4 Factors Affecting Web Page Speed and How to Improve It
A significant number of factors determine the performance of your site. Your website operates as a consolidated entity comprising various elements.
As the saying tells us, every component matters for a strong chain, including the weakest link. In terms of website performance, it's therefore accurate that upgrading the other elements in your structure won't necessarily be enough – fixing the slowest part is fundamental to success.
Web page speed can heavily impact UI/UX and SEO performance. Examining the primary elements that slow down page loading, followed by strategies to increase efficiency, will help to advance website performance. This article will explain what impacts web page speed, why it matters, and offer actionable advice to improve speed metrics.
Unoptimised Images & Videos
While having multimedia content can help make your site more appealing, be mindful that the bigger the file size, the greater its impact on your website's performance. Too much of anything can lead to undesirable results, so you must find the perfect balance of visual elements without losing loading speed.
You will encounter severe issues if your content isn't optimised for optimal performance. To resolve them, you may need to replace your existing content.
One effective solution is image compression. By compressing your images, you can maintain their high quality while significantly reducing their file size, often by around 85%. A helpful tool for this task is the Watermarkly image cropper tool. You can crop images online to any desired shape or size with just a few clicks, from rectangles to circles.
Along with your images, video files should be optimised to ensure they are as small as possible. A great way to do this is to upload a video clip as an image and include a link to watch the entire video. This can save valuable room in file size, transforming large videos into manageable images.
Poor Quality Hosting Service
The quality of your hosting provider can make or break your website's success, as it is the foundation of your digital presence. No matter how much you put into optimising pictures and visuals, inadequate hosting will prevent all pages from operating to their full potential.
You don't have to stay put when dealing with hosting providers that don't meet your expectations. Opting to switch to a new service is a relatively easy task and can offer much-needed relief.
Location Matters for Web Page Speed
Have you ever wondered about the location of your server? CDNs make accessing your server easy with their strategically distributed PoPs, physical servers called Points of Presence. To maximise response time, these points of presence usually feature caching servers.
If your hosting platform is far from your prospects, they may suffer from lagging page loading speeds. To ensure outcomes are as good as possible, you must take action to reduce the geolocation distance of your hosting provider.
To ensure the utmost reliability, it's crucial to determine the physical location of the servers that host your website. You'll want to select a provider whose servers align with your prerequisites.
It's always possible to assess your hosting requirements and adjust as needed.
Inappropriate Frameworks and Tech Stacks
With the ever-evolving landscape of web development, countless frameworks and tech stacks have emerged, each delivering unique value for particular use cases.
Nowadays, it is more important than ever for businesses to ensure their websites are up-to-date and running smoothly due to Google's continuous focus on optimising the user experience. Unfortunately, many are still not aware of the importance of this need.
WordPress may now be insufficient for some competitive eCommerce sites, blogs, and other online businesses. They look to more advanced tech alternatives to keep up in a quickly changing digital landscape.
The following choices have gained popularity recently:
- Jamstack Handbook
- Cloudflare Pages
- Eloquent Javascript
- JavaScript & jQuery
Regardless of the distinct attributes in each offering, they all strive to give users the ability to optimise productivity in each task and construct lightning-fast static websites.
HTML, CSS, JavaScript
There is no denying that the source code is the make-or-break factor. Your website's visuals and functions rely on a technical mix between HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. And unfortunately, longer coding lines can often mean a slower loading time.
Gaining total control over your online content today is easier with the myriad options to customise just about any platform. On the flip side, having too many distractions can cause a website to become bogged down in design features and hinder functionality.
Therefore, if you are seeking to enhance the speed of your site, assess whether your site's code could be more straightforward or needs streamlining.
Conclusion
As demonstrated earlier, having access to top-of-the-line web page speed and easy-to-optimise visuals are paramount to achieving optimal search result rankings. Fortunately, tweaking certain elements, such as your hosting plan, server quality, and visually optimised content on your platform, can boost overall efficacy.
