The Battle Against... Page Load Time
This is no joke and no forecast - Google is already taking page loading speed into account, and this trend is only going to grow. Why is this so crucial, and how can you slim down your website so you do not push your luck?
Google Guidelines and July Changes
We have known for a long time that Google considers page loading speed. It is one of the key factors when evaluating a website - on desktop computers. An update aimed at smartphones is scheduled for July 2018, which aligns with the mobile-first trend. Websites that do not cater to mobile users and their experience will drop down in search results.
We still have plenty of time to change our website or adapt its individual elements to the evolving guidelines. Users will definitely appreciate these changes; however, it remains quite a challenge for web designers and site administrators. Even so, Google recommends as many as 3 tools to optimize page load time:
- Chrome User Experience Report,
- Lighthouse,
- PageSpeed Insights.
Real-World Data in PageSpeed Insights
The tool recommended by Google has undergone a major overhaul. Its users can now utilize not only the speed score in their efforts, but also a page load distribution chart whose data comes from the Chrome User Experience Report. These are statistics provided by the users themselves, pointing to the real-world condition of a given website - rather than just a test environment.
That is not all. We also gain access to the number of MBs required to download the entire content of the page. The goal - making it easier to optimize the website and bring it in line with Google guidelines.
Factors Influencing Page Speed
There are two metrics that determine whether a page is rated as Fast, Average, or Slow:
- FCP, which is the loading time for images and content from the moment the page starts loading,
- DCL - the time required to download and parse the HTML code, excluding CSS, images, and JavaScript.
The final result is an average.
PageSpeed Insights Interface
Tool users have three page evaluation categories available: Fast, Average, and Slow. In addition, it allows for assessing page performance, classifying it as: Good, Medium, and Low.
In the Page Load Distributions section, we will receive data regarding FCP and DCL and how they are distributed across the dataset.
Optimization Suggestions is a list of proven methods and best practices that can be applied to reduce page load time.
Test Interpretation
The optimal situation occurs when page load time is at its shortest while maintaining the stable performance of the website and all its features. Therefore, during optimization, you should ensure a comfortable browsing experience for the visitor and pay attention to the bounce rate. The lower it is, the better the changes we have introduced on the website.
How can you reduce page load time? Code minification should be the foundation - that is, its optimization, for example through plugins. Besides that, make use of caching - saving generated HTML documents in server resources speeds up page loading. In addition, images should be optimized by reducing their file size.
Detailed tips on specific optimization actions: