Page Speed measures the time taken to load content on a page. People often confuse it with site speed that essentially is the page speed of sample page views. Page speed is often defined as the page load time i.e. the time taken to fully show the content of a page. Another definition states it as a time to first byte or the duration taken by your browser for receiving the 1st byte of information for a webserver.
Google’s PageSpeed Insights can help in evaluating the page speed of a website. It incorporates data received from Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX), First Contentful Paint (FCP), and DOMContentLoaded (DCL).
Best Practices For Search Engine Optimization
Google has already mentioned site speed to be an important criterion used by their algorithm for ranking pages. As per several studies, Google considers considering time to the first byte when calculating page speed. If your page speed is low, search engines would crawl fewer pages using their allocated crawl budget. If this happens with your website, there could be a negative impact on your indexation.
User experience is another reason to improve your page speed. Longer load time tends to increase bounce rate and decrease average time spent on a page. This could also negatively affect your conversions. There are a few things that can help in increasing the page speed, some of them are:
Enabling Compression
Gzip is a common term which you might have come across when searching for compressing files. It is software that reduces the total size of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that are more than 150 bytes. But you should never use gzip for image files. It’s advised to compress all your images using tools like Photoshop that allow you to have control over the image quality.
Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML
Optimize your code by removing commas, spaces, or similar unnecessary characters. Doing so can remarkably improve the site’s page speed. Remove unused codes, code comments, formatting, etc. You may use UglifyJS or CSSNano for optimizing your codes.
Limit Redirects
For each HTTP request-response cycle to complete while a page gets redirected to a new page, there is an additional waiting time. For instance, if the mobile redirect patterns are like “yoursite.com -> www.yoursite.com -> m.yoursite.com -> m.yoursite.com/home” every 2 additional redirects would make your page load slower.
Eliminate Render-Blocking JavaScript
All browsers require building a DOM tree through parsing HTML before rendering a page. In case the browser locates a script during the process, it needs to pause and execute it before continuing further.
Leverage Brower Caching
Almost every browse cache considerable information which includes images, stylesheets, JavaScript files, etc. This means a browser will not require reloading the entire page when you are visiting the website again in the future. Tools like YSlow help you to check if your website has any expiration date set for caching.
It’s recommended to set the “expires” header to specify the time you wish information to remain cached. As a standard practice, unless you are changing your website’s design occasionally, one year is an acceptable period. You can check out Google’s prescribed information regarding leveraging caching.
Improve Your Server Response Time
The traffic to your website affects the server response time. It is also dependent on the resources used by each page, the software installed on your server, and the type of hosting service you are using. The optimal server response time is below 200ms. You should look at performance bottlenecks such as slow routing, limited adequate memory, and slow routing.
Use CDN
CDNs (Content Distribution Networks) also known as content delivery networks are a network of servers that distributes the load of delivering content. They are copies of a website stored at more than one geographically spread data center. Using them provides faster and safer access to your website.
Optimize your Images
Ensure images uploaded to your website are in the right format and not larger than the recommended image size. They should be compressed for web use. For pictures that are static and feature multiple times on your websites such as icons or buttons, you can use CSS sprites. It creates a template for images by combining all your images/icons into a single large image. It loads them all together and reduces the number of HTTP requests while displaying only those sections you wish to show. You will eventually save load time by eliminating the need for images to load individually and making your viewers wait.
To ensure you optimize your website in a manner that adheres to the norms of expected optimizations and SEO, you may consult Alphabet Marketing. Based in Clearwater & Tampa Bay, FL, they have years of experience and practical knowledge to enhance the possibilities of your business online.