Did you know that slow-loading of webpage results in losing of retailers? Every year more than $2.5 billion business is in loss because of poor page speed.
But how does the speed of the page affect the SERPS? And how does a web page lose visitors although it contains excellent content and offers an excellent user experience?
Tweaking your SEO strategy can pull more visitors to your website and pump up the speed to retain them.
According to Google’s (search engine Titan) research, more than 40% of the users switch to other websites if it takes more than three seconds to load.
Let’s explore the pointers that will guide you to work on the gaps due to poor page speed. You can also hire professionals from a credible SEO company to boost your site speed.
Keep the Webpage Straightforward
When designing the homepage, the most crucial point of concern is simplicity, and do not overload it with too much information and images.
Stick to the outline of the first page, and do not dump in videos, photos, animations, and everything.
When the user clicks on your website, the first page must look appealing and very light, and it should not take a long time to load.
A long wait is an immediate switch to the following website link by the user. Add links such as ‘More‘ or ‘check out‘ or ‘Blog/gallery‘ that give the user a click and take to the particular information page.
Prioritize the ‘Above the Fold’ Info
‘Above the fold’ refers to the section that opens on the homepage without scrolling down further.
It is a very crucial section and needs prioritizing of content and images. You must use this space diligently by drawing the visitor’s attention and ensuring that they stay longer and then browse to the next page.
The simple approach includes header and subheader text, brand name, brand logo, and CTA button. Minimize the use of animation on the landing page as it slows the page speed.
Optimize the Images
Not many understand that bulky images (high resolution) and gifs are not the best choices for websites.
Switch to JPEG files over PNG files as the former gives the exact quality resolution but takes up less space and loads faster.
Unfortunately, if you are procuring images in PNG or other bulky formats, you have the option of conversion. Use free online tools like TinyJPG, ImageOptimizer, and Compresso.io.
Relevantly Maintain the Text-Image Association
Keep the territory segregated and do not overlap the content with the images. You should maintain the harmony of colours and ensure that the pictures do not look out of context.
For example, on a white backdrop, place-coloured images and keep the text in white or a light shade.
So, when the webpage loads, the text appears first, and visitors get something to engage with while waiting for the related image to download.
Another consideration is to avoid placing the text over the images. Watermarks are the exception.
Or if you have a brand logo, other images and texts must be separate. Do not ruin the website’s accessibility.
Avoid Multi-Font Style and Numbers on a Webpage
Maintain consistency with the font family and restrict the different types to a few on the website.
Too many font styles make the page look inconsistent and make the webpage bulky to download.
Make the brand a straightforward and sophisticated look – you do not want hotch-potch on the webpage.
Let your first impression be the lasting impression on your website visitor. You can choose to show creativity by using custom fonts but avoid font weights (bold, underline, italics). Make an intelligent choice of font and number styles.
Limit Third-Party Applications
Reduce third-party scripts for sending and receiving data from websites. The third-party applications (TPA) use outside tools and require more downloading time.
You can check page speed by removing applications one by one and overserving the loading speed. Sometimes many unwanted apps only add delay time to the webpage, which you can remove.
Minimize the Coding
Speed is directly proportional to the content on the page and also backhand coding. Your web developers must focus on minimizing the codes, by eliminating the special characters while coding – spaces, commas, lines.
Your developers’ team can use Gzip for compressing files that are larger than 150bytes. Huge files on JavaScript, HTML, and CSS can reduce up to 70% on compression. That means your webpage will download 70% faster.
Use Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Content Delivery Network is popularly known as Content Distribution Network. It means the geographical distribution of servers to host the site globally as per the target audience.
This vital process supports all the elements required for loading a website (HTML files, images, videos, text) faster on the server based on the user’s location.
Leverage the Server Response Time
You must invest in leveraging the most reliable and high-performing server for website hosting.
Several factors rely on server performance including website traffic, each web page’s resources, and hosting solution in use.
It is the responsibility of the developers to ensure that the webpage performance is not affected due to slow routing or database queries.
Include Browser Caching
The main idea of caching is saving the already browsed pages. Caching speeds up the loading and saves an enormous amount of time.
Make the most of it by incorporating the caching for your website. This way, you can include the images, JavaScript, content, and animations for future use.
Avoid Redirects
Redirects are compulsory when a profound content change involves the migration and deletion of specific pages.
But frequent redirections add load on the HTTP request and leave a negative impact on the speed.
This issue is more prevalent on mobile and tablets, but you can reduce this by adhering to the mobile indexing technique.
Ensure that your websites are equally faster on mobiles and smaller consoles for a better reach of visitors.
Author Bio: Lalit Sharma is the founder and CEO of Ranking By SEO, a leading SEO company in India.
He has been working in the SEO industry since 2005. He can be seen contributing to SEMrush, SocialMediaToday, and Entrepreneur etc. Connect with him on Twitter.
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