Is your business website running excruciatingly slow? Have you lost rankings due to Google’s page experience update?

DesignMantic share the most common website speed killers in this infographic.

Here are a few from their list:

  • Social media buttons
  • Ad code and analytics tags
  • Large, unoptimised images
  • Poor CSS
  • Third-party plugins

Check out the infographic for more detail.

16 Features Slowing Down Your Website & Lowering Your Google Ranking [Infographic]

 

In today’s digital landscape, website speed is crucial not only for user experience but also for search engine rankings.

Google, the leading search engine, considers page speed as one of the key factors in determining a website’s ranking. Therefore, it’s essential for website owners to optimize their sites for speed to ensure they don’t fall behind in search results and lose potential visitors.

In this article, we’ll explore 16 features that could be slowing down your website and ultimately lowering your Google ranking.

Social Media Buttons

Incorporating social media buttons on your website can be beneficial for sharing content and increasing engagement. However, these buttons often come with heavy scripts and tracking codes that can significantly impact page load times.

Consider optimizing or using lightweight alternatives to social media buttons to improve website speed.

Ad Network Code

While ads are a common way to monetize websites, the scripts and tracking codes from ad networks can be resource-intensive and slow down your site.

Limit the number of ad networks you use and prioritize those that offer efficient code integration to minimize the impact on page load times.

Analytics Tags

Analytics tools provide valuable insights into website traffic and user behavior, but excessive tracking tags can add unnecessary overhead to your site.

Review and streamline your analytics implementation to include only essential tracking tags and remove any redundant or outdated ones.

Javascript-Based Functionality

While Javascript can enhance website interactivity and functionality, excessive use of Javascript frameworks and plugins can bog down your site’s performance.

Opt for lightweight alternatives or optimize existing scripts to reduce the impact on page load times.

Big Unoptimized Images

Large, unoptimized images are one of the most common culprits of slow-loading websites.

Compress images without sacrificing quality, use appropriate image formats, and leverage lazy loading techniques to ensure faster loading times for your web pages.

Overstuffed HTML

Bloated HTML code with unnecessary tags, attributes, or inline styles can increase page size and slow down loading times.

Optimize your HTML by removing redundant code, minifying HTML files, and utilizing efficient markup practices to improve website speed.

CSS – Poor Stylesheets

Inefficient CSS stylesheets with redundant rules, excessive selectors, or unused code can hinder website performance.

Consolidate stylesheets, remove unused styles, and consider using CSS preprocessors to streamline your CSS and improve loading times.

Unprofessional jQuery

While jQuery can simplify complex scripting tasks, poorly optimized or outdated jQuery libraries can negatively impact website performance.

Regularly update jQuery versions, remove unnecessary plugins, and optimize jQuery code to enhance website speed.

Subpar DNS

The Domain Name System (DNS) translates domain names into IP addresses, and a slow DNS lookup can delay the loading of your website.

Choose a reliable DNS provider, implement DNS prefetching, and minimize DNS lookup times to optimize website performance.

Hosting Across Too Many Domains

Hosting assets, such as images, scripts, and stylesheets, across multiple domains can increase latency and degrade website performance.

Consolidate hosting resources on a single domain or utilize content delivery networks (CDNs) to distribute content efficiently and improve loading times.

Overlooking Gzip Compression

Gzip compression reduces the size of web files transferred between the server and the client, resulting in faster page load times.

Enable Gzip compression on your web server to compress text-based resources, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, and improve website speed.

Bad Queries

Inefficient database queries can significantly impact website performance, especially on dynamic websites with heavy database usage.

Optimize database queries, use indexes appropriately, and implement caching mechanisms to reduce query times and improve overall site speed.

Poorly-Written Server-Side Code

Server-side code that is poorly written or inefficient can lead to slow response times and degraded website performance.

Regularly review and optimize server-side scripts, leverage caching strategies, and consider server upgrades to enhance website speed.

Improper Expires or Cache-Control Header

The expires and cache-control headers control how browsers cache and revalidate web content, affecting page load times for returning visitors.

Configure proper expires and cache-control headers for static resources to enable browser caching and reduce server requests.

Outdated Server-Side Software

Running outdated server-side software, such as web servers, programming languages, or database systems, can expose your website to security vulnerabilities and performance issues.

Keep server-side software up-to-date with the latest patches and upgrades to ensure optimal website performance.

Third-Party Flash and Java Plugins

Flash and Java plugins can introduce security vulnerabilities and performance bottlenecks, especially as modern browsers phase out support for these technologies.

Minimize reliance on third-party Flash and Java plugins, and consider migrating to alternative solutions, such as HTML5 and JavaScript, for improved website performance and compatibility.

Conclusion

In conclusion, optimizing website speed is essential for maintaining a high Google ranking and providing a seamless user experience.

By addressing the 16 features outlined in this article, website owners can significantly improve their website’s performance, reduce bounce rates, and increase visitor satisfaction.

Remember to regularly monitor and test your website’s speed using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to identify and address any performance bottlenecks promptly.

By prioritizing speed optimization efforts, you can ensure that your website remains competitive in today’s fast-paced digital landscape.

Mark Walker-Ford

Director, Red Website Design