How To Improve Your Page Speed
Page speed is an important factor in SEO. If it isn’t fast enough, people won’t want to stay on your site. According to Google, mobile pages that takes more than 3 seconds to load lose half (53%) of their visitors.
You don’t want visitors bouncing off to competitors now, would you? If you want to keep them, you should start by improving your page speeds. In this article, we’ll give you actionable steps on how to do it from the front and backend.
Tips to Improve Your Page Speed On The Front-end
The front-end of a page involves web design and function. It’s what internet users see and interact with when they arrive on a page. Improving page speeds from the front-end with the following tips can provide visitors with better user experience.
1. Optimize fonts and images
In spite of their aesthetic value, font styles and images can slow down a page if not implemented correctly.
When it comes to fonts, try to use formats which can be embedded as inline SVG. It loads content faster so people don’t see an empty page. Alternatively, you can use web fonts or icon font generators. They enable you to limit glyphs to what you need, thus reducing their file size.
As for images, we recommend using the right size and compressing them losslessly. Images that are too big take longer to load. Lossless compression further keeps file size at a minimum without compromising image quality.
2. Minify your JavaScript and CSS
If you’re a web developer or simply have the knowhow, make sure that the CSS and JavaScript are written inline and minified. Also, never use codes that aren’t necessary for a page. Combine CSS and JavaScript files into bundles wherever possible.
3. Choose a content delivery network
A content delivery network (CDN) acts as a high-speed bridge. By caching your site’s content, it allows people to view your pages faster than usual.
Tips to Improve Your Page Speed From The Back-end
The backend of a page is more concerned with how data is stored. Optimizing page speeds from the backend can drastically improve your site’s performance and reliability.
1. Set up a reverse proxy and HTTP headers
A reverse proxy is the fastest way to cache pages and serve them to visitors. Some CDNs already have it by default. But you can also set it up on your own.
For the HTTP headers, you will first need an HTTP/2 compliant server. The next step is to enable HTTP/2 Server Push. It loads resources before they’re requested, greatly improving page speeds.
2. Prolong the TTL of your cache
Caches are only stored for a set amount of time before they’re flushed out and renewed. By prolonging their “time to live” or TTL, you can keep them accessible to visitors for much longer. It’s a useful strategy for websites with thousands of pages.
3. Get a slow queries report
Enable your database to provide you with a report of slow queries. It will give you an idea of what you need to improve on. Use the report to identify weak spots in the backend, and optimize when necessary to speed up your pages’ loading time.
