Deciphering Page Speed
Site loading speed is one of the ranking factors. A large load time negatively affects the position in the issuance. Google favours fast resources.
User behaviour depends on the speed – the faster the site loads, the higher the probability that the visitor will stay and perform the target action. That is, conversion and other related business parameters – ROI, LTV, sales – are also tied to speed.
The optimal loading time is 2-3 seconds. The ideal is user response time, i.e., 0.5 sec. However, for highly loaded web applications, the optimal speed may be different. In such cases, SEO website promotion requires you to conduct a speed check and calculate the average loading time of competitors’ sites and orientate yourself on it.
Tools for checking site speed
Google Page Speed Insights. One of the most popular SEO tools for analysing websites. It can determine the loading speed of desktop and mobile versions and give recommendations on how to increase it. It shows how fast the page loaded for real users, as well as the results of simulation using the Lighthouse tool. The search engine considers a resource that has received 90-100 points to be fast.
Page Speed Insights measures the loading speed of a website based on six parameters.
First Contentful Paint – shows the time between the start of page loading and the first block of text or image appearing.
Speed Index – that is, the speed at which content appears on the page.
Largest Contentful Paint – the time it takes to render a large block of text or image.
Time to Interactive – the page is fully ready to engage with the visitor.
The sum of all periods from the first rendering of content to load for interaction when the task completion rate was above 50ms.
Cumulative Layout Shift – the percentage by which visible elements of the area are shifted on loading.
What affects download speed
A website is essentially a system of linked electronic documents: files, images, videos, code directly. The size of the documents affects speed. High weight – no speed. First find out the weight of your own site.
Hosting is the second cause of slow page performance. Some providers host their clients’ websites on shared hosting. If there are too many of them, the loading speed is greatly reduced. This happens due to increased load on the server. Hosting must be suitable for the technical requirements of the resource.
How to increase download speed
Reduce the number of queries. Queries and responses take time. By reducing their number, we will increase the speed of the site. To do this, load all files that are possible statically without using database queries. Additionally, merge CSS and JS into separate files. Gulp, Grunt, and WebPack plugins will help with this.
Optimise CSS and JavaScript. Site loading speed is greatly affected by the size and number of CSS and JS files, so compress them using online tools CSS Minifier and CSS Compressor for CSS; and JS Minifier and JavaScript Compression Tool for JS. Place JS scripts at the very end of the code before the closing tag .
Optimise images. Pictures usually take up the bulk of the file size. Compress them as png, jpg, svg using Kraken.io and TinyPNG tools. Use iconizr services for svg and css.spritegen.com for png, gif, jpeg to combine all icons into a sprite. Don’t place photos larger than necessary on the site.
Use technology to load content instantly. In Yandex – it’s Turbo Pages, in Google – Accelerated Mobile Pages. Technologies allow you to create lightweight versions of pages that weigh ten times less. This helps pages load quickly, including on mobile devices.