Make your website fastest loading website alive

Even now, when Internet speeds at most Internet service providers exceed 100 Mbit/s, and mobile operators are developing 5G, the issue of website loading speed is still relevant. This parameter significantly affects conversion, bounce rate, traffic and other important business KPIs. Thus maintaining fast loading speeds is one of the most important things for a website owner. 

Other things being equal, a person will choose a website that loads faster and does not make him wait. This is what logic, personal user experience and numerous studies on the subject that can be found on the Internet tell us. And all the researchers agree that the optimal loading time – from 1,5 to 3 seconds. If the page loads longer, more than half of the users leave it without waiting for a miracle.

Reasons why website loading speed is important

Google researches found that increasing the download speed from 1 to 3 seconds increases the probability of failure by 32%, and from 1 to 5 seconds – by 90%. Another study found that an increase in download speed by 1 second leads to a 25% decrease in conversion. And there are plenty of studies like this. 

So, the logic of users is quite clear. If a user comes across a slow website, he is more likely to return to the search to find an alternative. And especially fast websites are important for mobile – because here, in addition to the website itself, connection speed plays a role. 

In addition, in 2019 Google moved websites to Mobile First indexing. Now the ranking priority is given to assessing the quality of the mobile version. And that’s not even mentioning that Google Ads tend to remove websites with slow loading speeds from ad units and queues.

Considering all the above, if your websites’ speed is slow, it will lose its audience, Users will leave and new users won’t visit it. On top of that, your website will lose search engines’ ratings. And ads campaigns will be suspended. Thus you will lose time and, what’s most important, you will lose money.

Ways to optimize website loading speed

First of all, a large number of requests from the browser badly affects the loading speed of the website. To reduce the number of requests, you can, for example, remove unnecessary images, JS-files, and code from third-party services. You can also combine several small elements (icons, buttons) into a single CSS sprite. And, of course, it is obligatory to use caching. 

Images of large size and resolution also significantly slow down the loading of the page. To avoid this, use JPEG images instead of PNG – they weigh 5 times less without compromising on quality. You can reduce the size of images with any online optimizer. Or you can, for example, run the picture through Photoshop and save it in a special format designed for websites.

Also, to further reduce the amount of data sent to the user’s browser, use GZIP compression. This will reduce the size of web files by 70% without degrading their quality. To check if this compression method is available for your website, use GiftOfSpeed or GTmetrix.

And if the JavaScript and CSS code is too long and contains a lot of unnecessary elements (spaces, comments, etc.), the page may load with delays. To optimize the code, you can shorten function names and clean up the code with special services, and place CSS files at the very beginning and JS files at the end of the page.

Separately, note that the further away from your computer is the server of your hosting provider, the slower the website is loaded. Content Delivery Networks or CDNs can help “shorten” this distance. When a person visits a website, the CDN downloads web files from its server, which is the closest to the user.

Tips on mobile website version optimization

Checking websites using Google Search Console is an easy way to find flaws in the mobile version of your website. Checking a page is easy: you just have to type its URL in the toolbar. It takes a few seconds to check the page itself. All of the redirects on the website will also be examined.

The results of the check will tell you what the page looks like on your smartphone and what problems will occur when it’s displayed. Most problems are usually due to the font being too small or too large. As well as Flash elements that most smartphones don’t accept.

And if Search Console does not have access to the page, you will see a corresponding error message in front of you. If the page has non-loadable resources, you will see a warning message.

How to prevent slow website loading 

In order to figure out the causes of problems with website load speed, you will need to perform a full-scale diagnostic. It includes many tests using all possible tools, including so-called synthetic page speed testing and real-user monitoring (RUM). 

Using synthetic tests, the webmaster receives general information about the loading speed of the main page of the website. This also includes load times for different elements from all external sources, with information about the size and type of content loaded. All that will require using specific scripts or software and some time to find out and fix problems. 

Using RUM the webmaster collects information about loading speed of all website pages from real users with the help of a special JavaScript script. This allows a webmaster to get a detailed report on page loading speed. And there will be a lot of statistics to look through.

After all the above, the webmaster will need to look through reports and find out where the source of troubles is. And there could be a lot of various reasons for the website to load slowly. And they surely will be hidden. And in the end, after the test the webmaster will have to constantly monitor all the indicators, which takes a lot of time.

However, there is a way out of this situation – automation of monitoring. For example, you can use HostTracker, a service designed for continuous monitoring of websites. This will allow a large-scale technical review to be carried out in a short time. And after the diagnostics, the webmaster will be able to eliminate all the identified problems at a comfortable pace. Such an approach allows for minimum labor costs to ensure the best effect.

Effective way to monitor website speed

A feature of the HostTracker service called “Response time check” is responsible for diagnosing the loading speed of websites and web pages. It’s easily configurable, so even a novice can handle it. You simply open the Response time check setup panel and enter the URL to monitor. And then you need to specify the value of the optional Timeout parameter. Each time your website’s loading speed exceeds this threshold, you will receive a notification. With this tool, you will always know how well your website loads. Website statistics and event history are always available in a convenient format.

To add more pros to opting in, HostTracker is a complete toolkit for webmasters that requires almost no daily attention. It checks the availability of the website around the clock, collects statistics on various metrics, and alerts webmasters to problems. This approach allows you to quickly find and fix problems with the website. What’s more, detailed statistics allow you to detect problems that are not obvious. In addition, even a novice can handle setting up all the available checks. And its 30-day free trial period is more than enough to understand all available features of the service.