Website Page Speed – Why It’s Even More Important in 2021

by | Aug 24, 2020 | Design | 0 comments

Three factors figured heavily into your search engine positioning:

  • Technical SEO
  • Backlinks to your web pages
  • Website speed

Performance or Page Speed is a factor Google and other search engines use to deliver the best content to the end user. If a site takes a long time to load, it reflects poorly on the search engine. Page speeds comes from two elements: the download of the webpage content; and the how hard it is for your web browser to interpret the content and turn it into a sensible looking webpage.

These are some of the issues and ways to improve performance. Some are things that a website owner can directly affect. Some of topics best left up to the pros.

Image Issues

Images can be too big.a 72×72 pixel icon could actually use a 1400×800 image. Maybe, a plugin failed you and request an image that is too big to be optimal. The GTMetrix report will generate optimized images for you.

Image format choices. Know the difference between GIFs (or is that GIF?), JPEGs, PNGs, SVGs and bitmaps. Use the ideal image for the role in the presentation.

JavaScript Placement

The header is the best (except when it isn’t). When Javascript code goes into the header, that code executes first. It will block the display of content until the Javascript fully executes. This is called “render blocking.” From an end-user perspective, this is horrible. They will be left with a white screen for much long than is ideal.

Put some stuff into the Footer. Some code can always go into the footer: analytics code, helper code, code relevant to the lower sections of the page (eg. a dynamic footer).

Client side Caching

Make content cacheable. WordPress will put query strings onto the tail end of some URLs and change that string with each load to give you a new and fresh load of that image, script or styling. From an end user perspective, that takes a lot of time.

Change the Expiry date (it’s a meta data setting in the served assets) to push it days or even months into the future. That let’s a web browser shoulder some of the load and keep copies of those elements on their computer instead of downloading them new with each page load.

Third Party Assets

Easy to deploy third party code almost always kill performance. While it’s handy to drop in a snippet from Instagram, Facebook, Google, Click-to-chat, CRM tools, those can kill performance.

Pull as much as possible into your control. Download Google fonts and serve them from your site or your CDN.

Deliver the content from server side generated HTML, not Javascript delivered / built code.

Elect to leave out some of the third party assets on some pages. If performance is really important, be cautious of third party apps.

Compression

File downloads are a big time suck. Fewer files to request and smaller files are key.

Each plugin and theme is likely to introduce several CSS and JS files apiece. This can quickly add to up to 20+ CSS and 20+ Javascript file requests.

Plugins like AutoOptimize can consolidate the CSS into fewer files and it can do the same with JavaScript.

Almost every web server is capable of serving out files compressed with GZip. Almost every web browser is capable of decoding GZipped files.

Server Caching

Store static copies of complex output (eg. leaderboards, lists of recent posts, stats).

Optimize code on the server before it is shipped to the client.

Deploy a plugin like W3 Total Cache, WP Cache, etc.

Keep-Alive: Time is lost when some browsers reacquire the path to your server with each file request. By tweaking the server’s Keep Alive, you can keep that connection active.

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs):

Use a CDN to stow and deliver some of the content.
A CDN can take the pressure off of the server.
It can deliver content from a server closer to the end client.

Flush Your Output

Hang time is a killer when you’re waiting for a web page. By default, PHP can wait for a good length of time before delivery. It is possible to urge it to begin earlier than otherwise. That sends content back to your audience faster. I do this by putting the flush() call at the top of the page.tpl.php file. If you’re about to output the themed data, you’re ready to deliver content, so I say push it out as soon as you can, even starting the process before the page.tpl.php is populated and served. One thing to note: flushing content may not be a tactic that plays well with GZip.

Aggregate CSS and Javascript

You should collapse all of your Javascript and CSS into one file each (all CSS in one; all Javascript in the other). While Drupal does ask for a lot supporting files, it compensates by allowing for the aggregation of Javascript and CSS into collected files. In extreme cases, this knocks down the number of files from 30+ files down to two to four files. If you’re using a CMS make sure it can aggregate these supporting files. If you’re doing a manual web design, make sure you follow this rule as closely as possible.

CSS Sprites

CSS sprites use portions of a larger image to fulfill some graphical need on your web page. Spriting isn’t a new concept– I probably built my first sprite for a video game over 25 years ago. But its role in web design is comparatively new.In pursuit of fewer file downloads, you can lump multiple elements into a single image and then use CSS to slice that image for use. There is a lot of finesse to how you slice up an image with CSS. You need to pay attention to how the image will be used and you need to be comfortable using CSS backgrounds with cropping and the repeat concepts figured out.

Too Much?

If these performance tips are too much for you to implement, that’s okay. The good news: we deploy these techniques on every site we deploy. Web321 sites get all of the improvements possible to let the site out-perform the competition.

Empowering Legal Advocacy Through Digital Solutions

In an era where digital presence is crucial, Web321 stands at the forefront of offering custom web solutions tailored for groups embarking on legal advocacy, particularly those initiating or involved in class-action lawsuits. Our expertise caters to the unique needs...

What’s the Deal With Quality Content?

What makes content high-quality? When it comes to content marketing, quality goes beyond surface metrics like word count or citations. True quality lies in how well content achieves its purpose and connects with readers. Does it align with marketing goals? Resonate...

Turning Off The AI Bar on Divi

Divi (the theme system from Elegant Themes) has added an AI tool. Some people don’t like it. With the most recent copy of Divi, the element can be switched off.

Performance Improvements That Can Speed Up Your Website

Let’s explore how to achieve some WordPress performance improvements to ensure your website is as swift while keeping any of the pizazz delivered by Javascript and CSS, keeping your audience captivated and Google happy. Let’s supercharge your WordPress website!

7 WordPress Maintenance Services in 2023

If you are tired of spending hours on mundane upkeep tasks or need expert help improving your WordPress website, a maintenance service can help you take the hassle out of running your site.

Kite Dish.com Acquired by Web321

We are proud to pick up the mantle of Kite Dish. Back in the day, they provided WordPress Maintenance. As they said it, back then: Our service provides you a peace of mind with a secure, regularly backed up, bug-free and proactively updated site so you can concentrate...

Threads: ActivityPub and WordPress

Meta has released a new microblogging app: Threads. It leverages the user base of Instagram and the users’ followers to pre-build an audience for new members. This may be an excellent antidote to the death spiral of Twitter. How does it work with WordPress?

Why Custom WordPress Themes Are A Mistake

The same people who would never buy a custom coffee maker, a custom car or a custom word processor think nothing of going for a custom theme.  Why would you want a custom theme system?

Eleven Ways Digital Marketing Can Help Your Business Thrive

The 21st century has ushered in an era of innovation that has significantly impacted businesses across the spectrum. Digital marketing, in particular, has emerged as a game changer for many successful enterprises. Here are 11 tactics for Digital Marketing.

Why We Like Combining Divi and ACF

I want to show you how we can use ACF and Toolset to insert dynamic content into our text editor. With ACF, we can easily find available fields and insert them into our content. We can also enable raw HTML to display content verbatim. Toolset works similarly, but it...