10 Factors that Affect Web Page Speed
[Free Takeaway Included – 35-PointChecklist to Strengthen Core Web Vitals]
It’s a no-brainer that the page load speed of your website matters for the overall user experience. The average user has no patience for a page that takes too long to load and rightly so. If the pages don’t load quickly enough, your audience will abandon the site and move on.
In short, speed equals revenue. The longer it takes for the page to load, the greater the impact on conversion rates.
Source - VWO
Every Second Matters
According to Google’s New Industry Benchmarks for Mobile Page Speed, the average time it takes to fully load a mobile page has dropped to seven seconds.
However, the same report found that the average website takes up to twenty-two seconds to fully load. That’s more than twice the seven-second benchmark!
On top of these figures, Google has also recently announced that it will account for page load speed and core web vitals as a mobile ranking signal in its newest page experience update. That means low page speed will lead to a dip in mobile search rankings.
In line with the recent
updates, we assessed how the homepages of the top 50 banks across Asia Pacific,
Europe and North America are faring against the page experience update and the
results were truly astonishing.
Google’s study along with the above study unfortunately indicates that most sites are falling short when it comes to page load speed and page experience. But the good news is that there’s room for improvement and optimizing page speed and experience can be a game-changer for your business.
Important Factors that Slow Down Your Site’s Page Load Speed
Making one-off technical changes to your website will not make it fast forever. Website optimization ought to be a continuous practice and you will need to check your page speed regularly as and when you make changes to your website.
As there are multiple factors at play that can slow down or speed up your website, ensure to run detailed analysis and audits that will give you insights on ways to improve this key metric.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some factors that could be crippling page load speed:
1. Number of Page Elements
Customers are less likely to convert on clunky and complex site pages that have too many elements that compromise loading time. As a site owner, stick to your benchmark page load speed and cull unnecessary page elements that cause load time to exceed that limit.
2. Limited-Capability CMS
Using an optimal CMS for your website’s function is important. Choose a CMS that is flexible to manage your specific purposes for the website and performs well during traffic peaks.
3. Number of Images
Based on research done by Google, it was found that fewer images per page increase page speed and, in turn, lead to more conversions. In pages where you have more images, they ought to be optimized in the right file format, size and compressed well so that you can squeeze the best performance for your page loading speeding. You can also consider lazyloading images.
4. DOM Ready Time
Document Object Model (DOM) is the amount of time it takes for the page’s HTML code to be received and parsed by the browser. Sites that have excessive DOM size may take longer to load. You can speed up the DOM ready time of your site by adding javascript as close to the bottom as possible as it may block and prevent a browser from parsing HTML code.
5. Too many Redirects and HTTP Requests
A site is a collection of data and files. So for every entity, it requires a separate HTTP request to be made and this can increase the page load time drastically. Therefore, reduce the number of HTTP requests and redirects using CSS sprites to bundle requests together and webmasters for redirects.
6. Not Using Caching
Static components of the page that stay the same across all pages of the site spares the browser from the need to retrieve them from the server each time the user navigates to pages and re-enters the website.
7. Not Using a Content Delivery Network
A CDN can accelerate the delivery of site content like videos, images, CSS files or Javascript by gathering it from multiple servers at once and thus improve page speed.
8. Not Enabling Compression
Using a compression software application such as Gzip, you can reduce the size of files up to 70% and thereby speed up the page load time. Besides, you can also minify the code by removing redundant characters and spaces before compressing the file for added impact.
9. Mediocre Hosting
Initially, your page speed may be great and you may choose a low-quality hosting provider. However, once traffic starts to flow in, it may be necessary to upgrade to a web host that is flexible and reliable and get a dedicated IP address for your account.
10. Lack of Focus on Core Web Vitals
The on-page experience matters a great deal with the recent page experience update by Google. This includes focusing on core web vital metrics of the page including the loading performance of important elements, the responsiveness of the page and the layout changes.
Here’s a free checklist to strengthen your web page’s core web vitals and be prepared for the page experience update.
A one-second delay in page response can shoot your conversion rates down by 7%. That’s exactly why you should be focusing on optimizing your web pages for maximum speed and functionality. If not your customers and even search engines will start abandoning your pages. Focus on the sum effect of making all the necessary changes to speed up your website for optimal performance and a powerful online presence management.
What is your best tip to
speed up page loading times? Do share your views by dropping your comments
below or writing to us at marketingfolks@xerago.com.
