When you search online, you may notice that some website pages load faster than others. There are many reasons why this happens and ways a business can increase the page speed of its website or page speed on its web.
In this article, we discuss the factors behind slower page response times and tips for increasing page speed to create a positive user experience.
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What is Page Speed?
Page speed or page speed refers to the amount of time it takes a website page to load. More specifically, page load time can be assessed by the amount of time it takes for visible content or top-of-the-line content to load in relation to the entire page.
Another way of looking at page speed is to consider the so-called “first byte” which refers to the length of time the browser takes to receive the first byte of information sent from the webserver.
Why is Page Speed Important for SEO?
Business owners with an online presence should pay attention to the page speed of their website for many reasons. Companies that rely on their sites for most of their revenue know the importance of having a strong SEO strategy that helps them stand out from their competitors. Here are some of the most important reasons why page speed is an important part of SEO:
- Bounce rate
- Search engine ranking
- User experience
- Reputation and credibilityConversion rate
Since websites contain content that is on individual web pages, loading times may differ based on the content of each page. The main goal of every business owner is to optimize their homepage in the best possible way, as this is basically brand recognition.
Site users decide where to navigate next based on the information they receive on the homepage. Ensuring that your site’s homepage loads quickly will mean more conversions for the following reasons:
1. Bounce rate
Most people expect web pages to load in two seconds or less. When it takes longer than that to load a page, it increases the bounce rate or the rate of someone leaving the site.
As a site owner, you’ll want to make sure your site is optimized for the fastest possible page speed to keep people browsing what you have to offer.
2. Search engine ranking
One of the popular search engines uses an algorithm that determines which websites rank highest on the search engine results page or SERP. One of the factors of the algorithm includes page speed. Sites that have lower page speeds rank lower in the SERPs.
If your business does not appear in the first 10 SERP results, the chances of getting traffic to your website are substantially reduced.
3. User experience
When people search online to find something, they are usually looking for a specific purpose. They may want to buy something or get more information on a topic.
When they find your site, you want to make sure their experience is the best, so they stay longer and maybe even buy something. Fast page speeds help users navigate the pages of your site as smoothly as possible.
4. Reputation and credibility
When a site has a low page speed, site users not only want to leave immediately but can also question the credibility of the site.
Users are comfortable knowing that businesses frequently update their content and maintain a secure site.
When there is a lag in page speed, it can send the wrong message about a company. People want the best available technology that will help them achieve their search intent goals.
5. Conversion rate
When users feel comfortable using a site and trust that the company will deliver what it promises, they are more likely to buy, leading to higher conversion rates. Since businesses want to be financially successful, having faster page speeds will ultimately help convert more customers.
How to Determine Your Website’s Page Speed
You can check your site’s page load speed through a number of free online tools. Increase your chances of receiving the most accurate representation of page speed by following these steps:
- Ensure proper configuration
- Test page speed from two locations
- Retry test more than once
Feel free to ask a tech-savvy person (such as your host provider or corporate web developer) for help if you’re not sure how to perform these steps. Here are more details to guide you through the process:
1. Ensure proper configuration
Before performing a page speed test, make sure that your content delivery network (CDN) and cache are configured correctly. Also, you want to make sure it works well on your site.
2. Test page speed from two locations
Sometimes it helps to test technology from different locations to replicate different experiences by location. Run tests locally or near your data center, then run tests from more remote offsite locations.
If you are unable to travel by that time, temporarily disable your CDN and retest from your location for similar results.
3. Retry the test more than once
As with many tests, you can get different results with each trial. Test your page speed multiple times to see if the data changes. Results may not be accurate if your browser has not saved or saved your content recently.
Tips to Increase Page Speed
Now that you’ve determined your page speed score, you can move on to improving it for the best site experience. There are several factors that can affect web pages, resulting in slower loading speeds.
While it may take time, increasing your site’s page speed is worth optimizing for SEO.
Here are some tips to increase the page speed of your website:
1. Choose the best web host
The basis of a website depends on its web host. Your provider’s server may be causing slower loading times. Try switching to another web host to see if it improves.
But before you do that, you’ll want to do some research. Look for page speed for the web host you are considering. If possible, choose one with a local server to shorten the distance the data has to travel.
2. Optimize images
When a website uses high-resolution images, it can slow down the web page due to large files. It takes extra time to download these images.
Compressing image files helps optimize your site. Take note of what needs to be compressed and apply the necessary changes based on the recommended image size. In the future, you’ll want to upload it in the right dimensions so you don’t have to take another step to compress it.
3. Use clean code
At the back of every website is a page of text or code files containing a mix of text and “markup” language. Consider hiring an experienced web designer and/or web developer who can take an inventory of your site’s content.
This will help you identify and remove unnecessary code that might be contributing to slow page speeds.
4. Do a browser cache
Another good reason to hire a professional to help optimize your website is so they can perform tasks such as browser caching. Web developers have the know-how to do this task properly, which helps improve communication between servers.