5 Pro Tips to Improve Your Website Speed

November 28, 2023

If your business is going to succeed online, you need a quality website that ranks well in Google Search. Building a beautiful website is not enough. It can look as fantastic as you like, but nobody will see it if it lacks Google visibility! That’s why working with an experienced SEO company in Knoxville is important to ensure your online presence has both style and substance! An SEO company in Knoxville can help you achieve success by working on ways to improve your website speed!

Why is Website Speed Important?

Website speed is important for several reasons, and it can have a significant impact on user experience, search engine rankings, and overall business success. Search engines, particularly Google, consider page speed as one of the ranking factors. Faster-loading websites are more likely to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Improved SEO can result in increased visibility and traffic to your site. Faster websites provide a better user experience. Visitors are more likely to stay on a site that loads quickly and are less likely to abandon it due to slow loading times. A positive user experience can lead to increased engagement, higher conversion rates, and customer satisfaction. The importance of fast-loading mobile pages has grown with the increasing use of mobile devices. Users on mobile devices, often with slower internet connections, expect quick access to information. A fast website contributes to a positive mobile experience. An SEO company in Knoxville can help you to address these and other concerns relating to website speed. Let’s take a look at some of our pro tips for increasing your website’s loading speed!

1 - Check Google Search Console

Core Web Vitals is something that Google introduced some time ago, and it has been used as a ranking signal ever since. It includes three metrics that your SEO company in Knoxville can optimize to improve website speed:

  • Largest Contentful Paint - This covers the time it takes for the main content of your page to render fully.
  • First Input Delay - This metric refers to how quickly the page responds to user input, such as a button click.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift - This looks at how stable the page layout is or whether content moves around after rendering it.

If you want to see how well your website is performing for the Core Web Vitals metrics, you can access the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console. This will give you information about which pages on your website are performing well and which need to be optimized to improve website speed. It can be tricky to analyze if you are not familiar with Core Web Vitals, but your SEO company in Knoxville will be able to explain the findings to you.

2 - Run a Free Page Speed Test

Google Search Console uses data gathered from a selection of Chrome users, but if you want to check how fast your website is loading for your visitors, running a free speed test like GTmetrix is a good idea. Simply enter your website URL, and the tool will return a report showing your current website speed and offering recommendations on areas you could improve upon. If you are not sure how to fix the problems that have been highlighted, you can talk to an SEO company in Knoxville about changes you might need to make.

3 - Optimize Render-Blocking Resources

Render-blocking resources are the files that need to be loaded before browsers can display your website. Common examples of render blocking resources include CSS and JavaScript files which are included in the code of your website.

When your website is rendered in a browser, it will follow these steps:

  • Open a blank page
  • Load the HTML document
  • Load render-blocking resources, starting with the largest/slowest
  • Once loaded, the page becomes visible

If you are unfamiliar with web coding, you might be surprised at how much goes into loading your website! It’s far more complicated than you might think. Loading many render-blocking resources will negatively impact your Largest Contentful Paint metric, so it is important to minimize their use and optimize those you use for faster rendering. An SEO company in Knoxville can help you to improve this if it is a problem for your website.

4 - Minimize Page Weight

Another important factor in making your website fast-loading is keeping your page weight to a minimum. Page weight refers to how many bytes of data are required to load the page. The more data that needs to be downloaded, the slower the page will load. You can minimize the page weight by ensuring your images and other media are optimized to use a smaller amount of data and that you do not have any unnecessary JavaScript and other code bogging down your site.

5 - Monitor Your Website Speed Continuously

When you test your website speed, the result only shows how fast it is loading at that moment. If you get a favorable score, you cannot just forget about it! Problems can emerge at any time, especially after adding new features or content to your website, so it is important to monitor your website speed at regular intervals in order to stay on top of it and address problems as they arise. When you work with an SEO company in Knoxville, they will likely have a maintenance program in place for you that includes checking the speed on a regular schedule.

In summary, website speed is a critical factor affecting your online presence, from user satisfaction and retention to search engine rankings and business performance. Working with an SEO company in Knoxville to prioritize website speed can result in a more positive overall online experience for both users and the business.

--

To Your Best Online!

--

Ingrid Maddox, Internet Marketing & Strategy Consultant. bluedress INTERNET MARKETING®, an Internet Marketing Company headquartered in Knoxville, TN. Internet Marketing Developed, Implemented, and Managed to Full Circle! Organic Internet Search Engine Guru. Turn-Key Internet Optimization Programs Placing You Everywhere and Anywhere You Need to Be Online.

ingrid@bluedressinc.com

865-378-7712