9 Actionable Tips to Improve Your Google Page Speed Score

You lose your business if your site takes a lot of time to load. Why? Visitors are far more likely to bounce from a slow site. The probability of this action can increase to over 100% if the load time of the web page goes from 1 second to 6 seconds.

Therefore, from impacting the conversion rate to creating a positive impression on the audience, several reasons prove a good page speed is a key to your successful business. In fact, if you’re not making improvements to page speed, it can be a costly mistake!

Thus, you must promptly improve your page speed score. Different easy-to-use tools, such as PageSpeed Insights, help you find and fix problems that could be slowing your site down. Besides that, we have listed some proven ways that help your site run faster by improving your Google page speed score.

Let’s get straight to them!

1. Optimizing the Images

We know users hate waiting on the site to load the pages and around 56% of online shoppers leave a website if they have to wait for more than six seconds. Thus, you must save their time by improving the page speed, which can be achieved by optimizing the images. Furthermore, it will increase the user’s satisfaction with your page, encouraging them to return to your services.

If you are looking to purchase images for your website, choose sizes and resolutions that don’t impact the loading speed. But make sure reducing the size does not affect the quality of your pictures. 

2. Limit the Number of Large Files

You're hurting your page speed score if you have stored large files such as eBooks, downloadable guides, detailed tutorials, and informational media. Decrease the number of large files to ensure your page's speed is maintained.

On the other hand, sometimes large files are valuable to the audience, so we need to keep them on the site. If that is the case, make sure you have limited the number of large files and also decreased the size. 

3. Accelerate Server Response Time

The time required by the server to respond to the user's browser is called Server Response Time. It can be affected by many factors, including the load on the server, the type of server, and the network link between the users and the server.

Slow and shared hosting influences your site speed badly, leading to a delay in server response time. Thus, use a dedicated hosting provider to speed up server response time and ensure an optimum page speed score. 

You can also upgrade to a VPS (Virtual Private Server). A VPS delivers virtualized server resources on a physical server. This is further shared with other users. VPS hosting provides dedicated server space and greater control and customization than shared hosting.

4. Minimize JavaScript, HTML, and CSS

If you are familiar with programming, you must know that a coder creates a website with coding. He uses different characters in the code to execute the programs. If the coding is inappropriate, it can affect the page speed score.

Thus, minification is essential to avoid decreasing the speed score. It is a process in which all unnecessary characters, such as spaces, commas, etc., are removed manually or using a minification tool.

Furthermore, the developer must review the code to eliminate extra elements and ensure the files are minified. The reduced size fastens the loading time for your website.

5. Use Browser Caching

Another way to improve your page speed is browser caching. You know that when a user loads a page, it consumes his time because the site might have JavaScript files and images. However, with browser caching, you save the information temporarily. The next time the user has access to the page, the browser doesn't need to reload the entire page.

Hence, use browser caching for a faster page loading time to keep your leads on your website.

6. Reduce the Number of Redirects

Making changes to your site, such as moving and deleting the pages, will lead you to make redirects. Creating the redirects will allow you to call the audience to the correct pages. Although, this can bring issues down the line. Having plenty of redirect links can slow down your website by increasing the number of HTTP requests, negatively affecting the speed score.

Moreover, too many redirects will influence mobile phone users. They will not stay on your site because it gets too slow. Accelerate your page speed by minimizing the number of redirects when it is necessary. You can also omit unwanted redirects to help redirect audiences to the right pages.

7. Give Priority to Above-the-Fold Content

There are two types of content that you see on the web page. After scrolling down the web page, the one you see is 'below the fold.' Whereas 'above the fold' is the part visible on the user's screen before scrolling. To increase the speed score of your page, you need to prioritize “above-the-fold” content.

“Above-the-fold” content takes less time to load. Also, you can improve website performance by deferring offscreen images.

Moreover, suppose you have implemented “infinite scrolling,” as most content-heavy sites do. In that case, you must allow the browser to load all the images on the page before showing above-the-fold content. Keep in your mind that this strategy creates a negative impact on page speed. 

8. Opt for a CDN

You can also improve the overall performance of the page as well as increase the Google page speed score through CDN. A content delivery network (CDN) is a group of servers that are geographically distributed to deliver internet content fast. The content includes files such as infographics, images, and videos and dynamic content like scripts.

CDN allows you to accomplish a perfect page speed score by caching static files and delivering them via a nearby server. As a result, visitors experience faster page loading times. Since people are more inclined to bounce away from a slow-loading website, this content delivery network reduces bounce rates. It also increases the time people serve on the website.

9. Choose WordPress Themes That Load Fast

There is an excellent variation in WordPress themes and designs. Some are fast and efficient, whereas others don't have that much efficiency, meaning that not all themes can be created equally.

Although, when it comes to boosting user experience and improving the page speed, you must find one that meets your needs. Some of the fastest themes include Zakra, Neve, Astra, GeneratePress, OceanWP, Black Canvas, Go, Customify, etc.

Conclusion

Every business owner aims to display professionalism and reliability when building their website. And to achieve these goals, you need web pages that load fast and seamlessly.

In this regard, improving the Google page speed score works best since the user wants to spend less time on slow-loading pages. Plus, the tool is an ideal indicator of the website’s performance, allowing you to make changes as needed. 

Follow the steps above to improve your Google Page Speed Score and ensure your website runs smoothly. Good luck!