Why Load Time is Important
The top reason why load time is important is that internet users want to visit as many web pages as possible and don’t have seconds to waste on slow-loading websites. It’s also important that your web pages load as fast as possible so that they will be considered relevant to search engines, which work on weeding out slow loading sites in their search results.
Monitor Load Time
An easy way to monitor your load time is using the Google Page Speed Testing tool within Analytics. To find the tool click “Behavior” then “Site Speed” then “Overview.” The tool reveals how many seconds it takes for a web page to load after you enter the URL then click “analyze.” The tool gives you a score and offers suggestions to optimize. It’s most useful for spotting performance problems. Some of the various things you can learn about your site through Analytics include speed of landing pages, traffic sources and visitor geography.
Analyze Browser Issues
Google Analytics has a feature that lets you test and compare different browser speeds. Analytics can also tell you which countries are accessing your pages the quickest. You can also compare browsers to see which ones bring you the most visitors. Usually browser problems simply require downloading the latest version of the browser. It’s possibly to speed up loading time by saving files in the user’s browser with a technique called browser caching.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Tighten Up Code
Writing more simplified code can help accelerate loading time. Code can be cleaned up by eliminating unnecessary tags, spaces and excessive coding. Compacting javascript code will also help speed up loading time. GZIP compression is another tool that can be used to accelerate loading, by reducing file sizes. The most popular Content Management Systems allow plugins that can reduce code across your entire site.
If your site was originally made with a web design program such as Dreamweaver, it may have a lot of unnecessary code added to the page. Cleaning up this code is important since search engines do not favor all the extra code. Keeping HTML simple solves many loading issues.
Optimize Images
You can make images look their best by cropping them and adjusting the height and width in pixels. JPEG is best for storing high resolution photos, then PNG. Avoiding BMPs and TIFFs will help lead to faster loading images. Make sure that the images are not so big that they take a long time to load. Keeping your images small and limiting the number of images per page will help dramatically in reducing and eliminating latency.
Consider a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
The advantage of using a CDN for companies that have operations in various countries is that it can deliver copies of web pages from local sources faster than a global site. A CDN such as Cloudfare helps users store their data closer to their locations. CDN connections are helpful, but not necessary, in speeding up load time.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Clik here to view.
