In today’s marketing, having a website is an element of success. Theme, web design, and content are vital aspects. But page speed has been underestimated among many people. The audiences prefer to use a website that is fast enough to load the content. Most importantly, google uses the page loading speed as a ranking criterion. That is to say, it’s better not to overlook page weight. In this article, we’ll discuss the reasons why you should care about your page loading speed, and some key factors influencing site speed.
There are two definitions for this phrase, Page Loading Time and Time To First Byte. “Page loading time” refers to the amount of time it takes for the content to be completely displayed on a particular page, and TTFB (time to first byte) is the period between a server’s response to the user’s browser requesting information.
Website loading speed has a direct effect on the On-page SEO, so it can enhance your ranking in search engines. The standard time for a page to load is about three seconds. If it takes a long time, consumers might not give the site a second chance. These day users tend to search the web via mobile phone, while they’re stuck in traffic or waiting for the bus. In these cases, loading speed is very important. In 2010, Google announced that site speed is crucial in search page results. Therefore, the time wasted and the user experience is very important.
So far, we’ve discussed the value of loading speed in a website, but how do we measure loading speed? We’ve heard this phrase plenty of times, that “prevention is better than cure”, hence the speed of your site before you launch it. You must understand how quickly it loads on all popular browsers. Moreover, you need to be certain it hits the acceptable loading speed on all platforms, especially on mobile phones, because the smartphone is an inseparable companion in our daily lives, and many people use this as a means of communication.
Here, we have mentioned some tools which are quite helpful. It is more beneficial to use two or three of them at the same time. In this way, the result is more accurate and satisfactory.
1. Google page speed insight (PSI) is one of Google’s free tools for testing page speed and user experience, which is based on Google’s standards. Each metrics in this scale has a weight, and the impact of PSI metric is defined by percentage. In the end, a final score is a number between 1 to 100. If you get the green colour or a score of 85 or above, your page is doing pretty well.
2. Gtmetrics gives you a score based on three calculation methods, that are :
3. Pingdom tools is a collection of widely used tools. In addition to the site’s speed, Pingdom gives you a performance grade that is based on different factors.
4. Webpagetest is the fourth tool for analyzing and optimizing a site’s speed. With this free service, you’ll have a perfect analysis of loading time and also other factors affecting the site’s speed. Webpagetest’s reports is completely comprehensive and technical. With webpage test, you could solve troubles on security, heavy images, and other problems too.
Render-blocking JavaScript
JavaScript is a programming language that makes your website more dynamic and interactive. Render-blocking is a process that prevents a browser from gaining a page’s content. In other words, the browser has to fully load any JavaScript code in the first place, so it’ll badly delay the page’s loading speed.
Using CDN
Content Delivery Networks (CDN) send your content to the user from the closest geographical location. Therefore, the information transfer rate boosts tremendously. You can deploy CDN solutions for your website. For instance, Cloudflare is a popular and reliable option. It is also very easy to set up.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a design language that makes your site’s outlook appealing. For example, JavaScript can cause problems for you if it isn’t optimized. CssNano can help you optimize CSS codes. By employing this tool, additional, unused codes are lessened. Consequently, the page loading becomes faster.
Many parts of the website are the same on different pages. If the browser saves copies of your website’s files, it can show the cached data instead of loading it whenever the users want to click on any pages of your site. If your site is not at this advantage, it’ll have problems loading content. Many WordPress plugins will solve this issue quite straightforward. Best WordPress cache plugins are:
High-resolution images and videos take a lot of time to load. However, eliminating them is not a good idea, because surveys reveal customers want to see a minimum of three pictures of products. Many tools can help you reduce media sizes. For example, TinyPng is a website that reduces the size of images.
Sometimes nothing is wrong with the website, but your internet connection is slow. Waiting a long time for your page to load really ruins your day. Several things can cause this problem. The best way to solve this is by contacting your internet provider company.
We’ve mentioned some helpful plugins, but consider that installing heavy plugins can reduce your site speed. Test your website speed before and after adding the plugin, then decide whether to maintain or delete it.
Malfunctions in both virtual and physical server affects the page speed. When a server is not optimized website conversions will decrease by 7 percent.
Using long codes, especially CSS and JavaScript ruin loading speed.
Web traffic refers to the number of users who visit a web page. When many visitors visit your site at an exact time, the loading speed immensely slows down.
Team As A Service (TAAS) know the ropes. At Twelfthdrea, a mobile app development company we avoid all these problems. We deliver best experience for your website & eCommerce. Contact us.
We live in a technological era. Every aspect of your digital marketing is important, especially the website. Make sure your page loading speed doesn’t hold you behind the curve.
A good beginning makes a good ending. At Twelfth Dream, we offer you stunning designs fully optimized for success. We speak from experience that we’ve had with our customers. Our software development team has a vast knowledge of the technical design and structure of the website, and our developers build the theme from the first principles. Book a discovery call.