What Is Site Speed?

Website (site) speed, or website performance, is a measure of how quickly a browser can load a fully-functional page on a website. That means all elements on the page are fully loaded, visible and usable. 

What are some important site speed metrics?

Site performance or speed can be analyzed through various site ‘health’ metrics:

• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This measures how stable your page layout appears between loads.

• Time to First Byte (TTFB): TTFB measures the time it takes for the first data byte to arrive from the server. 

• Server Response Time: This metric represents how quickly your server responds to a browser's request. 

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures how long it takes for the largest visible element, such as a high-quality image or a substantial block of text, to load. 

• Page Load Time: This refers to the total time it takes for a web page to fully load, including all images, scripts, and content.

What Determines Your Site Speed?

Site speed is determined by factors including content size and quantity, plugin usage, theme complexity, hosting provider quality, server location relative to users, and the number of third-party scripts implemented. Paying attention to these elements is the first step toward providing a faster experience for your customers. 

Let’s explore each to see how they impact the speed of websites:

Content

The size of any pictures or videos included on your pages affects site performance. Larger images and media files take more time to download than optimized ones. Their number also impacts speed; more media means more for the browser to process. 

Plugins

Plugins enhance your site’s functionality but each plugin adds more code that the browser must process. So, having too many running simultaneously causes slowdowns and poorly coded plugins could clash with other resources, also leading to increased page load times. 

Theme

Fancy themes with many graphics increase page load times and affect your CLS. The same applies if you use poorly designed page builder tools that add unnecessary code to each page. 

Hosting Provider

Shared hosting can introduce lag to your site because it means you’re pooling resources with other websites and yours may not be at the front of the queue. Also, cheap providers often use HDDs and outdated server technologies that will inevitably have poor loading times. 

Server Location

The closer a server is to the customer, the faster your site loads. If the user is quite remote, their requests must be routed through a series of networks, leading to longer TTFB and page load times.

Third-Party Scripts

Scripts from services like ads or social media widgets might be very useful in other ways, but they can also introduce more drag to your site, each additional script means more data to load and more processing work.

How Do You Measure Your Site Speed?

To measure the speed of a website, you can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, Pingdom, WebPageTest, or Lighthouse, which analyze load times, performance metrics, and provide optimization recommendations. Let’s look at what these popular tools can offer:

• Google PageSpeed Insights: This free tool from Google tests mobile and desktop speeds separately and suggests ways to mitigate factors that could impact site performance.

• GTmetrix: With GTmetrix, you can run a detailed test on your site and receive a report on load time, page size, and recommendations for optimizations. It analyzes load performance and highlights opportunities to reduce page size.

• Pingdom: Pingdom allows you to monitor website speed and performance over time. It checks load time and geographic distribution, plus you can also set up alerts about any speed or uptime issues impacting visitors.

• WebPageTest: This tool performs speed tests on your website from multiple locations worldwide. It generates charts on load time and performance to help identify bottlenecks or areas for optimization.

• Lighthouse: Google's open-source auditing tool evaluates various aspects of your site to help you enhance your visitors' experience. It also measures your site's mobile friendliness and responsiveness to different screen sizes.

Why Is Page Speed Important?

According to a study by Google and SOASTA, more than half of mobile users leave a website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. Making your site faster improves user experience, keeping visitors on your page for longer. Quick-loading pages also lead to higher engagement, better search engine rankings, and increased conversions.

Site speed is critical, as users now expect near-instant loading and responsiveness from websites. Higher speeds improve user retention, satisfaction, and conversion rates, boost SEO rankings, reduce operational costs, and build trust and credibility for your brand. On the other hand, lengthy load times negatively impact the experience for visitors and your business goals. 

Here are some of the top reasons that explain why page speed is important:

• Improves User Retention: If your site is too unresponsive, people may click away, hurting retention. Speed keeps customers engaged on your pages longer.

• Enhances User Satisfaction: Quick-loading pages result in a smoother experience. Users will appreciate not having to wait and may experience higher satisfaction, which could influence reviews and recommendations.

• Boosts SEO Rankings: Improving loading times helps more users discover your business through organic search, as Google considers site speed a ranking factor.

• Increases Conversion Rates: If pages load instantly, your customers and leads are more likely to purchase or provide contact information.

