Do you want to know how to make your website load faster? The loading time of a web page is the time it takes for your site to download and display all the content within your browser (Chrome, Safari, Explorer, etc.). This means that the higher our loading speed, the higher the chances of visitors leaving your site. Or in other words: The longer it takes for your page to load, the more likely people are to get bored of waiting and move on to your competition.
What is the ideal charging time?
In recent years, when time is more valuable than money and people's patience for surfing the Internet is increasingly less due to the rapid availability of information, loading speed is of vital importance, but what is the ideal time?
According to research by Kissmetrics, 40% of visitors abandon pages that take more than 3 seconds to load and every 1 second more in the website loading time reduces conversions by 7%, this applies to both versions: Computer and mobile. Since, Web Performance Today85% of mobile users expect a page to load at least as fast as on a computer.
How do I diagnose my page?
There are currently several free tools that can be used to measure the loading time of a page. These tools also provide you with recommendations and actions that you can apply to improve your times. The most commonly used tools are:
1. GTmetrix
GTmetrix is considered one of the best and most complete tools for evaluating the loading time of a page and identifying areas for improvement. To use it, simply enter the GTmetrix website, insert the link of the page you want to analyze and generate the report.
It is recommended that you create an account (even if it is free) before starting the analysis, since this allows you to change the region where the test will be run, which browser and device will be used, what type of network, and other configuration possibilities.
2. Google Page Speed
PageSpeed Insights GTMetrix is a tool that allows you to analyze the content and generate suggestions for the desktop and mobile versions of a page by entering a link. The way to use it is similar to GTMetrix, however the tool does not detail the page load time and does not indicate the number of requests to load the page, which is important data for the diagnosis. What we recommend you do is use this page first to correct your errors, and then run the analysis in GTMetrix to obtain a specific time.
What else should I know?
- Google looks at the loading speed of your website and penalizes slow pages, so your SEO positioning will be affected by this and you may appear lower and lower in the search results.
- Long loading times increase our bounce rates and generate fewer sales.
- You may want to use the best images for your website, however choosing high quality photos can slow down your website because they are too heavy.
- If you want to reduce the weight of your images you can use an online compressor like Tinypng
- Your hosting provider will have an impact on your loading speed. Don't be fooled by providers with very low prices, as they often offer slow speeds. (Si quieres saber dónde adquirir un buen Hosting web, da clic aquí).
- If your site uses plugins, make sure you only have the necessary and important ones.
In conclusion
Don't forget to test your website using GTmetrix to see what loading speed it has, if it's more than 3 or 4 seconds (maximum), it's time to start optimizing your images and resources according to your results. Don't forget that you can do this from online pages or manually with Photoshop. If you also want to know how to improve your SEO
