Visitors to your website are much more likely to do business with you if they can quickly navigate your website and easily gather the information they need. Fast speed significantly influences user experience; the more positive a user’s experience is, the more likely it is that the session will lead to a conversion. This theory has been proven by big names such as Amazon who has seen millions of dollars of increased profit directly resulting from page speed improvements.
Though we don’t know the exact significance of its influence, Google has confirmed that site speed is one of the factors they consider when ranking websites on search engine result pages. Recently announcing a move to a “mobile first” index, both mobile and desktop speed are essential in guaranteeing your site has a high rank for your keywords. With a helpful tool that gives each website a score, Google is making it easier than ever for business owners and web designers to test their site’s speed and make improvements where necessary. In order to improve your site speed, consider some of the suggestions below:
- Keep CSS and JavaScript to a minimum
- While CSS and JavaScript can make your website more appealing, overuse can cause significant damage to your page load speed. Keep an eye on your usage and if it is affecting your score, consider limiting it where possible.
- Consider a new hosting plan
- There are hundreds of options of where to host your website and while some free or inexpensive packages may be appealing, they will likely hurt you in the long run. If your host is causing your page to load slowly, consider a new plan or a new company who offers faster load times.
- Optimize your images
- Reducing your images’ file size can instantly improve your page speed and improve user experience.
- Optimize for Mobile.
- Ensuring your web pages can be viewed clearly on any mobile device is not only important for site speed but it is also a major ranking factor.
- Reduce the amount of plugins you use
- Plugins on WordPress can add a lot to your website’s appearance and also simplify backend work but using too many plugins can significantly affect your site speed.