Website speed optimization should be a top priority during the designing process. Google and users value speed and will abandon a website if it loads slowly. Both Google and users prioritize fast loading times, and a slow website can lead to abandonment. A delay in page loading creates a negative user experience, and research shows that roughly 53 percent of mobile users are inclined to exit a site and go back to the search results if the page takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
Website Speed Optimization Checklist
1. Mobile-friendliness
In today’s world, having a website that is optimized for mobile devices is essential rather than optional. A site that lacks mobile optimization is not viable and will struggle to gain increased traffic and conversions. To enhance a website’s performance, it’s important to assess its mobile-friendliness.
Here are some tools you can utilize to determine if a website is mobile-friendly:
If the website isn’t optimized for mobile devices, you will need to undertake some design and development efforts to create a responsive layout.
2. Accessibility
It’s important for everyone to create a website that is usable and accessible for everyone, including individuals with impairments, disabilities, and limitations.
Web accessibility is an essential aspect that developers need to prioritize before focusing on improving website loading speed. If you’re developing a site with WordPress, tools such as Accessibility Suite can be very useful.
3. Use a content delivery network (CDN)
Investing in a content delivery network (CDN) is an effective method to enhance the loading speed of web pages. A CDN stores media files on a wide network of servers that are located in different areas around the globe.
In other words, a CDN delivers web content to users depending on their geographical location.
To learn more about CDN, follow the Hosting Column post, What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN)?
4. Server response time
Minimizing server response time should be a key objective in optimizing website speed.
Tools that can help check a website’s server response time include PageSpeed Insights and GTmetic, among others. According to Google, you should aim for a TTFB lower than 200 milliseconds to ensure a faster loading speed and a good user experience.
Here are the steps you can take to improve server response time:
- Use a CDN
- Invest in upgraded server hardware to solve memory issues
- Change how the server prioritizes database
- Update server applications logic
- Suggest a better hosting service
- Reduce resource size
5. Image optimization
Although images are essential for an effective website, utilizing oversized or improperly formatted files can harm its performance. Therefore, it’s important to verify that the images used on a website are appropriately sized and formatted to prevent any slowdowns.
Applications such as JPEGmini can assist in reducing image file sizes while maintaining their quality. Nevertheless, it’s important to be aware of the two primary types of compression when compressing images: lossy and lossless.
6. Caching
Caching is an additional method you can implement to enhance website speed. It entails saving images on a proxy server or within the browser cache to lessen the number of application requests.
When opting to cache images on a proxy server, it is necessary to establish storage for images across multiple point of presence (PoP) servers. These servers are geographically dispersed, allowing the images to be delivered from the nearest server, which in turn decreases the loading time of the page.
7. Resizing
Bigger image files can decrease a website’s performance, particularly for users accessing it via mobile devices. As a web developer, it’s essential to strike a balance between image quality and file size, and resizing images can help you with this. If displaying large images is necessary, consider using a thumbnail instead. Only load the full-sized image when the user specifically requests it.
8. Delete unnecessary plugins
Plugins offer an excellent method to enhance the capabilities of a host application without altering it. Nevertheless, having many inactive plugins on a website can result in significant issues.
In addition to the quantity of plugins, their quality can also affect the speed of the website. The optimal strategy is to steer clear of plugins that produce excessive database queries. Retain only the essential plugins and make sure they are kept up to date.
9. Minimize HTTP requests
To reduce HTTP requests, start by assessing how many requests a website generates. Users of Chrome can utilize Chrome DevTools to check the total number of HTTP requests made by the site. After identifying that the website has a high number of HTTP requests, you can implement the following strategies to decrease them and enhance the site’s loading speed:
- Delete unnecessary images
- Reduce image size
- Combine CSS and JavaScript files
- Minify CSS and JavaScript files
Based on the size of the website, aim to limit the number of files to between 10 and 30, unless the site is extensive and contains a significant amount of content, images, and videos.
10. Minify CSS and JavaScript
Although CSS and JavaScript enhance a website’s functionality, an overabundance can lead to an increase in the page size. Excess unused CSS and JavaScript can become difficult to manage and adversely affect a site’s performance.
Google DevTools offers CSS and JavaScript coverage features to assist in pinpointing and removing superfluous code. By eliminating unnecessary elements such as spaces, comments, and tabs, the size of the files can be significantly minimized, thereby improving the loading speed and overall performance of the website.
11. Reduce redirects
Redirects can contribute to a website’s slower loading times. When a page leads to another via a redirect, it forces visitors to wait longer to see the content they seek.
To minimize redirects, start by identifying their presence. Tools such as PageSpeed Insights can assist in analyzing a client’s website and providing a report on all existing redirects. Eliminate any unnecessary redirects and retain only those that are essential.
12. 404 errors
404 errors frequently occur for individuals using the internet. They signify that the page sought after is unavailable. Encountering these errors on a website can harm a brand, adversely impact SEO, and create a poor user experience. In reality, users who come across broken links on a particular site are not likely to revisit those web pages.
Dial in your website speed optimization
The advantages of a fast-loading website are crucial. A slow website results in poor user experience and diminished rankings in search engine outcomes. However, this situation can be improved.
By adhering to the checklist provided, you can transform your website into a speed powerhouse, greatly enhancing its search result rankings. This will also contribute to establishing your reputation and generate more opportunities and referrals for you.
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