Website Speed Optimisation

What is website speed optimisation?

Website speed optimisation refers to the length of time a webpage takes to be downloaded from a hosting server and be displayed on the user’s web browser. No doubt you’ll have come across websites in the past that seem to take an age to load and ultimately ended up frustrated. Not only does a slow website impact the user experience of your visitors, Google has also confirmed that page speed has a direct impact on search engine rankings, making it an important SEO factor to consider too.

Why is website speed optimisation important?

Simply put, a delay of 1 second reduces page views by 11%, decreases customer satisfaction by 16%, and decreases conversion rate by 7%! The statistics show a staggering drop-off in revenue and conversions. Taking into account various case studies and tests over the years, statistics show that boosting your website speed will also boost your success with reaching people online – regardless of what your goal is. When visitors leave your site, this activity is automatically monitored by Google and other search engines. If too many people abandon your website without interaction, the search engine algorithm essentially marks your website as lacking value, having a negative impact on your Search Engine Optimisation efforts.

How fast is my website currently?

Fortunately, there are various free tools available that you can use to analyse your websites current performance:

• Google Page Speed Insights
• GTmetrix
• Pingdom

Although it’s difficult to come up with a definitive answer on what your page speed should be, the general consensus is to aim for load times of 2 seconds and less.

What does website speed optimisation consist of?

A speedy website will enhance user experience and improve search engine rankings.  There’s lots of different techniques we can utilise to enhance the loading time of your websites, including: