It is being hinted at by research conducted by Google that web bounce rates increase by as much as 31% if page load time increases from one to three seconds.
Based on my experience, page loading times are among the most common technical issues encountered by web developers and administrators, particularly for mobile devices. To fix page speed issues, the initial step is to know the process of website loading and the most crucial metrics that contribute to fast load times.
What is Website Speed
Website speed is the speed with which pages in a website are loaded and presented in a browser by a user. It is typically measured as page load time, which is the time that a web page takes to load fully in a user’s browser after a user has requested a web page.
A fast site speed is also important for achieving a good user experience and also impacts search rankings and traffic. Slow site speeds can lead to higher bounce rates, lower engagement, and fewer revenues for businesses.
How Do Websites Load?
The internet is a complex system. However, we can simplify the explanation of the page load by breaking it down into two vital components that interact with each other.
Clients Side Vs Servers Side
Clients Side: Clients are internet-enabled devices that make requests to a server through the internet in order to display a webpage. Some examples of clients include computers with WiFi connectivity, mobile phones with data plans, and browsers that are used to carry out this function.
Server Side: On the other hand, servers are computers that contain web addresses and attempt to fulfill requests in a bid to enable clients to obtain a webpage. These servers are also referred to simply as the DNS (domain name system) which has all the available addresses on the internet.
A clear image of the client-server connection can determine any interruption or increase in latency that can occur to your webpage load speed. Typing a URL is the first step in loading a webpage, which forwards the request to a DNS to get the exact IP address and perform the request at the web application’s server.
Once the request is executed, the user’s browser receives an HTML response to begin working on the Document Object Model (DOM), and the time taken to receive this data is termed as the time to first byte (TTFB) – a very crucial page load metric.
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After processing the HTML response by the browser, it constructs the DOM and CSS Object Model in order to execute JavaScript. However, before the actual rendering of a page begins, the browser will render all the JavaScript and CSS elements. If there are any external blocking scripts, the resource will need to be downloaded, leading to increased load times.
When the elements of the page are completely loaded, a window load event will be fired, and the page will be loaded completely above the fold. It is important to consider that pages with async loading will still load the elements even after window load events are fired.
Page speeds vary on desktop and mobile, depending on how mobile-friendly the site is and the network through which the device accesses the internet. Google, for instance, has a target for mobile page speeds of rendering above-the-fold content in one second in order to enable users to interact with sites as soon as possible.
It is challenging to achieve the target of loading above-the-fold content within one second on a mobile device since network latency on a 4G network typically accounts for at least 300 milliseconds of page load times, leaving only 700 milliseconds for page optimization. Nevertheless, it is achievable but with effective optimization techniques.
How Crucial Is Website Speed
Google favors websites that load fast and efficiently because it relies on good customer experiences to maintain its market share. Thus, pages that load faster than others tend to be favored. This favor is also evident in your analytics, with slower pages having higher bounce rates compared to faster pages.
It is essential to monitor your page speed for a number of reasons:
- User Experience: Quick-loading pages are what users anticipate on mobile and desktop. Slow page loading time contributes to time to first interaction and makes bounce rates higher, negatively impacting key user metrics. This can lead to reduced conversion rates and a potential impact on website revenue.
- Google Algorithms: Studies indicate that Google favors page speed in its ranking algorithms, and more particularly, mobile page speed. The actual impact on rankings is unknown, but Google has emphasized how significant it deems factors like Core Web Vitals to be.
- Functionality and Processing: Page speed is a critical aspect of website functionality and can hamper underlying processes, like the loading of shopping carts or blogs, resulting in excessive bounce rates.
- Authority and Trust: A fast-loading website communicates some level of credibility and competence, whereas a slow-loading site could imply that it is poorly designed or even untrustworthy.
To optimize your website’s page speed involves fixing whatever problems are slowing it down. With page speeds differing by device and location, continous testing is vital.
What to take into account when Running A Webpage Test
There are different page speed tests and tools that give different results, and that is why it is important to strike a balance with the results and decide which factors are worth considering in order to obtain the most objective results.
Caching
I would suggest starting by testing your site with caching enabled and disabled to observe the impact. While most of the tools are excluding caching, certain tools like WordPress do have the capability of testing page speed with caching enabled.
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You should configure your caching settings in such a manner that they don’t influence your result or provide varying results with respect to other tools.
Location
Location is a factor that should be taken into consideration when conducting a page speed testing since load times are going to differ based on a user’s server and network proximity. It is something that some people neglect, but it can really affect user experience.
In order to improve page loading speed, one of the techniques is hosting the website on a server close to the geographic location of the target market.
The other option is using a content delivery network (CDN), which consists of a set of distributed servers that can reduce the distance between the user and the website server. These strategies can lead to extreme improvements in site loading time.
Running Multiple Tests
To get more accurate results of what users are experiencing, my suggestion is to conduct repeated tests on various tools because various page speed tests may produce different results based on your website or even network conditions.
Metrics
Lastly, it is essential to have an understanding of the key metrics that significantly contribute to page load speeds. Here are some I’ve highlighted:
- Page Load Time: The measurement is used to measure the cumulative time taken to fully load a webpage. You can view a report of your URLs’ page load time across various browsers through Google Analytics.
- Time To First Byte (TTFB): This is a measurement of how long it takes for the browser to receive the first byte of information from the server after it has asked for a webpage. A low Time To First Byte (TTFB) score can indicate that your site has a lot of large files that take longer to load, or that your server needs to be upgraded or moved.
