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 optimize the SERP? And how does a web page lose visitors although there is great content and offers an excellent user experience? It would help tweak the SEO strategy to 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 download. 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 in India to boost your site speed.
Keep the webpage straightforward
Whenever you are designing the homepage, the most crucial point of concern is simplicity. 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. It should not take a long time for loading. A long wait is an immediate switch to the following website link by the user. Add links like ‘More’ or ‘check out’ or ‘Blog/gallery’ that gives the additional 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 ensure 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 lesser space and is faster to download. Unfortunately, if you are procuring images in PNG or other bulky formats, you have the option of conversion. Use the free online tools like TinyJPG, ImageOptimizer, and Compresso.io to convert image from JPEG to PNG or PNG to JPEG.
Maintain the text-image association relevantly
Keep the territory segregated and do not overlap the content with the images. You should maintain the harmony of colors and ensure that the pictures do not look out of context. For example, on a white backdrop, place-colored images and keep the text in white or shade. So, when the webpage downloads, the text appears first, and visitors get something to engage 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 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 the clients. 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 the third-party applications
Reduce the third-party scripts for sending and receiving data from websites. The third-party applications (TPA) do not create your webpage and use outside tools to a web host. When you use the TPA, it requires more downloading time. You can check speed by removing the application one by one and overserving the loading speed. Sometimes many unwanted apps only add delay time to the webpage, which you can rid off.
Minimize the coding
Speed is directly proportionate to the content on the image and also backhand coding. Your web developers must focus on minimizing the codes. It is possible 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 the 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 – 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 enormous time. Please 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.