Website Speed Optimization Thoroughly Explained
In today’s digital age, where every second counts, the speed at which your website loads can make all the difference.
Imagine this scenario: a potential customer lands on your website, eager to explore your products or services, but frustration sets in as the page takes an eternity to load. Within a few seconds, they are off to a competitor’s site, leaving behind a missed opportunity.
This is where website speed optimization comes into existence. Websites are a business liability, and slow websites affect user experience, search engine rankings, and, ultimately, your online credibility.
In this comprehensive guide, we will uncover the crucial importance of website speed, explore the factors that affect your website’s speed, and equip you with the knowledge and website speed optimization tools for lightning-fast performance.
Whether you are a website owner looking to improve your website performance or someone venturing into the online realm for the first time, this blog is your roadmap.
Let’s get started on this path.
What is Website Speed Optimization?
Website speed optimization refers to the process of improving the speed at which a website loads and operates. The process involves different strategies, techniques and best practices targeted to reduce the time of website loading and display its content as quickly as possible.
When a user visits any website, the content needs to load smoothly and quickly within a fraction of a seconds. If it takes too long to load, users become frustrated and leave the site, resulting in poor user experience and loss of customers.
Quick website loading is a fundamental web design principle, crucial for retaining users and bringing up a positive user experience. Check out other web design principles to optimize your site for better performance.
But why are websites speed optimized? Websites speed optimized as it focuses on minimizing delays and ensuring that web pages load efficiently. It involves optimizing images, code, design and more to achieve faster loading times.
A few additional benefits that can be gained by focusing on speed optimization are conversion rate, reducing bounce rates, improving search engine rankings, and increasing user satisfaction.
Why Is Page Speed Important In a Website?
Page speed is a crucial aspect of the success of a website. It directly impacts the performance of websites and even influences visitors to become repeat purchasers.
Let’s see why:
Why do we need website speed optimization? (Why does website speed matter?)
Conversion
Speed is a top priority; whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or filling out a form, users want to complete these actions fast. In fact, in ecommerce stores delays in page loading lead to cart abandonment. Optimizing speed reduces the chance of customers leaving without purchasing.
Visibility
Websites with good Google PageSpeed Insights scores get higher positions in SERPs. Faster websites tend to rank higher, and they are more visible in organic search results. So, you can expect better organic traffic with more visitors visiting the site. Get hands-on with our website optimization services to capitalize on these benefits, as our team of experts is dedicated to optimizing your website for superior performance and visibility.
Usability
When a user visits a website, the loading speed is the first impression they get. A slow-loading site can frustrate visitors, making them ditch you and go to another one. A fast-loading website encourages users to explore more, stay longer and likely to return in future.
Google Search Ranking
The most popular search engine in the world, Google, prioritizes to help users find the most relevant and quality sites out there. It has a proprietary ranking system to classify billions of web pages to connect users with the results they are looking for. Google also added Core Web Vitals to its algorithm (which we will discuss below in detail) to measure how users analyze a web page.
Customer Loyalty
Speed plays a significant role in getting customers back to your website and making purchases. When users return more than one time, you gradually start to build a loyal customer base which helps you gain financial flexibility. For example, if you want to reduce customer retention costs in future, investing in increasing page speed is crucial.
However, investing in website speed optimization is a strategic move that pays off higher in terms of search rankings and better business outcomes.
Website Speed Performance Statistics
Nearly half of online consumers (47%) expect to load a web page in 2 seconds or less.
The average duration a user spends on a web page is 54 seconds. It signifies that you have a short time opportunity to capture the user’s attention and deliver the intended message.
User experience is paramount. 88% won’t return to a site if they encounter a negative experience.
Website conversion rates will drop 4.42% with each second due to slow-loading websites.
Users can wait 0.3 to 3 seconds until they lose focus during interactions with the computer.
What Factors Affect Website Performance?