- HTTP Request Numbers: A new request is made for each page loaded, and this can have a detrimental impact on page speed.
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals is a set of accurate website performance metrics that have been established as essential to the overall user experience by Google. The three Core Web Vitals are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): computes the load time of the largest image or block of text that is being rendered in the viewport.
- First Input Delay (FID): computes the delay between when a user first engages with a page and when the browser is actually able to respond to that engagement.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): measures a page’s visual stability by counting the number of items on a page that are moved during page loading.
Such metrics are framed to make the owners and web developers focus more on enhancing most critical user experiences, and Google has indicated they will play even more significant roles in search rankings factor.
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Field and Lab Data
In measuring page speeds, it’s crucial to distinguish between field and lab data. Field data considers the historical load time of a page, while lab data provides data from a simulated test.
Google Analytics offers field data and a record of how long it typically takes to load pages on your website. Meanwhile, lab data, like Google’s Lighthouse, gives an estimated measurement of page load speeds under certain conditions.
Lab data is useful for identifying specific issues, while field data is an excellent way to track your website’s progress and usability over time. Considering these tips, let’s explore some of the best tools I recommend for testing website speeds on every site.
Best Tools To Test Website Speed
There are many tools available to test website speed. Below are some of the best tools that can help you identify issues and optimize your website speed:
- Google PageSpeed Insights: This tool analyzes your website speed on both mobile and desktop devices, and provides recommendations to improve your website’s performance. It also gives you a score between 0 and 100, with higher scores indicating better page speed.
- GTmetrix: GTmetrix provides a detailed analysis of your website’s speed and performance, and identifies areas for improvement. It also provides a Waterfall Chart that shows how long each element takes to load.
- Pingdom: This tool allows you to test your website speed from multiple locations and provides a breakdown of the time taken for each element to load. It also provides recommendations to improve your website’s performance.
- WebPageTest: WebPageTest allows you to test your website speed from different browsers and devices, and provides a detailed analysis of your website’s performance. It also provides a Waterfall Chart that shows how long each element takes to load.
- Lighthouse: Lighthouse is an open-source tool developed by Google that provides a comprehensive analysis of your website’s performance, including page speed, accessibility, and SEO. It provides lab data based on a simulated test and identifies areas for improvement.
By using these tools, you can identify issues that are impacting your website speed and take steps to optimize your website’s performance.
Google Search Console
For a detailed examination of individual page speeds, I highly suggest accessing the Speed Report within Google Search Console.
You can use Google Search Console to track the progress and changes of your site’s page speed. It’s worth noting that many of the same metrics can also be found in Google Analytics.
New Relic
New Relic is a tool that provides advanced features to monitor website speed, debug code issues, and optimize plugin performance for faster page loading. While it requires a subscription, it offers valuable features such as real-time alerts when page speed drops after a site update.
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How To Improve Website Speed
Although tools can identify specific issues with your website, there are general best practices you can adopt to enhance your website’s page speeds.
Caching
Implementing caching is an effective way to quickly improve website speeds for returning visitors. By enabling web or browser caching, websites can store data on a client-side device, reducing the number of resources required to load the site during the next visit. Plugins such as WP Rocket and WP Super Cache provide caching functionality and can greatly enhance the user experience.
Enable Compression
Enabling compression via an automated plugin can help reduce the drag on any website caused by large file and image sizes. Optimole and WP Rocket, which include the Imagify plugin, are among the many plugins available for WordPress.
Lazy Loading
Delaying file loads until the user accesses them is a feature offered by caching tools such as WP Rocket or LazyLoad. With lazy loading, images or files below the fold of a webpage are not loaded until a user scrolls down the page.
Optimize Your Server Location/CDN
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a system of distributed servers that work together to deliver web content, such as images, videos, and other static files, to users based on their geographic location. Instead of serving content from a single server, a CDN stores copies of website content on multiple servers in various locations worldwide.
When a user requests a webpage, the CDN identifies the closest server to the user and delivers the content from that server. This helps reduce latency and improves website performance by ensuring that users can access content quickly and easily, regardless of their location.
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Having your webpage hosted on a server located geographically closer to your users can help decrease latency and load times. However, if you cater to a global audience, it’s advisable to invest in a content delivery network (CDN) that can significantly reduce latency times and load speeds for people worldwide.
Minify Resources
Optimizing CSS and JavaScript files is crucial to improve webpage loading speed. Minifying these files, which involves removing unnecessary characters, spaces, and comments, can help reduce file size and decrease the time required to download them.
Additionally, removing or consolidating duplicate code can further reduce the number of requests the client and server need to handle to load a webpage properly. There are several tools available, like Minify and Autoptimize, that can automatically optimize these files for you.
Reduce Plugins And Unnecessary Code
In conclusion, removing unnecessary resources like outdated backend plugins can optimize your website’s performance and reduce the load on devices trying to access it.
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It is essential to regularly audit and remove plugins that are no longer in use to ensure that your website runs efficiently. This is a common problem among WordPress site owners who often forget to remove legacy plugins that can severely impact their website’s functionality and speed.
Wrap Up
With an understanding of how to test website speed and which metrics to focus on, you can now take steps to improve your site’s speed and track how it affects your SEO rankings.
Although website speed is just one of many factors that impact SEO, the advantages of having a fast-loading website outweigh the costs associated with optimizing it. If you want to grow your business by getting more leads and generating sales, you must hire an Enterprise SEO specialist for quick results.
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