How to reduce page loading speed for your website?

Page speed measures how much time it takes for the content on your website to load. Factors such as server quality, file sizes, image sizes, etc., affect page speed. The more time it takes for your page to load, the higher the chance of your audience leaving the site without even visiting it. An SEO agency Singapore can measure and suggest whether you need to improve your page speed. This blog will further discuss a few helpful tips to improve page loading speed for your website.

Metrics for Page Speed

You should not confuse page speed with the site speed. Site speed refers to the average loading time of more than one sample page on a website. On the other hand, page speed refers to the loading time of an individual web page. The following are three metrics used to measure page speed.

• Time to First Byte (TTFB): It assesses the time it takes until a page starts loading.
• Fully Loaded Page: The time it takes for all the resources on the page to load.
• First Meaningful Paint/ First Contextual Paint: It measures the time it takes for a website to load sufficient resources for readers to read.

Tips to reduce page loading speed

Google considers page speed as one of the ranking factors. It uses this metric to determine your website’s quality and user experience. Websites that perform well according to this metric have a higher chance of ranking high on SERPs. Let’s discuss the tips to improve your website’s page loading speed.

Select an appropriate hosting solution

The hosting provider you have selected for your website plays a critical role in its management and performance, including page speed. If you choose a comparatively cheaper option, it implies that multiple websites have to share resources on an overloaded server. As a result, it can strain your page loading time. Hence, you should opt for a performance-focused hosting solution. As they don’t offer shared hosting, you need not worry about sharing resources with other websites.

Compress and optimise your images

Visual elements, such as images, can help improve the appearance of your website. However, large images can slow down your page loading time.

Therefore, you need to compress and optimise your images to improve page loading speed. Reducing images’ file sizes can reduce their ‘weight’ and contribute to faster page loading speed. You can use various image optimisation plugins in this regard.

Reduce redirects

Excess redirects on your website can affect its loading speed. Whenever a page redirects, it lengthens the HTTP request and the response process. We can understand redirects are necessary in some cases, for instance, when moving to a new domain. However, you should remove unnecessary redirects to improve page loading speed.

Cache your web pages

It can help speed up your website’s page loading speed. Caching helps store copies of your website’s files. As a result, it helps minimise the server’s work in generating and serving a web page to the audience’s browser. It can also help reduce the TTFB time, as the server will need to use only a few resources to load the page.

Enable browser caching

It enables the browser to store various information, such as image files, JavaScript files, etc., to avoid reloading the entire page each time a user visits it. In this regard, you can use caching plugins to optimise your page speed.

Use asynchronous loading

Websites are made up of CSS and JavaScript files. They either load synchronously or asynchronously. If they load synchronously, the file will load one at a time in the order they appear on your website. As a result, when a browser comes across a script, it will stop loading other elements till the file is completely loaded first.

On the other hand, asynchronous loading allows multiple files to load at the same time. It can further help improve your page’s performance. You have to remove render-blocking resources to set up this type of loading.

Reduce CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

Reducing CSS, JavaScript, and HTML file sizes can help improve page loading speed. It involves removing unnecessary spaces, comments, characters, and other elements. Minimising your file sizes can help you get cleaner code and a fast-loading website.

Use a content delivery network (CDN)

A CDN is a network of servers that host and delivers your website’s static content copies from global servers to improve your page loading speed. You can use a CDN along with the server that hosts your website to distribute your website’s file copies among strategically selected data centres. It can help reduce the distance between the browsers and your host’s servers to improve performance. In addition, CDN can help reduce network latency and achieve lower TTFBs by loading the content of a web page from a server nearer to the visitor’s location.

Remove unnecessary plugins

Too many plugins on your website can reduce its loading time. Besides, outdated plugins, or those not well-maintained, can pose a security threat. Therefore, reduce the number of plugins on your website. You can also disable to delete any plugin that you don’t currently use.

It is also a good idea to review your plugins to assess whether they are necessary. You can also test individual plugins to identify whether they are responsible for reducing your page speeds.

Therefore, following all these tips can help reduce your page loading speed. It helps improve your website’s overall performance and user experience. As a result, it boosts your other SEO efforts as well. You can hire a digital marketing agency to identify whether your website takes too long to load. As a part of their SEO services, they can help develop strategies to reduce your page loading speed.