Is 1 second ever slow? It sure can be, at least when analyzing web page loading speeds. Shaving off a second or two from your “page load” speed does more than just give visitors to your site a better experience, it’s been a big ranking factor with search engines like Google when considering where your site appears it search results.
So having fast load speeds is a positive on a few fronts, but it appears in the very near future having poor page load speed could possibly be even worse for your website in search rankings. Google is now testing new, red “Slow” labels for websites that have slow load speeds which warns the user that the site that a particular site may take a while to load. Think about that…how would a potential visitor to your site react when seeing a big, red SLOW label next to your search result? It’s almost like a sign that says DO NOT ENTER. So while this feature is currently just in beta-testing, you can be pretty sure it won’t be long before Google turns this into a reality. Google always is striving to give the users of Google the best experience possible, and steering people away from slow loading sites would be a step in that direction for sure.
My advice, be pre-emptive, as your web site pages should be loading quickly as it is. Here’s a few things to make sure you look into to improve your website’s loading speed:
1. Check your load speed! One easy way is through Google’s Page Load Speed tool. CLICK HERE to go to it. Input a web page URL and see how you score. Just like in school…did you pass? Scores are done on a 100 point scale and if your score shows in Green you’re perfect. Yellow, a little tweaking needs to be done, and Red…issues need to be addressed right away.
2. Upgrade your server! Not many people put much thought into this…they usually just pick the cheapest one available, as they don’t think it’s important. WRONG! The speed of your web server is directly related to the speed your website loads. Don’t go cheap here. If possible, get a content delivery network (CDN) setup.
3. Compression! Make sure your web files are compressed. No point in having big files when small ones will do.
4. Minimize code. Minimize redirects. Avoid bad requests. Simple.
5. Specify image sizes and optimize them. Crop them first, then upload them at the correct size.
6. CSS at the top, JavaScript at the bottom.
7. Enable browser caching.
So why are you waiting? Better yet, why are you making your web site visitors wait? Fix up your website today!
