There are over 200 quality factors used to determine how to rank a search result. One of these factors is the time it takes to download a Web page. Slow page load times will cause search engines to lower a keyword’s ranking. Slow load times can also cause a web page to time out and be excluded from the search engine’s index.
As web traffic increases, with no end in sight, fast load times become increasingly important for SEO. If your website is slow, don’t expect to be on the first page of search engine results. And this applies to all search engines.
Nobody likes a slow website
The most important thing is that visitors react badly to a slow website. Slow load times will result in a high bounce rate, when visitors are too impatient to wait, and a high bounce rate can negatively affect rankings. The sales conversion rate will be low as visitors won’t stay long, if they bother to stay at all. And of course, the rates of returning customers will also be affected.
A positive user experience is important. Visitors prefer fast websites and impressed visitors are more likely to convert into higher spending customers.
server processing
Some of the reasons that can cause a delay in the display of a web page are:
- A slow database connection or long database processing
- A slow or busy server, with slow DNS and connection times
- Excessive server processing
Asynchronous processing can significantly reduce server-related delays
website size
The size of the files that are downloaded can be large due to:
- A great view state when using ASP.Net, especially the menu control.
- Many and large Images
- Use of sound, JavaScript, Java libraries, plug-ins, or Flash
- Large CSS style files.
Reduced download times
The construction of the web page should be simplified to reduce the file size.
- Use Minification to reduce the size of files like CSS
- CSS files should be split by function, ie print, menu, etc., and loaded asynchronously.
- Use a master file to reduce the number of file downloads.
- Make sure all images are optimally compressed for the optimal image type (.tif, .gif, .jpg, .png, etc.). Depending on the composition of the image, either file type can produce the smallest size with the best quality. So try them all.
- Reduce the image file size as much as possible, but don’t rely on setting the Width/Height to do so. It does not reduce the size of the downloaded file.
- Use Thumbnails for large images. The visitor will be very happy to wait to see the full detail of the image, when requested. The visitor will be less than happy if they have to wait before seeing something.
- Make sure all images are cached for a few weeks.
- Make sure the downloaded files are compressed.
Websites can still be attractive without lots of graphics and fancy tricks. Simplicity and good performance go hand in hand.
Monitoring page load times
The download speeds of all the pages of a website should be checked periodically. Each page should take less than 5 seconds to load; 3 seconds is ideal.
Use the free and excellent performance tool of pingdom to analyze the different components that make up the download time of a Website.
