Site Speed Statistics and Strategies
Written By: ShaneWebGuy on October 15, 2020
Does your site lag? Do customers bounce because of slow page loading time?
Page loading time is essential and just a one second delay can cause a 7% reduction in conversions, a 16% loss of customer satisfaction (this is awful news), and 11% fewer page views. Extend the loading time by a few more seconds, and it’s a catastrophe. It’s time to change your site’s fate.
You know it’s essential, so what can you do about your site’s speed?
Here is some expert takes on how to improve site speed fast.
Compress HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Code optimization reduces page size and can dramatically improve page loading time. Unused code, comments, and formatting should also be removed. The process is called minifying, and you can use UglifyJS and CSSNano to accomplish the compression.
Minimize Redirects
Too many redirects can significantly slow down site speed. Redirects force users to wait for the request-response cycle to finish. Redirects can often take place when the home page redirects to a mobile site. Eliminate redirects whenever you can, and having more than one redirect at a time is already excessive.
Avoid Render-Blocking JavaScript
Render-block JavaScript must be read and executed first before the DOM tree of a page can be parsed completely. This slows down page loading time as well.
Use Browser Caching to Your Advantage
Browser caching can significantly improve page loading time by storing JavaScript files, images, stylesheets, and other Web elements locally. Utilities like YSlow can help you see if you have an expiration date for the cache. Set the expiration date to set how long the caches should be stored in individual user devices. If your site doesn’t change often, there’s no reason for you not to set a reasonable expiration date to ensure faster loading times.
Check Server Response Time
The most significant factor in server response time is the traffic your site is getting, in addition to resources required by each page of your site. The quality of the hosting solution also impacts how speedily pages load from the server-side. The best approach is to locate the bottlenecks in server response time, including database queries, routing issues, and memory problems. Fix and optimize these issues. The target server response time is 200ms and below.
Use a CDN
A CDN or content distribution network refers to multiple servers across various geographic locations. Essentially, copies of your site are stored across this vast network to provide faster loading time to users. The closer the server is to a user, the faster the loading time.
Image Optimization
Users appreciate images and videos, but you need to balance site speed and provide rich media to users. Images should not be any bigger than they should be. Embed videos from YouTube and other video hosting platforms and if you are going to post your videos, make sure that the web player is working and the server response time is excellent.
Above the Fold Content Should Come First
Lazy loading a site helps many sites because it allows the most critical parts of a site to load first (this is above-the-fold content). The rest of the site can take some time to load later on. So let’s say that your blog has multiple images. Typically, the page would have to load each of the images first before displaying it on the browser. With lazy loading, the images will be loaded later on without sacrificing the page’s speed and quality. The net effect would be that users won’t have trouble loading the page, and they would be able to access above-the-fold content on the first second. The great thing about lazy loading is that as you scroll down the page, the rest of the images will automatically come into view (even though they weren’t there before). You can try utilities like BJ Lazy Load and WP Rocket for lazy loading your site.
Cut Down on the Plug-ins
Plug-ins are undoubtedly useful, but they do take up many resources and could be a potential source of site speed issues. Leave only the most essential plug-ins on your site and remove the rest. Plug-ins are also known for creating security issues, and many sites also crash because of them. Not all plug-ins are created equally, so if you are maintaining your site on your lonesome and adding plug-ins from WordPress without prior technical expertise, then your site speed might be taking a hit as a result.
If you only have a handful of essential plug-ins, it is still a good idea to evaluate how these plug-ins are affecting your site on the whole. Regular testing should be done, and your plug-ins should be updated and configured to provide the smoothest site experience to users.
During the testing phase, you can deactivate plug-ins and test how your site fares after deactivation.
Monitor Your Site in The Long Term
As you continue working on your site speed, be sure to monitor and time the pages as they load. Use tools to analyze your page and make sure that the performance of your mobile site is supreme. Google indexes mobile sites foremost, and the majority of Web users are now on their smartphones. Compared to ten years ago, the desktop site is no longer superior to mobile sites. Today, mobile sites are given priority indexing, while the older Google bot responsible for desktop version indexing crawls less frequently.
Perform website speed tests, too. If your site caters to global users, you may want to check your site’s analytics to discover where the traffic is from. Geographically-specific website speed tests are possible. There is also the option of just setting a default location. The mobile page speed and desktop page speed are different and must be tested separately.
Summary:
Site speed is an essential factor in site usability. Knowing how to upgrade your site and adjust it to ensure faster page loading time is key to making your customers happy. Find out more by calling me today.
