Website Performance Optimization Guide (2023): How to Improve Website Speed and Key Factors to Prioritize

User experience is at the heart of today's web standards. Slow-loading websites are not just a nuisance to users but can also lead to substantial business losses. According to a report by Google, 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than three seconds to load​​.

Not only does website speed affect user experience, but it also plays a significant role in your website's visibility on search engines. Search engines like Google prioritize faster websites in their rankings, making speed optimization a crucial aspect of SEO.

Factors Affecting Website Performance

Several factors can affect your website's performance. Understanding these can help you devise an effective optimization strategy. This can involve prioritizing certain elements of your page based on their usage, optimizing key user journey paths for speed, and using heatmap data to find and fix bottlenecks.

Server Response Time

The amount of time it takes for your server to respond to a request from a browser significantly impacts your website's speed. Factors such as the quality of your hosting provider and the server's resources can affect this.

Website Design and Complexity

A complex design with heavy use of scripts, large images, and other media can slow down your site. Responsive design, which adapts your site's layout to the user's device, can also play a role in your website's performance.

Size and Quality of Images and Media Files

Larger files take longer to load. Optimizing images and other media files by reducing their size without compromising on quality can significantly boost your website's speed.

Amount of HTTP Requests

Each element on your website (images, scripts, CSS files) represents a separate HTTP request. The more elements, the more requests, which can slow down your site.

Unoptimized Code

Bulky code including unnecessary white spaces, comments, or unused code can lead to slower website speeds. Minifying your CSS and JavaScript files can help optimize your site's performance.

Use of CDN and Caching

Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and caching can significantly improve your website's speed by storing copies of your site at various points around a network, reducing the distance information has to travel to reach your users.

Connection Speed and Device type of User

Your user's internet connection and device type can also affect your website's performance. While you can't control these, having a responsive design and optimized images can help ensure a good user experience across different devices and connection speeds.

NS Lookup Time

DNS lookup time is the amount of time it takes for a browser to convert a domain name, like www.example.com, into an IP address. It's the first step that happens in the background when a user types a URL into their browser. If this process is slow, it can have a significant impact on your website's load time, even before any actual content starts loading.

Third-Party Scripts

Third-party scripts are pieces of code that are hosted on a website other than your own. They can add functionality such as live chat, social media sharing buttons, advertising, analytics, and more. However, these scripts can slow down your website because they require additional HTTP requests and often run heavy JavaScript operations which can block rendering.

How to improve website speed

Website speed optimization can significantly boost your website's performance, improve user experience, and ultimately, drive conversions. The following steps outline how to conduct website speed optimization:

Analyze Current Website Speed

The first step in optimization is understanding where you currently stand. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights,Pingdom, or GTmetrix can provide valuable insight into your website's loading times and overall speed. These tools not only give you a speed score but also suggest areas of improvement.

In addition to these, Howuku's heatmaps, session recordings, and website analytics also provides user behavior data, which can help you pinpoint where users are experiencing the most latency on your site.

Optimize Images and Implement AMP for Mobile

High-resolution images can significantly slow down your website. Compressing images or converting them into more efficient formats (like WebP instead of JPEG or PNG) can help speed up load times without compromising on quality. Tools like TinyPNG or Compressor.io can be used for this purpose. For mobile users, consider implementing Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to improve load times.

Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML

Minification involves removing unnecessary characters (like spaces and commas) from your code without changing its functionality. This results in lighter file sizes and faster load times. Most modern CMS platforms have plugins or built-in tools for this purpose, and there are standalone tools like CSSNano and UglifyJS available as well.

Leverage Browser Caching and Use HTTP/2 or HTTP/3

When a user visits your website, the elements of the page they're visiting are stored on their hard drive in a cache, so the next time they visit, their browser can load the page without sending another HTTP request to the server.

Upgrading to HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 allows for multiple simultaneous interactions between the server and the browser, reducing the amount of data needed for loading. You can use tools like W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache for WordPress sites to manage your caching settings.

Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A CDN is a network of servers located around the world that store copies of your website. When a user visits your website, the CDN delivers the content from the server closest to them, improving load speed. Services like Cloudflareand Amazon CloudFront offer CDN services.

Implement Gzip Compression

Gzip is a method of compressing files for faster network transfers. It can reduce the size of your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files that are larger than 150 bytes. Check with your web host to see if they have Gzip compression as an option.

Prioritize Above-The-Fold Content (Lazy Loading)

Lazy loading ensures that the content above the fold loads before the rest of the page. This gives the impression of a faster loading time as users can start interacting with the content immediately. Plugins like BJ Lazy Load can implement this function.

Reduce Redirects and Third-party Scripts

Each time a page redirects to another page, your visitor faces additional waiting time for the HTTP request-response cycle to complete. By minimizing redirects and managing third-party scripts properly, you can improve site speed.

Improve Server Response Time and DNS Lookup Time

Server response time is affected by the amount of traffic you receive, the resources each page uses, the software your server uses, and the hosting solution you use. To improve server response time, look for performance bottlenecks like slow database queries, slow routing, or a lack of adequate memory and fix them. Reducing DNS lookup time can also significantly improve site performance.

Regularly Update Your CMS

If you're using a CMS like WordPress or Joomla, make sure it's always updated to the latest version. Updates often include performance improvements that can help speed up your site.

Conclusion

Website speed optimization is not a one-time task, but rather a continuous process of testing, implementing improvements, and measuring results. As we've explored in this guide, a slow-loading website can impact user experience, search engine rankings, and ultimately, your business's bottom line.

The ultimate goal is to provide an exceptional user experience for your visitors, and speed plays a crucial role in achieving that.