Page Speed Optimization: The Key to a Faster, More Successful Website

Having a website that loads fast is essential today as more users utilize mobile devices to find products and services. If your website has slow-loading pages, it can be detrimental to you conversion rate and ROI. Let’s get into the importance of mobile optimization and page speed optimization and what things to focus on to improve this KPI.

Why is Page Speed Important?

Page Speed has become an important ranking factor for search engines recently and is even more important for user experience. Having slow loading pages will lead to low user retention and increased abandonment rates. Studies have shown that every one-second delay can lead up to a 7% decrease in conversion volume. If your website is loading slowly, you are losing opportunities! So what components of page speed optimization should you focus on? We’ll get into that in a moment! Before we do, let’s take some time to investigate what key components are impacted by load times.

Search Engine Rankings

If you are working to improve your ranking on Google or Bing consider the impact of page speed on your ranking. In 2018, Google announced that page speed would be considered as a ranking factor for mobile search as part of their “Speed Update”. Faster websites are essentially more likely to appear higher in search results as Google is prioritizing sites that provide answers to users’ questions first. 

User Experience

The user experience is one of the most important factors when it comes to the success of your website. Visitors to your site expect it to load quickly and perform well, regardless of the device they’re using. If your pages take too long to load, users are likely to become frustrated and leave your site. This can lead to a high bounce rate and a negative impact on your search engine rankings.

Conversion Rates

Research shows that conversions decrease by 7% for every additional second it takes to load your website. This means that the longer it takes to load your website or a specific page the less likely it is for a user to convert. If you are looking to convert more onsite traffic, consider focusing on speed within your optimization strategy! 

So you now how slow load speed can impact your website, let’s get into how to begin to optimize your website speed! 

How to Test Your Page Speed

There is no way to optimize without a benchmark, that’s the first step in making your website load faster. Below are the tools we use here at Arising Media to conduct our speed benchmarks.

Google PageSpeed Insights

Google PageSpeed Insights is a free tool that analyzes the content of a web page and generates recommendations on how to improve. Google Page Speed Insights also provides recommendations for both the mobile and desktop versions of your website, which is absolutely amazing. We recommend focusing on mobile first, and desktop performance should follow! 

GTmetrix

GTmetrix is another top recommendation for testing your website’s overall performance. It provides very detailed information on where to optimize. We recommend pulling a speed report from both Google PageSpeed insights and GTmetrix to see overlapping results.

Tips for Page Speed Optimization

Now that you have the benchmark of your website, it’s time to see what low hanging fruit to address that will have a huge impact on page speed! Here are a few tips to get started! Think about these crucial methods for improving the performance of your website today!

Minimize HTTP Requests

The importance of page speed has been established, and now that you know how to check your site’s performance, we can go on to some suggestions for improving your page speed. Several important approaches are listed below.

• Combining multiple CSS and JavaScript files into a single file
• Reducing the number of images on your site
• Using CSS instead of images where possible
• Using a content delivery network to deliver your images and media on your website.

You may dramatically enhance your site’s page performance by reducing the amount of HTTP queries it makes. 

Optimize Images

Images can become a major drag on mobile devices and can drastically slow down you website load times. To optimize your images for page speed, consider the following:

• Reduce the file size of your photographs using a program like Photoshop or Canva before including them on your website.
• Use the appropriate image file type (JPEG for photos, PNG for graphics with transparent backgrounds, etc.)
• Reduce the size of your images to the size at which they will be displayed on your site

By optimizing your images, you can significantly reduce your site’s page load time and improve its overall performance.

Use Browser Caching

Do you have browser caching enabled? If now turn that on now! Browser caching allows your site to store data locally on a user’s browser of choice. This can significantly improve page load times for returning visitors. To implement browser caching, you can:

• Set the expiry date for your static resources to a future date
• Use a caching plugin, like WP Rocket or W3 Total Cache, to manage browser caching

By using browser caching, you can reduce the amount of data that needs to be downloaded by your site visitors, leading to faster page load times.

