Guarantee a great first impression.
An often underrated determining factor of a website’s success is its page speed. Simply put, page speed is the amount of time it takes for a web page to load, but the concept is not as straightforward as it sounds.
Backlinko reports that page speed is typically measured in three different ways:
- Fully Loaded Page describes the time it takes for 100% of a web page to load;
- Time to First Byte defines the time it takes for a page to start loading; and
- First Meaningful Paint refers to the time it takes a page to load enough information for it to be readable and useful to the user.
Page speed is imperative to the overall user experience.
It is one of the first characteristics of your website that leaves a lasting impression, and longer load times can directly correlate to your site’s ability to make conversions from visitors to customers. If your web page is taking too long to load, users are likely to exit quickly, giving you a high bounce rate. The bounce rate is the percentage of users who exit a website after viewing only one page. Additionally, page speed influences search engine optimization.
Since 2010, Google has heavily considered page speed when ranking websites. Your site’s reputation is the crux of your ability to conduct business successfully online. Page speed is at the forefront of your website’s reputation.
There are simple solutions you can use to boost your page speed.
If you are concerned that your web page’s loading speed is negatively affecting your business, worry not! Here are four ways you can improve your site’s page speed:
- Optimize images. Since images often account for a majority of the downloaded bytes, compressing images featured on your web page uses less of a visitor’s bandwidth.
- Use a CDN. Content Delivery Networks cache content in multiple locations around the world. This means all of your site’s traffic won’t have to travel through a single server.
- Minify resources. Remove unnecessary or redundant data in bloated CSS, JavaScript, and HTML code. Doing so will simplify how servers read code, making the process speedier.
- Reduce redirects. Every time a link redirects to a different page, your visitor faces additional waiting time. To counter this, avoid linking to pages with known redirects, clear out plugins that are no longer useful, and regularly scan your web page for redirects to pages that lead to deleted or expired redirects.
Use a page speed testing tool to see how your web pages are loading.
Scan your page’s code with Google PageSpeed Insights for a report that breaks down exactly how long it takes for your site to load using Google Chrome Browser data.
For an array of features including monitoring and tracing international page speed and performance across devices, GTmetrix is routinely clear and easy to use.
For overall site performance or a full core vitals assessment, WebPageTest.org is your best bet.
kaleidaweb Maintenance Plans
If you are not sure where to start with getting the most out of your website, kaleidaweb offers professional WordPress Maintenance Plans to cover all of your bases – including performing tasks described above to help you reach and keep optimal page speed. A small monthly investment, which can be canceled at any time, will ensure your site is functioning in the most effective, professional manner possible.
