Why optimize your website's loading speed?

The loading speed of a page on your website is one of the most important factors Google takes into account when ranking. Although this wasn't the case a few years ago, the importance of page load time (the speed at which your website loads in your browser or mobile device) has snowballed over time.

What's the impact on my website?

Surveys have shown that over 50 % of users expect your page to load in 2 or 3 seconds. Most will leave if you make them wait much longer. What's more, a slow-loading website also means a slower crawl rate, so the speed at which Google indexes your site's pages will also be delayed. Research shows that people don't like to visit a slow website, or even buy from one. User experience (UX) is enhanced by optimal navigation, and slow loading times have a negative impact on UX. So, if you want to increase traffic to your website organically and achieve higher rankings, you'll need to improve your website's page loading speed. A fast site is a user-friendly site.

 

How can I optimize my website's loading speed?

The elements that have the greatest impact on a website are images, videos, iframes from youtube etc..., then in second place, the code files, in fact, some files can be greedy in resources, for example: JS files, the CSS of your site etc....

Thirdly, what can slow down a website is plugins. If you're using 40 plugins for a small website, it's bound to slow down the loading of your site. Think about cleaning up your site and deleting unused plugins. Keep the total number of plugins to less than 10-15. Sometimes it's better to custom-code a function than install a plugin.
Although you can see that this page loads in 5.30 seconds, the essential part of the page is above the fold, which is why the score is so good. If you could see the lower part of your site, below the fold at the same time, you wouldn't see much more than plain text and no photos. We add a code at the point that only triggers the loading of content if it's in the browser window. This allows a page with large amounts of material or photos not to load everything on the page, just what you see. This code alone will increase your score by 10 to 15 points.

How do I measure the loading speed of my website?

The first thing you need to do before increasing the speed of your site is to check its loading time using one of the site speed tools below. Checking from different places may give you different results, so not all speed tools may give you identical results. That's why it's best to try out a few tools to get an average time, without relying on just one.

Google PageSpeed Insights

This tool helps you measure your website's performance on both desktop and mobile devices. A PageSpeed score of 85 or above should tell you that your page has performed exceptionally well. Since network connection has an impact on site speed, this tool only tests aspects of your page that are independent of the network, namely server configuration, JavaScript, CSS and the HTML structure of your page. If your site has a low score, it will appear in red. To obtain the orange color, you must have a score of 65 or more.

Pingdom

In addition to providing you with your website's loading time, Pingdom also gives you a performance score, which it calculates on the basis of various factors. It constantly monitors your site, checking speed, uptime and performance for a minimal monthly fee.

GT Metrix

This free tool analyzes your page speed performance. Using PageSpeed and YSlow, GTmetrix generates scores for your pages. You can even benefit from free recommendations on how to improve your website's performance and speed. You'll love the way this tool breaks down the details.

WebPageTest

WebPagetest gives you the loading time of your website and also rates it according to its performance. There are about six different performance ratings it provides based on various factors. It also gives you some suggestions for modifications you can implement to improve your website's speed. Once you've tested your websites on all these tools, you'll be able to get a complete overview of your site's performance.

Are there any WordPress plugins that can help me optimize my site's loading speed?

Absolutely, some plugins on WordPress can HELP you optimize your site's speed, but for optimal results you first need to clean up your site, update your plugins and CMS and remove unused extensions. You should also optimize your file size by compressing your images and/or changing their extension (See how to optimize images on my website).

You can then download one of these extensions:

WP Super Cache

WP Rocket offers a risk-free, hassle-free solution for increasing the speed of your site. Although it's a better plugin, you have to pay for it compared with WP Super Cache, which is absolutely free.

W3 Total Cache

W3 Total Cache is also an excellent plugin for caching your site and increasing its speed. However, it may not work for everyone. It's a high-end tool with many options. Too many for the less experienced, but once properly configured, your site will load very quickly. It can improve a score from 50 to 80 or more...

LS Cache

LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress (LSCWP) is an all-in-one site load speed optimization plugin that includes caching functionality and a range of optimization features.

This application is recommended for sites hosted on a Server with a LiteSpeedIt is also compatible with other types of hosting server (Apache, NGINX, etc.).

Suggestions for improving site speed

In addition to using site speed optimization modules and installing a caching plugin, you can opt for other solutions to improve your website's speed. For example:

Would you like to audit your site?

At WS Digital Consulting, we analyze your website, your server and the modules used to show you what needs to be fixed and how to optimize your site's loading speed to meet search engine requirements. Contact us now for a free audit of your site.