So you’ve finally launched your new website. You’ve spent considerable time ensuring it has all the features you need and looks the way you hoped it would.
But hold your horses, before your new website is published, have you considered how fast your website loads for users?
Site speed is an important ranking factor and ultimately is key to giving your users a good experience on your website.
So, it’s time to get up to speed with site speed. Let us take you through why site speed is important and factors which could affect its efficiency.
What is site speed?
Site speed refers to the speed in which web pages are downloaded and displayed on the user’s web browser.
Your websites site speed is comprised by three factors:
- Time to First Byte: The time it takes for a user’s browser to receive the first byte of data from entering the URL
- Time to First Draw: How quick the user sees the first of any content on their screen, i.e. text/images. (Ideally less than a second).
- Time to Usability: The amount of time before your site content is fully functioning and users can interact with your site. (No more than 2-3 seconds).
To determine your overall site speed, an average is taken from several sample pages on your website. So being aware of factors that affect site speed needs to be an integral part of building or migrating a website.
Why is site speed important?
Site speed has been a ranking factor for search engines for many years. However, in 2022 Google rolled out the Page Experience update to enhance its algorithm. Google evaluates a website’s site speed as part of the page experience metrics and uses them as a ranking signal for a URL in Google Search results.
Site speed is therefore a critical factor for SEO; it affects user experience, bounce rate, conversion rate, and ranking.
Users demand instant results, with research showing that 25% of users abandon a site if it takes up to 4 seconds for a page to load (Kissmetrics.com). This bounce rate consequently affects your conversion rate of customers – which is not what you want when you’ve invested in a new website.
With user experience being at the forefront of Google’s algorithm, it is important to make sure your website has the right balance of good design, but also ensuring it performs well and its functionality is optimised to load quickly.
And remember… we aren’t just talking about your website on a desktop, with increasing numbers of visitors accessing your website on a mobile device, speed is even more important when people want to find information they need quickly.
Read more about taking a mobile-first approach in our blog here: Website Migration Part IV: The Importance of a Mobile-First Approach
What factors slow a site down?
There are a number of factors which can affect a websites loading speed.
Here are factors which can cause slower page loading:
- Images or videos that are too big and not compressed
- Rendering too many JavaScript scripts
- Unused code, be it CSS, JS or other scripts left over in the page’s HTML
- Your website host can also impact site speed
How to analyse your site speed
If you want to do a quick check to see whether your site speed is up to scratch, Google has a handy tool available: https://pagespeed.web.dev. Just insert your URL and let us help you fix some of the issues that are causing it to slow down:
At Moorhouse Digital, we offer comprehensive website audits which include the review of your site speed and a detailed action plan for how to enhance it along with many other features. Book a consultation with us to find out how a website audit can help your business generate more sales and leads.