Learn how we can help with on-page SEO.
How quickly your website loads is a critical factor for on-page SEO. In this post, we’ll explore four ways you can improve your website’s loading speed.
But before we get to that, let’s take a look at why it’s so important to have a fast loading website in first place.
Optimize images
Minimize HTTP requests
Use a content delivery network
Conclusion
A fast loading website is important for two main reasons: user experience and search engine ranking.
User Experience: A study by Google showed that people tend to abandon websites that take longer than three seconds to load. In fact, a one second delay in page response can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.
Search Engine Ranking: Google also takes site speed into account when determining search engine rankings. So if you want your website to rank well, you need to make sure it loads quickly.
Now that we know why website speed is so important, let’s look at four ways you can improve your website’s loading speed for on-page SEO.
1. Optimize Images
One of the easiest ways to improve your website’s loading speed is to optimize your images. Image optimization involves reducing the file size of your images without reducing the quality.
There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the easiest is to use an online tool like TinyPNG. Just upload your image and let the tool do its job. In most cases, you’ll be able to reduce the file size by 50-80%.
2. Minimize HTTP Requests
Another way to improve your website’s loading speed is to minimize HTTP requests. An HTTP request is made every time a browser tries to load a file from a server. So the more files you have on your website, the more HTTP requests are made, and the slower your website will load.
There are a few ways to reduce the number of HTTP requests:
– Use CSS sprites: A CSS sprite is a single image that contains all the images used on a web page. By using a CSS sprite, you can reduce the number of HTTP requests from dozens to just one.
– Minify resources: Minifying simply means removing all unnecessary characters from your code, such as whitespace, comments, and block delimiters. This can reduce the file size of your code by 50% or more.
3. Use a Content Delivery Network
Another way to improve your website’s loading speed is to use a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN is a network of servers that deliver content to users based on their geographic location.
For example, if you have a website with content that’s hosted in the United States, but most of your users are in Europe, using a CDN can help improve your website’s loading speed. That’s because the content will be delivered from a server that’s closer to the user’s location, rather than all the way from the United States.
4. Conclusion
Improving your website’s loading speed is important for both user experience and search engine ranking. In this post, we’ve looked at four ways you can improve your website’s loading speed:
– Optimize images
– Minimize HTTP requests
– Use a content delivery network
By following these tips, you can make sure your website loads quickly and ranks well in search engines.
Jamie Fallon is an SEO expert who lives life to the maximum, redlining every day on a rollercoaster straight to the grave.
In an SEO career of almost ten years, he’s seen it all, he’s done it all, and he’s not impressed: from white text on a white background to today, when you can have robots paint or write for you like some kind of sick science fiction come true.
No matter what life throws at him, Jamie always manages to come out on top. He’s an expert at seeing the silver lining in every cloud and making the best of every situation. His positive attitude and unshakable faith in himself have seen him through tough times. For some people, success goes to their heads; but Jamie never forgets what got him to wherever he thinks he is.
When he’s not busy gaming the system, you can find him writing angry thinkpieces on how Google is ruining everything good about the internet, or hanging out with his wife (pictured).