Analyze and Accelerate Page Load Speed

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From the course by University of California, Davis

Advanced Search Engine Optimization Strategies

295 ratings

University of California, Davis

Advanced Search Engine Optimization Strategies

295 ratings

Course 5 of 6 in the Specialization Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This course focuses on technical, mobile and social strategies for increasing site traffic. Learn how to build SEO for international audiences through content localization, global team alignment and optimizing for local search engines. Discover techniques to optimize mobile-friendly websites, get mobile apps discovered, and leverage social media to drive organic SEO traffic. You will also learn how to identify key SEO metrics and collect, interpret, validate, and report success to your clients and stakeholders.

From the lesson

Introduction

Welcome to this first module where you will discover how technical search engine optimization (SEO) can improve your website. You will discuss and use web metrics as you compare performance analysis tools and plug-ins. You will be able to find and fix problems, heighten visibility, improve site architecture, and accelerate page load speed for your own website. You will be able to take the steps necessary to conduct a website audit and finally, you’ll discover strategies to achieve positive change by working well with teams and stakeholders.

Welcome to Technical Search Engine Optimization2:41

Discover What Technical SEO Can Do for Your Website4:07

Compare Website Performance and Analysis Tools6:55

Compare Plug-in Tools for Technical SEO5:14

Find and Fix Technical Issues on Your Website6:22

Heighten Visibility with Google Quick Answers4:48

Boost Website Accessibility5:39

Take Action with Analysis Tools to Improve Site Architecture6:10

Analyze and Accelerate Page Load Speed6:05

Conduct and Document a Website Audit6:28

Achieve Positive Change Working with Stakeholders8:05

Meet the Instructors

Dave Lloyd
Senior Manager, Global Search Marketing
Adobe Systems

Welcome back.

This lesson is on page load speed issues.

Page load speed is a ranking signal and has been since 2014.

By making page load speed improvements,

you can vastly increase your overall website conversion as well.

So page load speed is important for ranking, it impacts conversions,

and it can put an unnecessary burden on your server's processing speed,

as well as the time it takes for users to download what they need.

In this lesson, we'll cover common page speed test tools and the type of insights

you might drive by looking at what they say about your website.

You'll learn about what page load speed is and why it matters,

the common tools that you can use to do page speed analysis, and how best to

share these results with stakeholders or clients in a way that makes a difference.

The speed at which your pages load is important.

You should pay attention to this, because it's inefficient to have a slow website.

Imagine having a car or equipment that didn't operate at peak efficiency.

You want to make a change, and it's the same here.

Slow Page Load Speed puts an unnecessary burden on

server processing and user download time.

It's also a ranking signal.

Page Load Speed is accounted for when evaluating where one site should rank

versus another, all other things being equal.

And this is done at the domain and page level.

Perhaps most importantly

is the impact page speed has on conversion and user experience.

When it takes too long to download or access a page,

users may go to the competition or hit the back button on Google,

therefore not convert as intended on your site.

There's quite a few Page Speed Test Tools on the market.

I'll list them, go into more detail on a few.

Google PageSpeed Insights gives you information on mobile and

desktop performance.

Yahoo YSlow does something very similar.

There's another tool from Pingdom called the Speed Test.

You can enter a URL.

It will show you a waterfall report and page analysis and performance tips.

A fourth tool is DareBoost, which gives quality control and

optimization indicators.

Another platform is WebPagetest, and the last is GTmetrixs.

These are all free tools.

Some require you to pay for additional features.

They're accessible via their websites, and

each could be used to provide more context to website performance.

So let's talk about Google's PageSpeed Insights tool.

It's perhaps the most commonly referenced.

They separate out the analysis into performance on mobile and

performance on desktop, and they give you a score for each of those two platforms.

It also makes recommendations, general and

specific, on the kind of fixes that you could make to the site.

GTmetrix is another great platform to consider.

GTmetrix will show you PageSpeed from Google, Yahoo YSlow,

as well as a waterfall chart of exactly every element on the page,

and its load time from start to finish.

WebPagetest is an intriguing tool

that will give you an even more detailed analysis of load time.

It provides the time for the first image or source code information to render,

how long it takes the document to be completely loaded and fully loaded.

Complete, loaded and fully are different in terms of what is visual to

the user versus a completely uploaded page.

One thing I like about WebPagetest is it will allow you to identify page load speed

issues in comparison with other websites, your competitors for example.

So you can look at one site and compare that to multiple others

to have a better understanding of the load time for different types of sites.

This is an easy way to get your team's attention

by showing how you compare across your industry.

Competition can be visually displayed to get the attention of those who can help

you make changes, move the needle when it comes to page load speed issues.

Page load speed data can be overwhelming.

There's a lot of information to process.

The simplest way to think about how to make use of this is to provide

a simple report.

Take an export of one or two of the platforms that I've shared, three or

four if you're interested, and categorize the impact severity of the issue,

then put that in the list and work at prioritizing it.

For example, common issues include JavaScript render blocking,

optimization of CSS, better browser caching, and

a minimizing or a reducing the size of different elements.

These common issues are true for most websites, and

the simplest way to get the attention of those whose help you need

is to do a competitive analysis comparing your site against competing sites.

Provide specific instruction and

ideally some understanding of the effort, action or impact required.

For example, is this more severe or more of a middle or

lower tier of the impact it has on the domain.

By providing your report or analysis in this way,

those needing to take action on the report, you can prioritize what your

team should emphasize in terms of page load speed improvements.

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