The fast pace at which the modern world moves has become one of the dominant factors in conducting business. People are constantly in a hurry to get things done, especially those that are online (which most consumers nowadays are). Google and other search engines recognize this, which is why they put such a value on website development, design, and performance. If you want your business to remain competitive and grow, you need to give customers the best user experience through your website. And that also means giving them quick answers and solutions. Today, we take a closer look at some efficient ways to boost your page loading speed.
What is Page Speed?
- Page Speed can be measured in the time it takes to fully display the content on a page (Page Load Time) and/or how long it takes for a browser to receive the first byte of data from the server (Time to First Byte).
You first need to measure speed before improving it
Before you learn how to boost the speed of your website, you need to learn what the current speed is. And there are several online tools that can help you do just that:
Most of these tools will go beyond simply helping you learn the loading time and focus on offering recommendations on how to resolve the issues that are slowing your page loading speed. The most common issues that can affect page loading speed are:
- Page Size
- The Volume of Requests Generated
- Caching Solutions
- Content (dynamic or static)
After going through these metrics, you will get a more general idea of why your pages keep slacking in terms of speed, and what you can do about it. To get you started, we have prepared the following ten guidelines for increasing website speed:
10 steps to boost your page loading speed
#1: Stop saving money on web hosting providers
Hosting bears a great impact on the overall speed of your website as well as pages. With a goal to lower website maintenance costs, most companies oop for budget-friendly shared web hosting providers. Limitless bandwidth, emails, domains, space, etc. – it all has an appealing sound, especially when it fits your budget needs perfectly. And with so many accounts for other tools such as moving company CRM software, SEO analytics tools, email marketing campaigns, CDN platforms, etc. – the bills can pile up quickly.
However, if you want to boost page loading speed for your website, you need to turn to cloud servers from SiteGround, DigitalOcean, Amazon Web Services, etc. That way, you will avoid a slowdown during peak traffic hours and won’t need to overshare server space with other websites.
#2: Use a lightweight framework or theme
Yes, most businesses today are looking for a unique and complex website that has tailored responsive web design elements. And the good news is that you can have all that without having to invest in heavy-weight CRM platforms. Do your best to keep sliders, widgets, social media icons, and other flashy elements to a minimum. For example, WordPress offers a plethora of themes and plugins that can accommodate your need to have something unique without overburdening the website.
Customers are less interested in the overall richness of the website and more interested in getting the information they need as fast as possible. That is why you need to find the balance between dynamic web design and advertising your moving business through a minimalistic approach.
#3: Make sure to optimize all images on your website
There are only a few things that can slow down your page loading speed as much as oversized images. And as you continue to add new content to your website, this can only become a growing issue. That is why we recommend companies start by uploading images that do not exceed 300 kb in size. This doesn’t mean that you need to opt for small images or ones that are blurry and low-quality. Instead, you can simply resize high-quality images to smaller formats and reduce the file size in the process.
Pay attention to outdated image formats
When you use formats such as jpeg. and png., you are practically hurting your speed metrics. Instead, consider converting to JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, and WebP image formats, as they all have superior quality and compression characteristics in comparison to the older formats. Next-Gen image formats are one of the simpler ways to boost your page loading speed while lowering data consumption.
#4: Cleanse your website of oversized JavaScript (JS) and CSS files
Google Page Insight tends to red-flag this particular issue as a more common one when it comes to page loading speed. By deleting part of the total JS and CSS calls, you can reduce the size of those files. And this can have a direct impact on the speed performance of your website. Additionally, you can also get similar results from minimizing JS and CSS files. This is something that professional developers can help you with, but there are also online guides, plugins, and tools that can help you achieve this goal.
#5: Don’t forget to cache your website regularly
Formerly a complex and time-consuming process, caching a website has been made much easier today. With so many plugins and software solutions that can help you in this endeavor, you can now automatize the entire process, securing a speed boost for your pages as well as your entire website.
#6: Implement a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
As businesses focus on expanding their reach across the nation and globally, the website visitors will vary in terms of IP addresses. And this is something that can take its toll on the loading speed of web pages. That is why website owners opt for the use of Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).
By using a CDN, you can ping different servers across the globe with a copy of your website, all to deliver the data from your website to distant users as quickly as possible. As a result of this, the loading time for your pages is reduced, further contributing to the overall performance of your website.
#7: Make use of GZIP compression
GZIP compression is a way for you to create additional space on your website by storing data in a compressed format. As a result of this process, you end up lowering page access time, as well as bandwidth use. But his particular method also requires special coding or plugins to prevent users to have to unzip your entire website before accessing it.
#8: Declutter your database
Professional moving companies understand the risks of having a cluttered residential, commercial, or storage space. The same rule applies to websites. Ensure that your website remains lightweight if you want to boost your page loading speed. And that means cleaning your website from:
- Spam comments
- Fake users
- Unwanted plugins
- Unpublished draft content
- Trashed files, etc.
#9: Reduce the use of external scripts
It’s simple – using external source data such as external scripts can slow down the page loading speed. The lesser external scripts a website has, the faster it will load for visitors. So, make sure to do a regular clearance of external scripts, including those used for tracking tools and comments systems.
#10: Disable pingbacks and trackbacks
We’ve spent a lot of time discussing the importance of backlinks for movers in the past. Receiving links from other websites is one of the vital ways to earn value for your website. However, whenever any of your pages receive a link, there are pingbacks and trackbacks set in place to alert you of this. And those components can slow down a website, which is why you need to make sure to disable them. And there are solutions such as Google Webmaster Tools that can help you remove the strain of pingbacks and trackbacks.
What is the importance of boosting your page loading speed?
Digital marketing for movers and all other niches is very easily influenced by page speed. In fact, it is one of the fundamental metrics that can determine website value and boost online performance as well as revenue. Unfortunately, the majority of companies are still reluctant to dedicate their time to boost page loading speed on their websites. And the reason why this is of importance to you is that it directly impacts:
- How much time people spend on your website
- The percentage which converts from site visitors to customers
- Your overall ranking on SERPs
This is one of the basic methods to help improve and maintain your SEO efforts as a moving company. By devoting time and energy to the betterment of your website and page speed, you are investing in the long-term success of your online authority. For more advice on this topic, reach out to Movers Development, or explore some of our other articles.
