A Comprehensive Guide to Optimizing Page Speed for SEO

Do you have a minute?

You probably do when somebody on the street asks you for direction or information. But, I bet you are not willing to spare 10 seconds when it comes to waiting for a web page to spin and load. Then, 10 seconds seems like an eternity.

I hate that. You hate that. Everyone hates that. And, why would you leave out search engines? They too hate pages that take long to load. On the other hand, if your site loads fast, then you don’t have a problem.

Why Page Speed Matters?

If your website is extremely slow to load, then visitors will become annoyed and stop visiting your site. People are addicted to speed. Everyone wants something that can supersede others. Super fast broadband, Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G: they are all the outcome of people’s addiction for speed.

If you are investing a lot of time and money in achieving a higher ranking in search engines, don’t blow out the efforts by having a slow-loading site.

It’s simple as that!

In this article, I decided to share some prove, effective tips for optimizing websites’ loading times.

Without further ado, let’s find out what they are:

Optimize Your Database

Your database can affect your page speed. A database is something you use to store information. If you have a blog site, an eCommerce store, news site, then you’re using a database to store information. A database adds functionality to your site.

The Problem

The problem regarding the database can arise from the lack of index. Many website owners do not want to add an index to their databases. As a result, the database couldn’t deliver information as requested or takes much time to deliver.

What You Can Do

Adding an index to your database is one of the best solutions to this problem. By adding an index, you are optimizing your database, thereby improving page speed. Adding an index will boost your database to find information.

After adding an index, the database will no longer rely on scanning millions of records. It will simply skim through the index to narrow down the massive data to a few hundred. As a result, the page will deliver the data much faster.

Avoid Too Many Analytical Programs

To aid your visitors, and analyze their presence, we use too many analytical programs. But, have you ever stopped and thought whether those programs are responsible for your site being slow? There are tracking codes we like to add, video we like to embed and share buttons we add.

But, all too many analytical programs can slow your website significantly. Of course, there are analytical programs that are immensely useful in analyzing user behavior. For this reason, website owners have to determine which program is necessary.

The Problems

Video embeds use iFrames to display the video. iFrames cause a user to load a whole different page within your main page. Therefore, they hamper load times.

Share buttons are JavaScript-based software components. They too generate an iFrame on the page.

What You Can Do

You don’t need to ditch all those programs. Simply limit their usage. Video is a great medium to build engagement and deliver a better user experience. Limit the use of video embeds. Also, limit the use of share buttons on a page. Use it where they are necessary.

Minimize Redirects

Redirections take your user to a whole separate page you want them to browse. Redirections take time.

The Problem

The more redirections you have on your page, the longer it will take for your user to get to the page redirections is taking them to.

What You Can Do

Avoid using redirections where they are not required.

Optimize Images

Nobody wants to optimize images. Because images play a significant role in generating traffic. Thus, this is one of the most overlooked areas.

The Problem

If your website contains lots of images and large images, it will take longer to load.

What You Can Do

You should know what file types your images have. Then, utilize converting programs like Photoshop or Fireworks. Then covert the images as follows:

Use the PNG format for smaller images. But, keep more complex images in JPG format. Avoid bad CSS too. You can utilize Gzip to compress. This is an effective tool to compress HTML files, CSS, etc.

Summary

From the above discussion, I am sure you got the idea why page speed has become an important factor in the search engines. One can argue that page speed isn’t a make or break factor for the engines though. But, it is for visitors! Thanks for reading my blog on the topic of SEO. So, implement the tips onto your site right now!