3 Simple Tips to Improve Your Website Page Load Speed

The window to impress people with your website is only 7 seconds

Having a rapidly loading website is an increasingly crucial factor of both user experience and search engine optimization.

Today’s user expect a website to load quickly, and those that don’t will likely experience negative consequences as a result. The Aberdeen Group conducted research that found a one-second delay in page load time yields 11% fewer page views, a 16% decrease in customer satisfaction and an 7% loss in conversions. Google has also indicated that site load speed is one of the signals used by its algorithm to rank pages.

As websites continue to evolve to become much more complex and content-heavy, it’s important to make sure your website is tuned to reduce page load speed as much as possible. And while there are numerous factors that affect page load speed—many requiring the aid of a proficient web development partner—there are a few actionable tweaks that can have a significant impact on reducing page load speed.

1. Optimize Images and Video

Some of THE biggest culprits increasing your webpage load time are images and video—as they take up a significant portion of a page’s overall size. And there are two distinct factors related to images and video: the size of each individual asset and the number of total assets being loaded on any given page. It’s important to address both of these factors.

Limit the number of total assets on each page

Keep in mind that the more images and videos you place on each page, the longer it will take to load. It’s important to be cognizant of the overall “size” of each page’s assets. Website features such as sliders (or carousels), background videos, large images and background textures may add interest to the website, but they also increase page load speed. Try to find a healthy balance between the visual aesthetics and user experience

2. Leverage a caching, page speed plugin

There are a lot of factors that impact website page load speed, yet many are simply beyond the expertise of the average marketer. Fortunately, there are many helpful plugins or modules (depending on your CMS) that can assist with the technical heavy lifting. Page caching is another way to help improve your page load time. Cached pages are served up as static HTML versions of a particular page in order to avoid time-consuming queries to your website’s database. A cached web page loads much quicker—while decreasing server load by up to 80%. WordPress users can easily install one of the many popular page caching plugins such as W3 Total Cache.

A robust page speed solution for WordPress websites such as WP Rocket can not only handle page caching (replacing the need for a plugin like W3 Total Cache) but also a slew of other page-speed optimization methods such as:

• Enabling browser caching
• LazyLoading images and video
• Minifying resources (HTML, CSS, JS)
• Removing query strings from static resources
• Combining files (Google fonts, CSS, JS)
• Optimizing the database
• Loading CSS files asynchronously
• Loading JS files deferred

Note: While there are many options available in a page speed solution such as WP Rocket, be advised that there are potential risks. Deactivate options if you notice any visually broken items on your website

3. Upgrade your web hosting package

The quality of your web hosting package can have a significant impact on your website’s page load speed—whether positive or negative. Especially for larger, more resource-intensive websites, and websites that generate a lot of traffic. While using an inexpensive, shared (or grid) hosting platform can be tempting, investing in a high-performing VPS, managed or dedicated web hosting platform should be a priority. These packages often use much faster technology stacks, as well as featuring dedicated resources and a host of important options to fine tune your server. Other tips to speed up your website!

As previously stated, there are many, many factors that affect your website’s page load speed. While some are within your control, many require the expertise and assistance of a web development partner. Here are several other considerations for improving your website page loading speed:

• Minimize HTTP requests – This gets down to the nitty-gritty of web development, but decreasing the total number of pieces of the webpage (such as images, scripts, etc.) that need to be loaded can reduce page load time.
• Enable Gzip compression – Gzip compresses your webpages and style sheets before sending them over to the browser. This reduces the page size by up to 70% which can also drastically reduce transfer time.
• Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) – Leveraging a CDN can improve your site speed by hosting website files across a large network of servers around the world. This allows users to download files from servers that are close to them, and spreading the bandwidth decreases page load time.
• Configure server settings – Server software (such as Apache) out-of-the-box is not always sufficiently configured for optimal website performance. Consult with your hosting provider on how best to “performance tune” your server for your website and content management system (CMS).

Hire ThePixel to build your next website!

Since our founding in 2008, we’ve created and launched many types of business websites. Over the last decade and we’ve learned a thing or two! That’s why we’re masters of our craft, let us help you build the website of your dreams – one that generates traffic, leads and conversions.

Are you ready to start? If yes, contact ThePixel and one of our representatives will guide you through the website phases and how the process works either by a Zoom Meeting or phone.