tempting, try not to add every impressive new design feature you like to your website. Instead, pick the minimum you need to make an impact.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"De-clutter<\/a><\/p>\n

    Users don\u2019t like overly feature-packed sites because they find them confusing, so it can be counterproductive in more ways than one. To really streamline your design you should:<\/span><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Use lower resolution images and simpler design features for mobile and tablet versions of your site, rather than just scaling down your desktop version. <\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Set different elements of complex web pages to defer during rendering, e.g. make sure page features below the fold (the scroll-line) don\u2019t load until a user actually needs them, i.e. they scroll down the page. <\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Consider professionally renewing your website if it was created a while ago and you\u2019ve been adding lots of new technologies to it since. You wouldn\u2019t expect an old iPhone 4 to keep running with tens of new apps stuffed onto it, so you can\u2019t expect it from your website.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Trim your code<\/h3>\n

      Don\u2019t panic! I\u2019m not suggesting you go into the back-end of your website and start tampering with code. But, it is one thing that does build up and slow down your pages.<\/span><\/p>\n

      It\u2019s not always practical to remove old elements that are no longer functional. Instead of getting into the thick of it yourself, use DevTools to produce a report on what code is doing what and only delete the parts that are not functional. If this makes you uncomfortable, you could try these tips instead:<\/span><\/p>\n