How to Improve Your Website Speed

March 21, 2022
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Why WebSite Speed is Important

NOTE! This page is still in the writing!

Page speed is a critical factor that can make or break your website’s success. If your website takes more than three seconds to load, it can negatively impact user experience, causing frustration and annoyance among visitors. On the other hand, smooth loading content and images create a pleasant experience that encourages people to interact more with your website.

Despite its importance, many website owners tend to overlook page load speed. They assume that their website’s speed is satisfactory and fail to test it regularly, relying on user comments to address speed-related issues. However, this approach is not ideal since a slow-loading page can lead to high bounce rates, meaning users leave your website quickly, often without exploring internal links.

In addition, page load speed has a significant impact on average session time, which refers to the amount of time a user spends on your website during a single session. A fast-loading website encourages visitors to explore more content and engage deeper with the resources you have to offer. This engagement can make your site ‘sticky’, keeping users on your site for longer periods, increasing the likelihood of conversion, and ultimately, the success of your business.

Google research says: “As page load time goes from one second to 10 seconds, the probability of a mobile site visitor bouncing increases 123%.” Personally, I will never wait more than 3-4 seconds for a site to load. Shorter on a mobile device. I am quickly on to the next!

Google will reward a fast loading website. Meaning: The longer your site takes to load the fewer visitors you will get.

 

Key metrics for webpage load time:

  • Time to first byte (TTFB): This metric being one of the most important, shows  the time it takes to request a page from the server and for the first byte of data to arrive. A low TTFB indicates a fast server.
  • Document complete: This indicator shows how long it takes for the page to load. The web page load time is shown by a low Document Complete time.
  • First Contentful Paint
  • Largest Contentful Paint
  • CLS

 

Fast Servers!

A well optimize Apache server can be just as fast as a Lite Speed server. Unfortunately 95% of all Apache Servers are NOT optimized.

 

 TTFB

Google says 200-500 ms.

 

Themes and Plugins

Fast themes

W3Tc

Fast Velocity Minify

 

Video Optimization

Show a thumbnail while video loads in the background.

 

Image Optimization

W3TC

Gimp Webp

 

Minimize 301 redirects

www – non www – http – https

 

Render blocking Java & CSS

Needs to be rearranges

 

HTTP2

No use for combining and any more. HTTP2 will parallel load requests. So by combining smaller chunks of code to larger you will ruin it for HTTP2!

 

Minification

Remove redundant information from the files.

 

CSS

Use Chrome Developer Tools to minimize CSS

 

Java Scripts

Generally load them as late as possible

 

CDN

Use of CDN for images and Videos.

 

CloudFlare

Only caches come elements

 

Web Site Test Pages

Gtmetrix
WebPageTest
Pingdom
Google PageSpeed https://pagespeed.web.dev/
URL Compression Test using mod_gzip or mod_deflate
Dotcom-Monitor https://www.dotcom-tools.com/website-speed-test
YSlow
GTmetrix
Chrome DevTools
Yellow Lab Tools
https://www.bitcatcha.com/report/

https://whichloadsfaster.zomdir.com/

https://newrelic.com/

https://www.uptrends.com/ 30 days free

https://yellowlab.tools/    https://yellowlab.tools/

https://performance.sucuri.net/

https://www.site24x7.com/web-page-analyzer.html

 

Don’t use HTML Validator Tools – They are not updated since 2012 and thus they do not understand HTTP2.

 

Visitors vs. Load Speed

According to OnlineMarketingInstitute a 1 second decrease in pagespeed/web page load time can increase your conversions by up to 27%!

More than 50% of mobile guests will abandon your website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load!

 

Google has come up with these stats: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/mobile-page-speed-new-industry-benchmarks/

 

 

By David Holywood

Author of 10 books for men in relationships and 2 huge novels. Web designer and SEO expert since 1999. Hard Core user of Google Ads, Google Business Profile, AdSense, Analytics & Search Console. Expert in Speed & Load Optimization. Musician. Composer & Martial Artist. Psycho Therapist.

Running a few other blogs:
DenRigtigeMand.dk which is a book store and has a lot of resources for men in tough relationships.
AudioSchematics.dk which is an AdSense site.
BilligBlog.dk which is a web agency and some kind of a Danish version of PassionBlogist.com

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