There are several reasons why your site load time might be lagging, as many components are required to make a fast-performing website. Here are the essential factors that affect site speed:
Large File Sizes: Large media files, images, and videos can slow down a website. Use the latest formats and compress files to reduce load times. Using WebP format for images helps enhance website speed.
Hosting and Server Performance: The quality and performance of web hosting servers play a significant role. A well-configured, high-speed server ensures faster website loading and is essential for handling traffic spikes.
Not Using Browser Cache: Lack of browser caching means that every time a user visits a page, the browser should load all resources again. Using browser caching allows browsers to store information, reducing load times for returning visitors.
Not Optimized for Mobile Devices: Websites may experience slower load times on mobile devices (smartphones & tablets), which impact a considerable portion of the user base.
Heavy CSS and JavaScript Use: Excessive CSS and JavaScript files can slow down a website. Reducing unnecessary code by employing best coding practices is essential for good website speed.
Too Many Widgets and Plugins: Widgets and plugins can introduce extra functionality that may increase the number of HTTP requests and overall load times. Optimizing the use of widgets and plugins is crucial for maintaining website speed.
Compatibility with Older Browsers: Older browsers may not support the latest optimization techniques, resulting in slow loading. Websites should be optimized to function properly across a range of browsers, including older versions, to maintain good speed for all users.
Address these factors through proper optimization techniques to ensure a fast-loading website with an excellent user experience. You can further consult with our experts to enhance website performance.
How to Measure Website Speed?
To ensure optimal website speed, measure specific metrics before making adjustments. It will help you compare website performance before and after changes to know if it is actually working.
As a website owner, there are several metrics to measure. Still, as far as Google is concerned, we recommend focusing on the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). These metrics defined by Google are known as Core Web Vitals.
Besides, draw attention to other notable vitals are First Contentful Paint (FCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP) and Time to First Byte (TTFB).
Consult with our experts for free and seek professional guidance on how to speed up your website. Don’t let slow load times hold your website back.
What are Core Web Vitals?
Google’s Core Web Vitals are user-centric metrics that score the user experience of a web page. They are made up of three main factors: actual speed, webpage interactivity, and visual stability.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): LCP measures the time it takes to show your main page content on screen. It should be 2.5 seconds or less to meet Google’s standards.
First Input Delay (FID): FID measures how quickly a user can interact with a web page. When a user clicks, how fast does the browser process and show results? An FID score should be 100 milliseconds. If it’s more than 300 milliseconds, the score will be considered poor.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): CLS represents the visual stability of a page. It measures how often the user experience layout shifts; for example, if a button appears at right during initial load but jumps to bottom when another element loads is not good for users. Google wants a CLS rating of 0.1 or less.
You can use these measurements to analyze how fast your web page should be. Google classifies your site’s Core Web Vitals as “Good,” “Needs Improvement,” or “Poor.”
What Is a Good Website Speed?
From research, it is surveyed that around 0.3 to 3 seconds users will wait before losing focus. That means you should aim to show content and engage users in 3 seconds.
If you have decided to use the Core Web Vitals metrics mentioned above, then these are recommended threshold you should target:
| Good | Need Improvement | Poor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| LCP | <=2.5s | <=4s | >4s |
| FID | <=100 ms | <=300ms | >300ms |
| CLS | <=0.1 | <=0.25 | >0.25 |
Know in detail what criteria Google used to arrive at these thresholds.
After understanding Core Web Vitals, you might want to know which tools help you in optimizing your website. Let’s delve into it.
Website Speed Optimization Tools to Grow Your Website
There are several tools available to measure your page loading speed and provide a broad view of your site’s health.
Each tool’s results might vary as they use different data, so it’s good practice to use different tools and check the performance of websites. Depending on the tool, you get results that use lab data, field data or both.
Field data shows real users visiting your site and provides site performance based on real user conditions. Lab data comes from a controlled environment helpful for debugging issues and testing.
Let’s analyze some of the best website speed test tools.