Minify and Combine Files

Minifying and combining your site’s CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files can significantly improve page speed. Minification involves removing unnecessary whitespace and characters from your code, while combining files involves merging multiple files into a single file. In this way, you can lessen the load time of your pages by decreasing the quantity of data that users have to download.

You now have the tools and information you need to improve the page speed on your website! Of course, page speed optimization is only one component of website optimization, but when done correctly, it can have a huge impact!

If you need help optimizing your website’s loading times reach out to our team of experts today.

Building Backlinks Into Your Website

Backlinks are links to your website from other websites. They are mentions of you on other websites that direct customers to your site and assist search engines in recognizing you as legitimate and trustworthy. They are one of the most important factors considered by search engines when determining how to rank your site because they demonstrate that your site is useful and important. The more high-quality backlinks pointing to your site, the more likely search engines will regard your site as a reliable and authoritative source.

To build backlinks, you’ll want to reach out to other local businesses and organizations and ask if they’d be willing to link to your site. You can also participate in local events and organizations, contribute to local blogs and forums, and provide helpful resources or information on your website that others may want to link to. A mention by a local news station or newspaper that appears on their website and links to your site, for example, is a fantastic way to build repertoire and help the search engine validate you. By leveraging your local network and providing quality content, you can build a strong foundation of backlinks for your website.

You can also use online tools to track the progress of your link-building efforts. There are several tools available to help you track the number and quality of links pointing to your website. By using these tools, you can gain insight into which of your links are providing the most benefit, and which need to be improved. Additionally, some of these tools can help you identify new link opportunities that you may not have considered before. 

You may also utilize social media as a great way to build links back to your website. Use the power of social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest to start building relationships with other webmasters who might be interested in linking to your content. Try contacting other local influencers or members of your community or industry. You can also create content that other people will want to link to, such as blog posts and video tutorials. You may want to take advantage of guest blogging opportunities, which allow you to provide valuable content on other sites in exchange for a link back to your site. Finally, don’t overlook the use of tools such as web directories and press releases. 

Remember to keep track of your link-building progress. Keep an eye on the number and quality of links arriving, as well as the anchor text used in them. This will give you a better idea of how effective your efforts are and what else needs to be done in the future. 

Finally, it’s important to remember that link-building should never replace quality content on your website. Create compelling content that speaks to your target audience, then use link-building to drive traffic. This way, you can ensure that you are providing a valuable service to both your readers and potential customers.

How To Maintain Consistency with Your NAP

NAP is an abbreviation for Name, Address, and Phone Number, and it is critical to the success of your local SEO campaign. When it comes to local SEO, it’s critical to ensure that your NAP is consistent across all of your online listings, including your website, Google My Business listing, and any other directories or platforms you use.

Having inconsistent NAP information can confuse search engines and make it difficult for them to understand where your business is located and how to contact you. To avoid this, make sure all your NAP information is accurate and consistent, and if you have multiple locations, make this clear, as well. Having multiple phone numbers or addresses listed can also confuse users, so make sure that you have a clear contact page or directory with all your necessary information. Additionally, if you are displaying your NAP on your website or listings, make sure to include the specific area code for each of your phone numbers.

Make Your Site Easy to Navigate

Finally, ensure that your website is simple to use and that all of your pages have descriptive, keyword-rich titles. This will help both search engines and visitors understand what your site is about and where to find the information they’re looking for. Nobody, including search engines, likes it when the answer they are looking for is difficult to find. When designing and updating your website, make sure that it is easy to navigate and that answers are almost immediately available to users, as this increases the likelihood that they will book faster which means more business for you!

We do hope that this article helps you to understand why local Search Engine Optimization is so critical for your business and that you utilize this information to generate leads for yourself. If you need help, more information, or further assistance in taking any of these steps, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at Arising Media. As mentioned, all things SEO are our passion and specialty, and we are happy to work with you and assist you!