Website Performance Optimisation and Page Speed

In a world where speed is paramount, your website’s loading time is key to its success. The link between fast websites and improved performance is clear—from higher conversion rates to better search engine rankings and increased user engagement.  A slow website can affect your business.

We’ll outline practical steps for improving your website’s speed and efficiency to help you and your web developer enhance your overall website performance.

Is Website Speed Optimisation Important?

Optimising your website's speed isn’t just a minor tweak—it’s transformative. Studies show that users rate website load speed as a key influencing factor in their purchase journey. Moreover, over half of users wouldn’t return to a slow website.

Search engines measure page load time and use it as a ranking factor which determines where your website appears in search.

Google says: “Page speed is a direct ranking factor for both desktop and mobile search results. This means that faster-loading websites are generally more likely to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) than slower-loading websites.“

Whether you’re a large company or a small business, quick load times are essential—not only for generating more revenue but also for achieving better search engine rankings and offering a superior user experience. In the end, optimising your website’s speed is about unlocking its full potential and keeping your visitors engaged.

How to Measure Your Website’s Speed

Many tools are available to help you analyse and improve your website’s load time but one free option is Google’s Lighthouse plugin, which provides a detailed analysis of your website’s loading process. It measures your website’s desktop and mobile versions for speed and performance, delivering you a score out of 100 for each.  GTmetrix is another good online tool and can be used without installing a plugin. It will give your website a grade and break down areas for improvement.  

What is a good Website Load Time?

The quicker the better!  We already know that page speed and load time can affect a website’s user retention, and conversion rate.  Google recommends that websites load in under three seconds and this has become the industry benchmark. 

Meeting this three-second rule should improve user experience and boost your search engine rankings.

5 Steps To Website Performance Optimisation

Enhancing your website’s performance is multi-faceted, but with the right approach and tools, it’s achievable. Here are the most important things you can do to optimise your website for speed and efficiency:

1. Use Quality Website Hosting: Even an optimised website can be slow if it’s hosted on a crowded or low-spec server.  Server response time is a key factor of page speed analysis and it directly affects page speed scores, so it’s important to get the best hosting for your budget.  Your hosting company should also leverage the HTTP/2 protocol.  HTTP/2 allows your server to process multiple requests at a time, thus minimising the processing time and improving load time.
    
2. Write Efficient Code: Efficient code is faster code –  The developer’s mantra is Don’t Repeat Yourself - DRY code is more efficient.  Inefficient database queries can also drastically slow the page load time and masquerade as slow server response time in many reports. 
    
3. Minimise the Code: Where possible, your website developer should remove unnecessary code and minimise Javascript and CSS code files.  The less the server has to process, the faster it will work.
    
4. Optimise Images: Images should be optimised for their location, through correct sizing and compression.
    
5. Leverage Caching: Enable browser caching to store website components, reducing server requests and speeding up future visits.  CDNs will cache resources and can serve them from the most optimal geographic location for your user.

By following these steps and regularly monitoring your site’s performance, you can significantly improve both speed and user satisfaction.  Remember, website optimisation is an ongoing process that requires continuous attention to maintain peak performance.

Website speed optimisation goes beyond shaving off a few seconds—it’s about unlocking your website’s full potential. Working with skilled and experienced web developers is key to achieving good website performance. If they prioritise speed, you’ll see improvements in user experience, search rankings, and overall business success.