In our last article – How to boost site engagement – we explored different ways of improving site engagement. One of the ways to do this is to improve page load speed.

 

In our article we explained that Google’s ideal page load time is 3 seconds. But 70% of sites still take around 7 seconds to load, particularly on mobile devices. Also, if a page takes longer than 10 seconds to load, there is an increase of 123% probability of increasing the bounce rate. 

 

But not only is slow page load speed off putting to users. You also need to consider that slow page load speed will also reduce the number of pages that search engines are able to crawl in the allocated time, which could then impact on your indexation and search rankings.

 

So what can you do to test your page load speed and make improvements as needed? Much has been published on this topic and we don’t want you to have to wade through excessive information. So here are our Ten Quick Tips on how to improve page load speed.

 

• Test your page load speed

As with anything else that your digital marketing agency does, actions need to be based on data. So use Google’s Page Speed Insights tool to evaluate your page load speed. All you need to do is to enter your website URL into the bar, then click “Analyze” to instruct Google run a quick test on your site. You will then be given a % ranking of your page speed’s performance. 

 

Assuming it’s not 100% then there are several things you can do to improve. The good news is that many of the following recommendations can be implemented easily by using either inbuilt or plug-in features of your CMS: so you don’t need to be a coding expert to do them.

 

• Reduce the size of the page

According to Google’s benchmark data, the optimum page size for fast loading is under 500KB. But most pages are larger than this. So there are two main ways to reduce page size. The first is to use compression software to reduce the size of your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. The second is to optimise images ….

 

• Optimise images

Large images are one of the most common causes of slow page speed. As most contemporary websites are full of images, it is really important to optimise them to make sure that they are the best size and quality to load efficiently. Most CMS have compression tools, including bulk compression. Or you may prefer to do this manually in software such as Photoshop before uploading the images to the website. 

 

• Use CSS sprites

Another helpful tip for handling images is to use CSS sprites for your common images such as logos, icons and buttons. A CSS sprite will combine each of these multiple images into a single large image that just needs to load once, and therefore saves a lot of time.

 

• Browser caching

You can improve image loading time even more by enabling browser caching in your CMS. For repeat visitors to your website, previously-loaded resources such as images, page elements, HTML and coding will be stored so that they do not need to be loaded again for each individual visit.

 

• Minify your code

Minification means the reduction of the size of your HTML and other code. For example, the size and efficiency of your code can be improved by removing unused code and unnecessary characters, fixing incorrect code, and removing duplicate data. None of this will affect the way that a browser processes the code, but it will mean less code taking up storage space on your page.

 

• Implement AMP

AMP is short for Accelerated Mobile Pages. We wrote about it in our article The Importance of AMP. AMP, implemented by Google, is invaluable in helping mobile pages to load faster and improve UX on mobile. So if you are not already using it, then it’s time to start doing so.

 

• Reduce redirects

This is an interesting dilemma. We all know the importance of using good quality internal links on our pages, as well as external links. But you also need to be aware that each redirect can cause additional waiting time. Time that the user may feel is not worth it. So take the time to examine each internal link: there are many link testing tools around to help you do this. For every valuable link that you want to keep, make sure it’s a direct link that will load as quickly as possible. 

 

• Reduce server response time

However you access any page of your site, the process involves a call to a web server to open the site in question. Server response time is the length of time between this call and the server’s response. Server response time can be slowed down by a number of factors including your hosting service, the server software, the size of your site and the amount of traffic at any given time. If you are not happy with your server response time then you need to look at the above factors and work out where the bottlenecks are.

 

• Use a content distribution network 

Leading on from the above, you may come to the conclusion that for your site one server is not enough. In which case you may want to consider using a content distribution network (CDN). This is where your site is hosted on a network of servers which can then share the delivery of your content. This can help to increase load speed, particularly during times of heavy traffic.

 

So if you want to improve the page load speed of some or all of your site, then the above tips will definitely get things moving in the right direction.

 

Check back here again soon for more tips for you as a marketer or digital marketing agency.