Improving Site Speed And Load Time

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A quick loading website has a number of advantages over slower sites. First, and probably the most obvious, a visit to a fast loading site is a pleasant experience, where the information is immediately displayed and visitors’ time isn’t wasted waiting for images to load. According to their research, Google claims that for every .5 seconds of load time, the amount of traffic to a site dropped by 20%. Google also uses load time to determine page quality score †this is another important reason to improve site speed and load time. There’s a strong common industry belief that Google also uses load time in their algorithm while ranking pages on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

The most likely culprits for a slow loading webpage are the various components and elements of the page that actually make it interesting and worth visiting: images, scripts, Flash, JavaScript, CSS, etc. The trick is to retain these features while minimizing site load time. The first step in this process is to determine the exact source of your webpage’s lag. To figure out ...
... exactly where your particular page’s problems lie, try running one of the popular tools available (usually for free) to measure your site speed.

* YSlow: This Firefox extension uses a web development tool called Firebug to investigate the possible causes for your site’s slow speed. It then provides you with a graded report card and a list of beneficial potential changes that could be made to improve your site.

* Google Page Speed: Similar in both function and appearance to YSlow, Page Speed is a Firefox add-on that uses Firebug to help developers and webmasters determine their page load time; it also offers suggestions for improvements.

Once you’ve determined your problem areas, begin the troubleshooting process. Mostly, this will involve reducing the amount of HTTP requests required to display the webpage. To accomplish this task, there are a few simple but effective fixes. For example, to decrease the number of images on the page without actually taking down any images, put them all together (or as many as you can) into a CSS “Sprite,” which will merge all the images together into a single, large image by utilizing the CSS background position property to display the right part of the picture. The bookmarklet, SpriteMe, is perfect for this purpose.

Combining files is a way to further trim the quantity of HTTP requests. This can be achieved by uniting all scripts into just one script, as well as joining all CSS into one style sheet. Another frequently successful tactic used to improve site speed and load time is to arrange a few DNS aliases for fixed content; with each additional hostname from which your webpage requests, load efficiency is increase with more parallel downloads. Every extra hostname adds an additional DNS query to search for the hostname’s IP address †over time, this adds up.

In most cases, finding a company skilled in both web development and SEO is your best option. There are many variables that can affect site load time, and it’s important to correct these issues in a manner that won’t cause your site content to suffer. For a free consultation on how to increase site speeds, contact us and speak to one of our professionals.