We all dislike it…sites that take forever to load. There we are, going about our wonderful lives when all of the sudden, we encounter a site that stares back at us with a blank white page. Why does the universe do us like that?… Even worse, what if your site is a blank white page, turning away customers before they have even had a chance to interact with your brand? In this fast-paced world, a fast loading website is crucial. Google has created a Tool called Page Speed to, not only identify what parts of your site are causing delay, but how to fix them. Here are some common factors that have a significant impact on website speed and why site speed in important:
Slow Page Speed
It all starts with impatience. We have become so thirsty that we literally will not wait longer than the blink of an eye for pages to load. It can be explained with the Houston Airport Case Study. Coupled with the fact that fast sites are the gold standard today, it’s easy to see that slow sites don’t stand a chance.
Mobile Baby!
It doesn’t take a Executive Mechanical Engineer to tell you that mobile is the present and future. There’s over a billion people with smartphones nowadays and successful websites have blazing mobile site speeds. Optimizing your mobile site speed is the first step to reaching ideal site speed. Google wants to see that you have customized your mobile site for many resolutions.
Downsize Code
The goal is to decrease your code’s size so it loads faster. As programmers build, they sometimes leave extra spaces that increase their size and delay load time. Scan through your JavaScript and CSS code with the intent to minify.
Render-Blocking
For the browser to render your page, it must first make a build a treelike structure called a DOM (document object model). While creating the DOM, if the parser encounters a render blocking script, it must execute the script which will cause loading lag. To avoid this lag, place your render blocking script below the fold.
Plugins
You want to avoid the use of plugins, especially for mobile. Plugins are a large source of headache due to their incidental nature in terms of browser support. Its best to avoid them if possible. Rather than plugins, use native methods for graphics, video, audio and other effects.
Your server will also affect your site’s ability to reach a 100% score so take it into account on your pursuit of a perfect Google Page Speed Score!