Why Decreasing Page Load Time Can Drastically Increase Conversions

Site loading time is a major aspect that many of us ignore. It takes a toll on both SEO and site UX. Let us know-how.

Google and other popular search engines penalize the sites having long loading span. Your content and design might be amazing, but you will lose many ranks due to this. When rank drops down, the traffic reaching your site also reduces drastically.

What about site UX?

When a person clicks on your website link, he expects it to load quickly. But if your site keeps him waiting, he loses patience and bounces from your site. A majority of your traffic bounces to your competitor site.

You can retain these precious leads and SEO ranking, just by optimizing the page speed.

But how to do it?

Here we have listed some efficient tools and techniques to fix your slow site speed. Keep on reading to know more!

Mind-blowing data about site speed

Research conducted by Google in 2018 revealed that,

53% of mobile viewers close a site altogether if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

The next revelation is more striking!

An average mobile site takes around 15 seconds to open.

Now, you can imagine how much traffic these websites lose every moment.

Talking about desktop sites, they have an average of 8 to 11 load times. The survey by Machmetrics in 2018 revealed this data.

In fact, each second of delay in loading time costs you a lot of customers.

To serve more value to Internet users, Google now rewards fast sites with a top ranking.

Now, you must be wondering how to optimize the speed. Here is the simplest procedure. Use the following tools to diagnose the root problem. Then apply the given techniques to make your site lightning fast!

Tools to measure your current site load time

1. Page Speed Insights

This amazing tool comes from none other than the Google developers. Undoubtedly, it is the most trustable app.

On this tool, you can check the loading time, site speed on both desktop and mobile. Not just that, you will also get stepwise directions to fix the problems. It will directly show you the files and images to be compressed.

The app also suggests which step to take first. The various steps are categorized into high, medium, and low priority.

Page Insights is the simplest tool which is very user friendly. If you have good technical knowledge, you can use another tool from Google- Lighthouse tool.

2. Pingdom Page Speed Tool

This third party tool also offers features like Google. Many website builders are using it nowadays. Like Google, it will suggest you quick fixes to optimize the site speed.

3. WebPage Test

This tool is totally free of cost. You can use this tool from different devices and server locations. It will clearly show the faults in your site design, which are leading to its slow loading speed.

4. GTmetrix

One thing that is special about this tool is that it has a gradation system. According to your site’s loading speed, it will get an A, B, or C.

Here you can easily find out the root cause behind your slow site, and several ways to solve it.

There is an automated alert feature as well. Whenever your site has a below standard loading time, you will receive notifications. So, that you can immediately rectify it and save many bucks.

Tips to make your site super fast:

The above tools will hint at a common fault- that is an enormous page size. Yes, the more your page size is, the longer your site will take to load.

For your information, a page size is measured in bytes and kilobytes. Images, graphics, scripts, and files all contribute to the final page size.

The best SEO protocols by Google suggest that the ideal page size is 500 kb. Still, researchers in 2018 showed that most of the sites have a page size of 1.3 to 2.5 mb. Such a gigantic size is responsible for the slower loading speed.

So, the first big change you should make is compress your page size. Let us see how to do this –

Compress the image files

Images eat up a lot of space, both in screen and storage. It’s time to cut down their size. You can begin with a tool to resize your images to the ideal fit. One such tool is ResizeImage.net. It will optimize your pictures to the best view and file size.

Browserling Image Converter is another nice tool to compress the pictures. There will be no compromise in quality though. It will change your .png images into a more feasible, compressed .jpg format.

JavaScript and CSS

After images, code takes the major storage space. You can reduce your file size effectively by managing the code.

For example, you may be having the same CSS rules and JavaScript snippets in all the webpages. You can relax the load by transferring these codes into an external file.

So, when the user starts browsing your site, it does not need to load the same code in every webpage. The code will get downloaded only once. For the following pages, the code will get referenced. It results in fast navigation through your site.

Install a cache plugin

If you have a WordPress site, then install this WP Super Cache Plugin. It quickly loads the latest version of your site. The browser doesn’t have to every time generate the site from the beginning.

 Redirects

Actually, redirects like permanent 301 and temporary 307 confuse the browser. As a result, it takes very long for the browser to recognize your site and bring it to the audience. The best solution is to delete all the unnecessary redirects. You can diagnose the available redirects on your site through the tool- Google Page Speed Insights.

CDN

Content Delivery Networks distribute your site load across many servers. So, that every customer accesses your site through their nearest server. As geographical distance is less, your site loads much faster than before. One example of a good CDN is Amazon Cloudfront. Consult a good CDN to distribute your site in the fastest rate.

Create an AMP

AMP or Accelerated Mobile Page is the best solution to satisfy your mobile users. According to Google, this update can reduce your load time to 15- 85%. So, if you have a huge number of mobile users, then go for it.

Conclusion

People’s expectations from the internet has changed a lot since the last decade or two. Now, they appreciate the sites that open up very fast. So, if you want to stay at top of the game, your site speed should ideally be 3 seconds. Every single second improvement will gift you new traffic and conversions. The only thing you have to do is apply the above-said tips and techniques. So, start working and witness the magic!