The importance of page speed improvement to the website development process can’t be ignored. To better frame the topic at hand, consider the following statistics. Did you know that roughly 70 percent of website visitors and consumers have their behaviors impacted by page speed? Furthermore, the highest conversion rates tend to occur on pages that load anywhere from 1 to 3 seconds. Speaking of which, according to Google, the probability of bounce increases by 32% if page load time increase from 1 to 3 seconds. Any Long Island web design or development company will agree that page speed improvement should be a priority for every company. To this end, here are 7 tips to consider.
1. Optimize webpage content. Do you find that certain pages on your site take longer to load than others? If so, this may come down to the content that said pages house. Focus on optimizing the content as much as possible. In the case of images, for example, use JPEGs instead of PNGs, as the latter boast larger file sizes. Video content should also be optimized, and if this can’t be done, consider removing the content entirely. When webpage features such as these are taken into account, page speed improvement will take place.
2. Enable compression. For anything that cannot be optimized on your phone, such as the aforementioned images, you may need to enable compression. Whether your site features HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or what have you, you can rest easy knowing that you have the capability to compress files, reducing load times and enhancing the user experience as result. Compression can be a complex process, so for more information about how this is done, speak to a digital marketing agency in your area.
3. Reduce redirects. Another way to go about page speed improvement is by reducing, or even eliminating, redirects on your site. Generally speaking, when a page is removed from a website’s scope, the site in question will attempt to redirect the user to the best of its ability. It will either bring the user to a related page or bring up a 404 error page, essentially illustrating that the content they requested can’t be found. The more redirects that your site has, the slower it will perform, so be mindful of this detail.
4. Consider your hosting options. If you’re a business owner, one of your goals is likely to maximize results and minimize costs. One of the ways that this can be done is by choosing a cheap hosting option. One of the downsides of this, however, is that it’s unlikely to perform at a steady clip as web traffic increases. You should focus on a more high-end option, such as dedicated hosting. While there may be more work to do, from a backend standpoint, you have more space to work with.
5. Include trailing slashes in URLs. While they may not have an impact on the surface, URLs with trailing slashes go a long way from a page speed improvement standpoint. What a trailing slash does is tell the web server exactly what the user is looking for. Without it, the webserver in question must take time to discover a file or page to present to the user. Not only does this further reduce redirects, as mentioned earlier, but helps websites operate at steady clips.
6. Use caching for additional page speed improvement. By definition, caching is the process by which a system stores data in a temporary location. For websites, a cache will include text-based content, images, and the like. When a webpage is cached, and the user visits it again, they will find that it will load faster, since their browser temporarily stored the information. Enable caching so that your website will load and operate at a speedier pace.
7. Test each webpage that was worked on. No matter how confident one may be in the work that they do, there is still the likelihood of errors occurring. To ensure that said errors don’t arise, test each webpage that’s worked on. See how quickly pages load on different devices. Address any abnormalities as early as possible to maintain the best user experience possible. When it comes to any web design or development project, including any that prioritizes page speed improvement, testing is part and parcel of the task at hand.
About fishbat: fishbat is a full-service social media and content marketing agency that takes a holistic business approach to their clients’ digital marketing programs. The fishbat team understands the importance of business principles just as well as the nuances of the latest digital technologies. fishbat offers every digital marketing service available from digital marketing research and planning to brand development to website and asset creation through social media management and search engine optimization programs – all custom calibrated for both B2B and B2C businesses.