• Reduces Operational Costs: Optimized performance reduces bandwidth usage and the need for an expensive hosting plan with lots of resources, saving operational expenses over the long run.

• Builds Trust and Credibility: Users perceive speedy sites as more professional than slow ones. A snappy experience also indicates your business prioritizes customers, which enhances how users view your brand.

8 Ways To Improve Your Site Speed

Sluggish site performance can be fixed with actionable strategies and tools to enhance its loading performance; you don’t need to build another from scratch. Below are some practical ways to optimize your site to boost its speed significantly, ensuring a better user experience for your customers and improved SEO rankings:

1. Optimize Images

Start by resizing images to the actual dimensions needed on the page to avoid having to load unnecessarily large files. Use image compression plugins or tools like TinyPNG to condense the images and remove excess code that isn't visible. You should also consider using optimized file formats, such as WebP, which provides superior lossless and lossy compression.

2. Enable Caching

Caching stores copies of files locally on a user’s device, so they don’t have to reload every visit. Implementing caching significantly cuts down load times for your returning visitors. 

To enable caching, consider installing plugins that cache static assets to prevent requests to the server. Examples of such plugins on WordPress are Litespeed Cache, WP Rocket, WP Fastest Cache, and W3 Total Cache. 

You could also opt for server-side hosting, which most companies with managed hosting plans offer. This type of hosting doesn’t require you to optimize anything or install cache apps; it handles most of the heavy lifting for you.

3. Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

Minifying removes unnecessary characters from code, like spaces, comments, and line breaks, reducing file sizes. Tools like UglifyJS for JavaScript, CSSNano for CSS, and HTMLMinifier for HTML automate this process. 

Many CMS platforms offer plugins or built-in tools to help minify your code, speeding up your site. On WordPress for example, you can use your chosen cache plugin or the Autoptimize plugin. 

4. Reduce Redirects

Each redirect creates an extra HTTP request, adding to loading times. Minimize redirects by linking directly to the final destination. Audit your site for unnecessary redirects with redirect checker tools available online, then streamline it. 

5. Enable Compression

Compression shrinks files sent from your server to the browser, speeding up downloads. Gzip and Brotli are common methods for compressing files. Most web servers support these; enabling them is straightforward through your caching app.

6. Optimize Server Response Time

Factors like server software, traffic, and hosting quality affect response time. Enhance your server’s performance by upgrading hardware, choosing efficient software, and using managed hosting services. Monitor server metrics regularly to spot and fix issues like high CPU usage or slow queries.

7. Implement Lazy Loading

With lazy loading, you can delay loading non-critical assets until needed, speeding up your visitors' initial load time. To implement this, use JavaScript libraries like LazyLoad.js or HTML attributes like loading="lazy" for images. 

You could also use your chosen cache or image optimization plugin to configure your site to load media only when it comes into view, enhancing speed and user experience.

8. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Modern CDNs distribute your website files across servers worldwide, reducing the distance needed to access content and the load times for your customers, regardless of where they are located. 

In addition to improving speeds, most CDNs can compress images and files to make them smaller before sending them to users, saving bandwidth and making content load even faster.

CDNs also provide security features, such as defending against DDoS attacks and bot traffic that can slow response times. They optimize code and cache frequently requested assets, eliminating unnecessary processing for repeat site visitors.

Why Fastly Is Your Best Choice For Site Speed Optimization

Understanding and improving your site speed helps boost user satisfaction, enhance SEO, and increase conversions. With tools like the Fastly CDN, achieving these goals is easy and rewarding.

Here’s why: Fastly is a leading CDN for optimizing site speed. 

• Programmable Edge Platform: Fastly’s edge computing gives real-time control over content delivery. Customize and optimize performance globally with flexible APIs and edge scripting.

• Image Optimization: The CDN compresses and optimizes images automatically, reducing file size without sacrificing quality. This ensures quick loading for image-heavy sites.

• Load Balancing: Fastly efficiently distributes traffic across servers, preventing overload and maintaining speed during traffic surges.

• Edge Caching: Fastly CDN caches content at the network edge, getting closer to users, reducing data travel distance, and speeding up load times.

• Real-time Logging and Monitoring: Fastly offers detailed analytics and monitoring, helping you track performance and pinpoint areas for improvement instantly.

Learn more about how getting started with Fastly CDN is easier than ever with Glitch.