Is Your Website Quick Enough?

Picture this: You have written the most relevant and inspiring content, and you are ranking higher than ever before, but your page takes more than 3 seconds to load - No user is sticking around long enough to read it, never mind make a purchase.

Google is putting a lot of emphasis on site speed this year. So, here’s what you should do to speed up your site in order to maximise user experience
 

Google PageSpeed Insights 

Let’s start by analysing your page speed with Google PageSpeed Insights. Simply pop your website URL into PageSpeed Insights to discover your site's performance on both mobile and desktop devices. It will also suggest improvements for specific elements to ensure your site loads as quickly as possible.

A good place to start is with Core Web Vitals. A set of three metrics measuring important web performance elements:

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) which measures how quickly the largest element on a page loads. For an improved user experience, sites should strive to have an LCP of 2.5 seconds or less.

2. First Input Delay (FID) which measures the time from when a user first interacts with your site to the time when the browser is able to respond to that interaction. Sites must have an FCP of 1.8 seconds or less to provide a good user experience.

3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) which measures the visual stability of a page’s elements. To provide a fast and seamless experience, you should strive for a CLS score below 0.1.

Improve Web Performance

Once you have tested your site's speed, it is time to start optimising it. You can achieve a faster site in many ways -  you may need a developer's help to act on these, but we promise it will be worth it!

Our top 5 tips are:

1. Optimise your images

Eye-catching images are essential for capturing attention and improving engagement. However, these are usually large files that slow down your website. Ensure that your images are no larger than they need to be and are in the right file format - PNGs are better for graphics with fewer than 16 colours, while JPEGs are generally better for photographs. 

2. New Code

Think of website code like a laptop. At first your laptop is brand new and boasts the most-up-to-date features, after some time it begins to show signs or wear and tear, becomes slow and will need to be repaired or replaced. Your code is very similar, keeping your code up-to-date is one of the most important ways to ensure your website loads quickly.

3. Minimise the number of Javascript files

If your website contains a lot of Javascript, it will lead to many HTTP requests when your user wishes to access particular parts of your website. These requests are treated individually by a visitor's browser and will slow down the website. Speed up your site significantly by grouping all Javascript files into one or by using a compression tool.

4. Reduce CSS files

CSS refers to the language we use to style web pages. CSS is vital for the aesthetics of a website, but it is rendered useless if the site loads so slowly that it receives no visitors. Loading time can be reduced considerably by minimising the files - this involves removing all of the whitespace in the file that is only there for human readability after the code is put into production.

5. Implement Gzip compression

Gzip is a modern standard of file compression used by more than half of websites. This application is designed to compress your CSS, HTML and Javascript files that are larger than 150 bytes. By employing Gzip compression, you can significantly reduce file sizes by up to 70% and enhance the speed your site delivers content.
 

Remember, page speed is a direct ranking factor. This means faster-loading websites are generally more likely to rank higher in search results. So, what are you waiting for? Conduct your technical audit today and find out how you can make your website quicker!

If you have enjoyed this video, get yourself signed up to our SEO course where you can dive deeper into boosting your website speed! 

Our SEO course is a 7 module course that teaches you the ins and outs of doing your own SEO. Learn the strategies and techniques to optimise your content and drive more traffic to your site. Right now you can get your first module FREE. 

If you’re looking for more help with your SEO and you’re ready to work with the experts, book your FREE Live SEO Audit with our experts. We can assess your current strategy and help you make more money from your website.