Pagespeed guide for a faster website

Why page speed matters more than ever in 2021

Neil Lewin More 

Published by:
Neil
Owner

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Google has decided to add newer factors to its search engine algorithms, and these factors will downrank the sites that offer low-quality user experience. 

Some of the significant factors included in the new page experience criteria are website loading time and responsiveness to the clicks. Google already penalizes the sites for things, such as displaying annoying pop-ups and auto-playing videos. However, the new update expected in May 2021 will focus on website responsiveness and loading times.

Slow website issues

Most business owners worldwide are becoming aware of the significance of having a fast-loading website on the Internet. However, some people are not aware of this significance. A common question making the ranks is, “How much money am I losing due to slow site speed?” Just ask yourself the question, “How would I feel if I landed on a poorly loading site?” Will you be willing to wait till this slow website loads? Aren't you less than impressed by the fact that the important elements fail to appear? You are not alone when you experience frustration. Some recent surveys have indicated that almost 90% of people are not likely to return to a site after receiving a bad experience. Approximately 75% of people stated that they went to a competitor's site after a bad experience with a slow loading website.

Calculating the losses

Is there a way of calculating how much a business is losing because of a slow website? For finding out this costing, use the following formula:

(Monthly Traffic * Estimated Visitor Loss) * Conversion Rate = Estimated Conversion Loss.

For instance, let's say you normally convert 5% of the web traffic to your site. If the traffic is 50,000, and if you are losing 10% of the traffic due to a slow website, this calculates to:

(50000 * 0.10) * .005 = 250 people.

Now, if the average order is worth £80 then we can calculate the lost revenue:

Conversion Loss * Average Order Value = Estimated Speed Cost.

250 * £80 = £20,000.

This means you are losing out £20,000 every month because of a slow website.

Culprits behind the slow websites

Now that you have become aware of the amount of money you are losing due to slow website speed, how can you find out the reason behind it, and even more significantly, how can you fix the slow attraction website? Ensure that the company that manages and hosts your website performs a speed test for identifying the issues that may be slowing down the site. This company will run an elementary site speed test and a more detailed load time test later. Some of the important reasons why the website loads more slowly include:

  • Render blocking JS/CSS.
  • Content delivery networks.
  • Cache optimization.
  • Excessive DB overhead.
  • Large media.
  • Missing files.
  • Plugins.
  • A poorly maintained code.

Core Web Vitals

The Web Vitals is a resource initiative from Google that guides in terms of quality signals and is necessary to deliver a terrific user experience on the Internet. Google has supplied many tools over the past few years for measuring and reporting website performance. Some developers are very good at handling these tools, while others find it challenging to keep up with the metrics. There is no need for the website owners to be performance gurus to understand the quality of experience they are providing to the users. Web Vitals aims at simplifying the landscape, and it aids the websites on the requisite metrics, known as Core Web Vitals.

Measuring page loading experience with Core Web Vitals

When you consider the page experience, there are three new signals for ranking a website's quality, such as interactivity, loading performance, and content stability during the loading experience. Google will not apply the new criteria till May of 2021, allowing the web developers sufficient time to update their websites.

Core Web Vitals are the subset of Web Vitals, and they can be applied to all web pages. The website owners must measure these metrics. Every Core Web Vitals presents a distinct facet of user experience and provides a user-centric outcome. The various metrics containing Core Web Vitals have evolved, and the current set concentrates on the three most important parts of user experience: loading, interactivity, and visual stability.

  • Google opines that most of the content on a page must load in 2.5 seconds from the start of page load. LCP, also known as the Largest Contentful Paint, will measure the page loading performance.
  • For judging the interactivity, Google uses a metric known as FID, also known as First Input Delay, for measuring how fast any visitor can start the interaction with a page. For passing the Google muster, this metric needs to be in the range of 100 milliseconds.
  • Lastly, the CLS, also known as Cumulative Layout Shift, will measure the movement of various objects on the page while it is loading. You may have experienced that you are about to start reading an article, but a huge interstitial ad out of nowhere pushes down the article. This problem is covered by this last metric.

Tools for measuring and reporting Core Web Vitals

Google is clearly of the opinion that Core Web Vitals are crucial for improving the website experience. Due to this fact, Google is committed to using these metrics for all of its popular tools. Here are the field tools that can support the Core Web Vitals.

  • Chrome user experience report.
  • PageSpeed Insights.
  • Care Web Vitals Report or Search Console.

You can also measure the Core Web Vitals using the Web Vitals Chrome Extension. This can provide a comprehensive understanding of your website's performance, your competitor's website, and the Internet at large. 

Although the Core Web Vitals are the crucial metrics for understanding and delivering a terrific user experience, there are other significant metrics for the same purpose, such as TTFB (Time To First Byte) and FCP (First Contentful Paint). They are critical for judging the loading experience and can also diagnose the issues with LCP. Other lab metrics, such as TBT (Total Blocking Time) and TTI (Time To Interactive), are critical for interactivity issues, but they are not a part of Core Web Vitals.

Summary

Drop us a line if you need any help making your website faster for 2021.  It's so often overlooked, but can often be a great way to boost your online results and drive the most revenue from potential customers.

References:

  1. The Search Engine Guys. How much money are you losing due to slow website speed?. (2019).https://www.thesearchengineguys.com/how-much-money-are-you-losing-due-to-slow-website-speed/.
  2. Web.dev. Web Vitals. (2020).https://web.dev/vitals/.
  3. Developers.google.com. About Page Speed Insights. (2020). https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about
  4.  https://developers.google.com/speed/docs/insights/v5/about