Hi, I’m Nate Babbel, and today I am going to answer the question: How can I improve my page load speed?
Page load speed is incredibly important. A one second delay can cost your site as much as a 7% decrease in conversion rate. And on top of that, if your site is too slow, your Google rankings will be penalized.
I am going to go over 5 of the easiest and most impactful ways you can reduce your page load speed.
- Minimize the amount of HTTP Requests: Get rid of Javascript and CSS files you aren’t using or don’t need, combine graphical images into an image sprite, and get rid of any other external http requests on your page that aren’t completely necessary. Some sites have all sorts of plugins and widgets, remember each external request to individual javascript and css files slows your site down and costs you money.
- Make all JavaScript and CSS calls External: Put all of your inline CSS styling and javascript into external files. The more of these you put directly onto the html page, the slower your site will be, not to mention this is very bad coding practice.
- Combine external CSS & JavaScript into as few files as possible: 1 CSS file and 1 Javascript file should be your goal. This also ties to the first recommendation I made of making as few HTTP requests as possible, plus it is always better to have less external files to load.
- Put Javascript file requests at the Bottom of your page: Move as many of your Javascript file requests as possible to the bottom of the page, hopefully you only have 1! This doesn’t give you a faster overall page load speed, but it does give the appearance of a faster load speed. The browser renders your website in direct order of the code, javascript files are generally not needed for the initial site presentation, so it is better to load them after the layout and images.
- Optimize your images: Reduce all images to the smallest possible size that still retain’s the original picture quality. Use Photoshop or other services such as jpegmini.com to save images into a jpeg format and then reduce the size to the lowest possible value that still retains the same quality and crispness.
I will cover more page load speed tips in a later video.
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It’s not exactly a simple/clearcut problem.
1) There’s Actual Load Time, and Perceived Load Time.
2) Improving PLT may mean taking a tiny hit on ALT.
3) Understanding the bottlenecks and obstacles is a must.
4) Prioritisting them in order of effect is important.
It’s possible that to get the User to see something (anything!) means making more than 1 CSS/JS/Sprite image file.
It may also mean opting to include a little bit of CSS/JS embedded in the /.
You also have to becareful when combining files;
* make sure that you get the Cascade order correct for CSS (put them in the combined file in the same order you would normally load them in the ).
* make sure you acknowledge dependencies for JS (don’t load a plugin that fires early before you load the JS Library … don’t load an event-based script before the even-watcher etc.).
(though these are logical – you’d be amazed how often people see their site turns “funny” or things “stop working”)
This is a great post which you shown us about page load. This is really important for search engine optimization
@SEO
Wrong.
According to Google – you do Not get any Ranking Benefit for loading fast!
At present – though Google may have altered the threshold over time since they introduced this,
and it may be more important on Mob SERPs…
… Load Time has no direct influence on Ranking unless you are Slow.
It may (can and does) alter User Perception.
It may alter Bounce-Back-to-SERPs (which I believe is a slow/high volume Ranking Factor).
It may alter who bothers to link to you.
These may there fore alter SEO value … but there is nothing Direct as a “positive”.
Page Load Time is only a Negative Factor at present (or at least that was the case about 7 weeks ago when I last spoke to a Googler).
@Autocrat -> Page load speed is absolutely important to SEO. If your page/website is deemed to load to slow by Google your rankings will suffer.
Now, I think you might be saying that once you get to a certain point of speed it will not help your rankings, that is Google won’t give you bonus points if you have a super fast site.
But it is still a very important factor in search engine optimization, if Google finds your site to be too slow, you will most definitely experience a loss in rankings.
@Nate Babbel
Disagree.
You have to be Very Slow to suffer for it.
I think Google have estimated it affects a tiny % of sites … and all of them are at the bottom end of the Speed ladder.
That is the only effect that Load Time/Page Speed have.
There is No Direct Positive Ranking Influence for the speed of your site, (which is a shame).
So long as you are not ‘at the bottom’ of the page speed ladder – changing your load time will not directly affect your rankings/position at all.
Note: That does Not mean it should not be ignored!
There are tons of good reasons to improve site performance – but they are not strictly SEO reasons.
They are for Usability, UserExperience, Stickiness/Retention, Conversions etc.
Those aren’t “SEO” – they have not direct influence, some of them have no partial/indirect influence either. But they are the “right” reason for improving site speed.
(You also tend to benefit from less server load and lower bandwidth etc. too.)
So do improve performance – but don’t be under the false illusion that it will improve your Rankings (unless you are currently incredibly slow and already hit by Google for it – then you may get some SE benefit
)
@Autocrat
Well, who knows at what slow speed point Google starts negatively affecting your rankings (and we will probably never know, since Google does not share this kind of info). The important thing is, and what we both agree on, if you site is too slow it will negatively affect your SEO and keyword rankings. But of course once you hit the point of the site being fast enough in Google’s eyes, no additional positive gain is achieved.
As a result, make sure you site is not too slow, because it will negatively affect your SEO and rankings.
I never realized how css code inside HTML affects the loading speed of your page. Thank you for the tip!
@Autocrat -> Excellent points. Thank you. There is definitely a lot of complications that can arise when combining files and images, especially when you have a page with a lot of styling and javascript. This video was meant solely as introductory tips.
@Tim -> Your welcome!
This is a great post, Nate. Optimizing your page load speed is critical for online marketing. Customers definitely don’t want to stare at their screen and wait for a time before they get what they want. Thanks!
@Matt -> Thanks Matt! Very critical, many companies don’t realize how critical it really is…
It’s a instrucitve post, Nate!
Site page load speed is an important index to improve user experience. How to improve? A fast load page must have clear and tidy CSS+DIV code, less pictures, video and flash. Try to make webpage simple. Besides, to select server location is also important. Locate your server at places where your main users live.
Thank you SEO services! Excellent points as well.
Glad to have my recommendations validated!
It’s very important to set baselines and compare your site to industry leaders, conduct tests at peak times. Knowing which browsers your audience uses most can equally important. Comparing the number of requests generated, content types used, time spent download each one of them, and location of servers will help you get a clear picture of what you need to do to improve page speed.
Make use of browser caching as that will improve page speed on repeat visits. Set guidelines on image files types and sizes. As a best practice, use no more than 20 images per page and image compression tools, where images have to be used. Server all static content from a separate domain and allow at least one week of expiration on the cookies.
I’ve also heard using mod_pagespeed module on Apache servers will automatically do a lot for you. I still have to try that. Make sure Keep Alive is enabled on your server so connection doesn’t drop. Look into your server specs and bandwidth to improve TTFB (time to first byte). best practice is that TTFB should be between 0.1 to 0.5 sec.
Good Luck!
All excellent points. This is more advanced stuff, but definitely very good tips to improve page load speed.
Thanks for everyone. Learnt a lot here. We are revamping our company’s website. All the discuss here has increased my knowledge regarding search engine friendly web-site.
Once again.
I thank you all
Thanks for the great article. What is your opinion on using jQuery frames in terms of its influence on page load speed? I am working on a site redesign that implements jQuery frames, which look great. But I don’t want to add something pretty at the expense of lower conversions due to a slower load time. Thanks!