– Craig Wilson
Website speed optimisation is an important aspect of SEO because it can affect a website’s user experience and search engine rankings.
Search engines tend to mark down slower websites which can dramatically affect your rankings and traffic.
Here are some steps that can be taken to optimise website speed:
- Minimize HTTP requests: Reduce the number of elements on a page, such as images, scripts, and stylesheets, to minimize the number of HTTP requests.
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN can help to distribute the load of delivering content to users by replicating your website’s static files across multiple servers in different locations.
- Optimise images: Compress images to reduce their file size without affecting their quality. This can be done using tools like Adobe Photoshop, TinyPNG, and Kraken.io.
- Minimise code: Minimise the amount of code on your website by removing unnecessary spaces, comments, and line breaks.
- Use a caching plugin: A caching plugin can help to speed up page load time by caching static files, so they don’t need to be loaded each time a user visits the site.
- Minimise redirects: Each redirect increases the time it takes for a page to load. Minimise the number of redirects by eliminating unnecessary redirects, and make sure that any necessary redirects are set up properly.
- Use a fast web hosting: Invest in a fast web hosting service that can handle the traffic to your site. This can include a dedicated server or a cloud hosting service.
- Use browser caching: Browser caching allows a browser to store certain elements of a website, such as images and stylesheets, so they don’t need to be loaded each time a user visits the site.
- Monitor website speed: Use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to monitor your website’s speed and identify areas for improvement.
By following these steps, you can optimise your website’s speed and improve the user experience for your visitors, which in turn can lead to better search engine rankings. Remember, Google has confirmed that page speed is a ranking factor for mobile search results, so it’s a crucial factor to consider in your SEO strategy.