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) is a free tool to check the performance of web pages. It uses both lab data and field data. Begin and paste the URL you want to measure into the search bar.
PageSpeed Insights shows statistics and recommendations for both desktop and mobile. It includes information about your page performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO.
Note: It allows you to test one URL at a time, not the entire website.
GTmetrix
GTmetrix is a free tool that measures page performance based on location. It generates the report, including structure score, performance score, Core Web Vitals score, and more.
Go to the site and enter the URL to test your site. Only one URL at a time. It also includes a quick summary at the top so you can analyze performance with a speed visualization chart.
WebPage Test
WebPage Test allows you to run customized pages based on different user conditions like location, browser, connection, etc.
It generates a waterfall graph to understand different site load metrics. They are TTFB, FCP, total loading time and more. Visit WebPage Test and type your URL into the search bar.
If you select a simple configuration, the tool recommends locations and browser presets. Further, you can customize it by selecting advanced configuration.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Pingdom is a free and easy-to-use tool for beginners. It analyzes a page load time and shares suggestions to improve it. It tests specific URLs rather than your whole website.
Go to the Pingdom Website Speed Test and enter your URL. Choose the location of the server or pick the closest one.
The tool will display your page size, content size, loading time, number of HTTP requests, and recommendations.
Semrush Site Audit
Semrush’s Site Audit tool helps you conduct a full technical audit with over 140 on-page and technical SEO checks.
Go to the Semrush Site Audit tool, enter the URL and click the “Start Audit” button. Visit the site performance report and check your website load speed, performance issues and more.
When fixing issues, prioritize errors and then move on to warnings. Also, check out your Core Web Vitals report.
Now, when starting a website development process, it’s crucial to follow best practices to speed up your website and elevate the user experience. But how do I optimize my website for speed?
Let’s see.
How to Speed up a Website? [8 Best Website Speed Optimization Strategies]
1. Enable Browser Caching
Enabling browser caching is an essential strategy for website speed optimization. It involves instructing a visitor’s web browser to store specific elements of the website temporarily.
When a user visits the browser for the first time, it stores elements like images, scripts and other resources locally on their device. Next time, when a user visits the same website, the browser loads these elements from its local cache instead of fetching them from the server again.
This results in fast loading as browsers can retrieve and display web pages with fewer HTTP requests. Website owners can configure this setting to determine how long these resources should be stored in a cache.
Common caching durations are set in hours, days, or even longer, depending on the type of content. Many CMS automatically cache the current version of your site. For WordPress, you can use plugins like W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket.
If your CMS doesn’t offer this feature, you can consider installing a caching extension.
2. Optimize Your Images
Nowadays, presenting appealing colors and animated images is a growing trend, especially in the ecommerce landscape, as it enhances the user and online store experience.
Know some of the latest ecommerce design trends if you are interested in this landscape.
Coming back to Images, they look great but consume significant space, so optimizing them is a crucial practice while maintaining visual quality. Large uncompressed images can slow down a website’s loading time, especially if they are of high resolution.
There are various speed optimization techniques for images, such as:
Compressing Image: Use tools to compress images without compromising their quality. It reduces the file size, which helps in faster image loading. Few examples of image compression tools are TinyPNG, Optimizilla and ShortPixel.
Image Resize: Uploading excessively large images and relying on HTML or CSS to resize them can slow down your website. So, scale images to the required dimensions on the webpage.
Use Latest Image Formats: Image formats like WebP provide better compression without sacrificing quality. It also ensures compatibility with major browsers.
Responsive Images: Provide different image sizes based on the user’s device for optimal loading on different screen sizes.
Optimizing images is a fundamental step as it not only speeds up website loading but also improves user experience and SEO rankings.
3. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of geographically distributed servers placed to deliver web content.
When users request access to a website, the CDN serves the content, such as HTML pages, images, scripts, and videos, to users from the nearest server. It significantly reduces the physical distance and time it takes to transport data.
Imagine your origin server is in New York, USA. Your website has a global audience, and a user in Australia tries to access your site. Without CDN, that data should travel all the way from your New York server to Australia, causing significant delays.
Using CDN, the website content is delivered smoothly as it will find the closest server in the user’s network and minimize the latency and load time. The best examples of CDNs are Cloudflare and Jetpack.
By leveraging CDN, website owners can enhance speed scalability and provide a reliable experience to users across the globe.
4. Improve HTTP Requests
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) request happens when a web browser retrieves a file from a web server to load a webpage. Each element on a webpage, like images, scripts, and fonts, requires HTTP requests separately. The more requests, the longer it takes to load the webpage.
So, let’s know the efficient ways for optimizing HTTP requests:
Combine and Minimize File Sizes: Combine multiple CSS or JavaScript files into a single file each and compress it to reduce their size. It reduces the HTTP request and time it takes to download them.
Reduce The Number of Requests: analyze the request and implement lazy loading for images and videos. It allows them to load only when it is visible to the user and reduces the initial load time of the webpage.
Use Font Icons: Utilizing font icons instead of multiple images is a good option as fonts are downloaded with a single HTTP request and easily scale and style using CSS.
Use CSS Sprites and Inline Small Images: Combine multiple images into a single image sprite and convert small images to data URLs and embed them. It reduces the additional requests and improves loading speed.
5. Reduce Unnecessary Plugins
Plugins are reusable pieces of functionality used in CMS like WordPress or other pre-built website platforms. It gives website owners extra functionality that enhances website capabilities.
When a page loads, the plugins you have become active and visible to visitors. However, each plugin will load additional CSS and JavaScript files. Some plugins will increase the TTFB time as well, and for each page request, there is additional processing on the server required.
So, if you have installed any plugins, go through all of them and remove any that aren’t necessary for your website. It reduces the server load and potential conflicts, resulting in a faster website.
6. Reduce Total Redirects
When a website’s URL changes, the number of HTTP requests also increases. It is because a 301 redirect happens each time an additional request is made, leading to slower loading times.
However, redirects play an essential role in guiding users from one page to another. They are a great way to connect high-ranking pages to new content, but more redirects mean more load on the server, which increases the loading time.
While limiting unnecessary redirects, keep them to a minimum and follow best practices to update and replace old redirects with relevant content. This helps maintain shorter load times and provides users with the latest information.
7. Choose a Better Hosting Provider
Choosing the right hosting option is essential for website speed. If you are using a shared hosting provider, it’s very likely that overall performance will be poor. You should consider switching to a managed service that is highly known for stable and high-performance hosting.
You have a few options to select for hosting:
Shared Hosting: It’s a single server shared by several websites and the cheapest hosting option. It is considerable if you have a small website or blog website but inapplicable for websites with huge traffic or online stores.
VPS: It’s a virtual private server, hosting more than one client but faster because of the structure. Each site has its own virtual server, and individual configurations can’t be consumed by other sites on the same VPS. It is ideal for mid-sized businesses.
Dedicated Server: It is the most expensive and serves only one website. It provides more flexibility, customization possibilities, and security.
Cloud Hosting: It is the most optimal solution. You can rent server capacities from a cloud provider: AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft Azure, GCP (Google Cloud Platform), IBM Cloud, etc.
Moreover, make an informed decision based on your website’s size, traffic, and performance requirements.
8. Resolve 404 Errors
Identifying and addressing 404 errors, commonly known as “Page Not Found” errors, is essential for optimizing website speed and user experience. These errors occur when a webpage a user is trying to access cannot be found on the server.
It is recommended to check periodically for 404 errors on your website using tools. Create a custom 404 error page to help users get back to your website’s functional page.
Fixing broken or outdated links is also essential. Updating URLs or removing irrelevant links helps prevent the frustration of users and guides them to what they are looking for.
By diligently managing and addressing 404 errors, you ensure a smooth browsing experience for users, contributing to an overall faster website.
Conclusion
Frequently Asked Questions