Why Landing Page Speed is Important
Reasons You Should Always Check Your Webpage Speed
Webpage speed has always been a factor in ranking success, but it has become even more so recently.
Since the introduction of mobile and also the reduced patience of the average user, speed is now key for your online presence.
The speed of a landing page is so important nowadays that it can literally make or break the first impression any user will give when they click on your link.
With users expecting instant access to information and services, the speed at which your landing page loads can make or break the first impression of your website.
Website speeds shouldn’t even be an issue at all for your online business. It is one of the first things that you need to make sure is addressed. You will always need a fast website, and a slow website can harm you significantly.
>> View our Recommended Plugins for Speed Optimisation <<
Understanding Landing Page Speed
So, what is landing page speed?
Landing page speed refers to the time it takes for a webpage to fully load and become available for a user to interact with.
Although you may visually see the page, if nothing is clickable on it when it should be, it is still classed as a slow-loading page.
Several components contribute to this speed, including loading time, First Contentful Paint (FCP), and Time to Interactive (TTI).
Loading time Is quite self-explanatory, it’s the duration from when a user requests a page until it is fully loaded in their browser, buy fully loaded we made everything is interactive on the page, ie links image clicks URLs etc..
First Contentful Paint measures how quickly the first piece of content, such as text or images, appears on the screen.
Time to Interactive refers to the time it takes for a page to become fully functional, allowing users to engage with it seamlessly.
Some of my favourite ways to measure page speed, various metrics and tools are available, such as Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, and Pingdom.
What thee tools do is analyze different aspects of webpage performance and provide insights into areas that need improvement.
>> View our Recommended Plugins for Speed Optimisation <<
Google PageSpeed Insights
Evaluates the speed and usability of your site on both mobile and desktop devices, offering suggestions to enhance performance.
GTmetrix
GT Metrix is good because it provides a comprehensive report on page load details and offers actionable recommendations.
Pingdom
Helps to test the speed of your website from multiple locations worldwide and tracks its performance over time.
All these metrics combine to outline the key features and components of web page load speeds. If you stay on the right side of the test results, then you are more than halfway there to not being negatively affected by website speed.
Ultimately, a fast-loading landing page creates a positive first impression and encourages users to explore further which is what search engines want, and ultimately the end-user.
It is also helpful because it can help reduce bounce rates, increases engagement, and ultimately leads to higher conversion rates.
Get More Tips on How to Make your Website Faster
Reasons to Regularly Check Your Webpage Speed
Monitoring your webpage speed isn’t a one-time task but an ongoing commitment.
Most webmasters when setting up a website or a page will simply check it once usually at the start, and then leave the page to its own devices and never check again, or at least not for a very long time.
Here I reasons why you should regularly check your website pages for speed:
Due to an ever-evolving digital landscape, staying competitive means ensuring your website runs at optimal speed and provides users with a seamless experience.
If you can make your website run faster than your competitors, then even better!
Here are key reasons why regularly checking your webpage speed is crucial:
Keeping Up with Technological Changes
Inevitably, with technology comes change, including the introduction of new tools and techniques that can be implemented to improve website performance. So your competitors don’t get the edge, make sure to keep abreast of these Technologies and implement them first where possible.
Users are becoming increasingly impatient. They don’t want to hang around for pages to load, mainly due to their local concentration. So give them what they want quickly, or they’ll go—simple as that!
As users, just like technology, constantly changes and evolves adapt to them equally, if not even more so than the technology.
Regular speed checks allow you to adapt to these technological shifts, ensuring your site remains efficient and user-friendly.
Identifying Bottlenecks and Issues
Slow loading page speeds and websites can often be caused by common bottlenecks, these include but are not limited to large images, unoptimized code, excessive scripts, and server delays. These are killers to your website’s performance!
You will need to address these issues quickly because they can negatively and significantly affect bounce rates and load times, which are very important criteria for both users and search engines.
Because some of the factors outlined above are variable, I mean they can change over time. This is one of the main reasons why you ideally need to check your load speeds regularly.
If you delay and check your low times and your website performance, it’s quite possible the only time you will be alerted of such things is when you’re rankings drop, when your users drop, and when your sales fall, it’s almost a case of the horses already bolted and it may be too late to take action!
quick fixes
start by compressing images, minifying code, or optimizing server performance, routine speed audits ensure your site operates smoothly.
Enhancing Performance on Different Devices
Often, webmasters tend to cater for one type of device; I myself have been guilty of this; I’ve often only built websites with laptops and pc’s in mind; however, in hindsight, this was foolish, especially as mobile is not the biggest sector and is growing rapidly!
Keep in mind that a site that loads quickly on a desktop might lag on a smartphone or tablet due to different processing capabilities and screen sizes.
Testing speed across devices and browsers highlights issues and areas which may need improvement.
Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, BrowserStack, and CrossBrowserTesting enable cross-device and cross-browser testing, which can help with this.
>> View our Recommended Plugins for Speed Optimisation <<
Other useful Page analysing, and website speed Tools
Lighthouse
Lighthouse was developed by Google and is open source. Its goal is to help you improve the quality of your web pages.
It helps as it runs various audits on performance, accessibility, and SEO, offering insights into how well your page performs and where it needs improvement.
