Make your website faster by optimising loading times, reducing file sizes and improving user experience to boost both SEO and conversions.
Thomas Haurum
Is there anything more frustrating than visiting a painfully slow website? Hardly.
Our patience is limited when we are searching for information or products online. If we land on a site that loads slowly, we simply move on to the next one.
Poor speed brings nothing positive. It creates a bad experience for the user and, consequently, for you as the website owner. You risk losing potential orders, and Google will note that users quickly leave your site.
So how do you prevent this? The answer lies in focusing on speed optimisation.
Speed optimisation is a complex field that requires both theoretical knowledge and technical skills. But why is there such a strong focus on it right now?
As Google continues to tweak its algorithm to deliver better results to its users, speed optimisation has started to play an increasingly prominent role. Most recently, Google has announced that the speed of your website is now a direct ranking factor. Will you be penalised for neglecting your website’s speed? – All signs point to yes.
Beyond simply keeping up with Google’s algorithm, speed has a much more immediate function – keeping your users happy. Studies show that you win or lose your users in the very first second. The consequence of a website with more than a one second “wait time” is at least as follows:
It’s actually quite simple. Loading speed affects the overall user experience, your conversion rate and, in turn, your bottom line.
In other words, there are no excuses. Get your hands out of your pockets and do something about your speed! It’s a must if you have any ambitions for your digital presence.
In this post, I will highlight the lowest-hanging fruit that form the foundation for a fast site.
To begin with, it’s a good idea to find out how your website is performing. There are plenty of tools available to analyse your site and pinpoint exactly where you should take action. Personally, I prefer GTmetrix. The tool is free, detailed and very user-friendly. The interface is intuitive and rates your site on a scale from 1-100. In addition to an overall score, you also get ratings on individual parameters, so you know exactly where the problems are.
The approach to your speed optimisation depends a lot on how your website is built – and of course, your technical abilities. Most open source CMSs offer ample opportunity to optimise through various plugins, saving you the cost of a developer.
If your website is like most others, there will be the usual optimisation opportunities you can start with. Here they are.
Plugins are a fantastic addition that can really contribute to a beautiful and fully functional website. But! Unfortunately, many plugins are the biggest culprits when it comes to speed optimisation. The short explanation is that the more plugins you have, the more files are called on your site. And if there is one thing that slows down your browser, it is constantly fetching files. In addition to the number of plugins, quality is also an important factor, as there is a big difference in how well-optimised and compressed the code is. Poor plugins can also be one of the biggest security risks, which can quickly cost you your website.
I therefore recommend choosing carefully. Install only the plugins that benefit your business and leave out the “smart” gadgets.
A fundamental step is to consistently compress your images. In this context, there are two key aspects: cropping (length & width) and compression (KB/MB). You need to consider both and address them together.
Cropping
The first question is, where are you using the image? For example, if the image is used in a large slider, the size should match. If you’re struggling to find the exact size for a specific image, you can do the following:
Here, you can see the actual size of the image and the size at which it’s displayed in its current context.
With this information, you now know the exact dimensions the image needs to be reduced to.
Compression
Many people are reluctant to compromise on quality, as their products should look their best – and that’s a perfectly healthy attitude. However, it is possible to compress an image without losing quality. This means fewer bytes but the same quality. This is done using either lossy or lossless compression. In short, file sizes are reduced by lowering the number of colours in the image, so fewer bytes are needed to store it. Visually, the difference is almost invisible, but the compression has a massive effect on file size.
If your website is built in WordPress, you can use the plugin: Smush Image Compression and Optimization. This plugin automatically compresses your images as you upload them. If you don’t use WordPress, you can run your files through TinyPNG.com before uploading.
Every time you reference a file, your browser makes a request to the server. When this happens, there is often a slight delay, which negatively impacts your site’s speed.
Example
You have run a webshop for five years and, in that time, have been recommended all sorts of clever tools designed to provide insight and increase your sales. MailChimp, SleekNote, Pixels, Analytics, Hotjar, CrazyEgg, Facebook Messenger Plugin, LinkedIn Conversion Tracking? In addition, you have a body font in three different weights, one for headlines, and a final one in italics for customer testimonials. Finally, you reference 17 different JavaScript files, each adding their own fancy effect – because what’s more important than a beautiful website?
There are certainly plenty of good arguments for the above implementations. But ultimately, it’s your website’s speed that will suffer.
Reconsider and prioritise your requests
Is your business really dependent on all those different fonts? Or do you actually use LinkedIn Conversion Tracker at all? Remove anything that is often used but does not deliver the desired effect.
Combine your CSS and JavaScript files
Instead of referencing five different JavaScript files, you can confidently combine them into a single file. You can ask your developer to do this or find a plugin that does the job for you. If your webshop is built in WordPress, I recommend Autoptimize.
You may have heard of cache, but never really understood what it does? Simply put, cache is a storage that holds data from websites you have previously visited. Imagine visiting wemarket.dk/coukxx for the first time. Your browser will load all JavaScript, CSS and HTML directly from the server. The second time you visit wemarket.dk/coukxx, your browser has “cached” all this data and placed it in your storage. On your next visit, the browser can retrieve the data from your storage much faster than if it had to search and download it directly from the server.
If you don’t have cache enabled, you’re not on your own. Plugins are available for most CMSs.
Not many people realise this, but the PHP version has a big impact on how quickly your site is read. This is not a change you can make from your website, but with your hosting provider (such as Unoeuro, One.com, SurfTown).
The available versions often range from PHP 5.0 to 7.4.
The recommendation here is to update to the latest available version. However, be aware that this may affect how your site is displayed.
Feel free to contact your developer to update your PHP version and get help with all the other low-hanging fruit from my blog post. It will benefit both you and your potential customers.
Other relevant articles:
Google launches better options for split testing
Why does Google switch its index to Mobile First?
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