It wasn’t that long ago that connecting to the Internet was a slow, drawn-out process. Today, however, online access is virtually instantaneous and omnipresent. Web users are accustomed to having whatever information they need at their fingertips the moment they need it. In fact, while the average website takes approximately 22 seconds to load, studies show that 53% of users will abandon a page if it takes more than three.
Web users aren’t the only ones who value technical SEO elements such as page speed optimization. How long a site takes to load is just one of many factors that search engines such as Google use when determining page rankings. Additionally, a slow web page can affect other ranking factors such as bounce rate and dwell time, creating a vicious cycle that results in your site falling farther and farther down those rankings.
That’s where a digital marketing agency such as LSEO can help. There are countless elements of a web page that can slow your site to a crawl, from hosting issues to poor image compression. It can be hard even to know where to start. Fortunately, LSEO’s SEO  professionals know what to look for and how to fix it, and they stay up to date with the best SEO strategies to help your online business run faster and smoother than ever.

How to Make Your Web Pages Faster

1. Clean up your content

As with anything SEO related, a web page’s content is possibly the most important thing to get right. It’s not just about what you say, but how you say it. Using too many image, video, or audio files, for instance, can drag down your speed, especially when they’re not compressed correctly. Similarly, HTTP requests, DOM elements, redirects, iframes, and DNS lookups are all common site elements all too easy to overuse. A clean, streamlined web page with strong SEO content is going to be a fast, user-friendly page.

2. Flip the script

Whatever combination of HTML, Javascript, and CSS your website uses, making sure your code is as optimized as possible, and that all your scripts play nicely with one another, isn’t always easy. One wrong keystroke can be the equivalent of putting cement shoes on a marathon runner. There are a number of ways a good designer can simplify a page’s code, from making Java and CSS external and eliminating render-blocking to removing duplicate scripts and minimizing DOM access.

3. Bake smaller cookies

Optimizing page speed might well be the only time in life when it’s better to have smaller cookies rather than larger ones. Web cookies are small bundles of data that a page stores on a user’s hard drive to save certain information for future access. One example would be personal data a user might fill in on an online order form. Some cookies collect larger chunks of data and save them for a longer period of time. In any case, the larger the cookie, the slower the web page.

4. Service your server

Alongside the content of your website, no factor impacts page speed more than your host and your server. Being that physical computers store your site’s data and allow that data to be retrieved, it’s impossible to have a smooth-running web page without a smooth-running host and server. Sometimes that means upgrading to a better-quality host and server. Other times, it means reorganizing your database or utilizing a content delivery network. Whatever it takes, ensuring your site is as fast as it can be is worth the effort.

Entrust Your Page Speed Optimization to LSEO

There are a lot of moving parts that determine a page’s speed, but every single one is vital in separating the tortoises from the hares. As mobile devices and Internet connectivity become bigger parts of all of our lives, meeting customers’ demands quickly and efficiently will only continue to grow in importance. And page speed optimization is one of the best methods that any online business can use to keep up with the turbo-charged pace that today’s web users demand.
Need a co-pilot to help you run the race? Working with LSEO is like having your own private pit crew, mechanic, and navigator all rolled into one. Contact us today to get a headstart on giving your website the speed boost it needs to stay ahead of the pack.

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