What is the first thing you notice when you visit a website? A brand logo, a call to action, or ‘how quickly does the page load?’ It is definitely the page loading speed, which we will discuss today in this feature.
What is Page Speed?
According to Google, Page Speed is:
- How long does it take for content to be displayed?
- The amount of time it takes for a browser to fully render a page.
However, a lot goes into how quickly our websites load. A domain’s web hosting service, the user’s internet connection, and even cache clearing all influences load times.
So, when it is about page speed, some aspects are out of the control of the site owner. However, there are many aspects of the website that the webmaster should optimize, such as images, JavaScript, videos, etc.
Page speed is important to user experience, and Google examines a page’s overall performance when deciding whether to push it up the SERPs. Taking the time to optimize content for speed demonstrates to Google that all that is left now is to create a high-quality experience for website visitors.
Difference between page speed and page load
Page speed and load time are two different things.
Page speed
Page speed refers to how rapidly the website’s content loads. It’s crucial to user experience since pages that take longer to load have a higher bounce rate and a shorter average time on page. As a result, conversions may suffer.
Load Time
When a person clicks on the website, the load time shows how long it takes for the content to appear on their browser. This encompasses anything from images to scripts to CSS to third-party resources.
There is no better tool than Google’s Page Speed Insights for speeding up the web pages for better user experience and SEO.
What is Page Speed Insights or PSI?
Page Speed Insights (PSI) is a free performance tool that examines webpage content and calculates page speed scores for both mobile and desktop versions of the website. The tool also identifies areas where there is room for development and gives precise recommendations.
Page Speed Insights is one of several page speed audit tools available to website owners, but it is by far the most useful for those interested in increasing performance for SEO purposes. Website owners can discover how Google interprets the technical performance of their pages with Page Speed Insights.
How to improve Google Page Speed Insights Score?
There are many things that you can do to improve Google Page Speed Insights Score. They are mentioned below –
4 ways to improve Google Page Speed Insights Score
Optimize Graphics
The ways images can affect page speed have been consistently highlighted by Google testers. One aspect that can affect page speed and Google Page Speed Insights is the “weight” of the website. Websites that have a lot of code, pictures, etc. are heavy and take a long time to load. One simple technique to help websites shed some of this weight is to reduce image size -“Image optimization.“
Image optimization is relatively simple. Simply, reduce image size and speed up loading time by replacing a JPEG image with a PNG image file.
Remove any CSS, HTML, or JavaScript files that are unnecessary
Excess and redundant code on the backend typically slows down newly rebuilt and expanded websites. Humans require spaces and carriage returns to grasp what they’re reading and writing, thus CSS files are frequently larger than they need to be, and this size has a significant influence on the load time.
Computers, on the other hand, do not require this type of content to comprehend the code. The page will load faster if the site owner removes these superfluous characters, duplications, and spaces. As a result, Google strongly advises that to take the time to decrease the code on the website’s backend, including any HTML, CSS, and JavaScript components.
Reduce the server responding time
Bad hosting is the main element that slows down the loading speed of a website. While an inexpensive hosting service may appear to be a good service, it is a bad deal. Because of the low pricing, site speeds are slower than usual, and there is frequent downtime during peak traffic time.
A site owner should invest in a premium hosting service to assure lightning-fast performance. A server response time of fewer than 200 milliseconds is recommended by Google Page Speed Insights. It is not at all possible from a cheap web host.
Allow browser caching for the website
Browser caching allows web browsers to instantly offer a static version of the website to users instead of dynamically producing content every time someone clicks through. This implies that while the dynamic version is loading, the Page Speed is assessed by the time it takes to deliver this static version, saving a few important milliseconds and improving the Page Speed Insights.
Important: A high PSI score does not guarantee a great user experience (UX) for the visitors. It’s a lab-based score, which doesn’t provide a precise picture of how well the site performs in the real world. Focus on monitoring and improving real-user metrics if you want to make actual progress.
