Google hates slow websites and will punish you for it. Here’s why, and what to do about it…
- The faster your website is, the more customers like it.
- The more customers like it, the more they buy.
- The more customers buy, the more Google shows the site because it solves people’s problems.
- If Google showing your website solves people’s problems, then it makes Google look good and people continue to come back and use it as their favorite search engine… making them money.
Here are two steps to make your website load faster and get some love:
1 – Stop loading full size, original, high definition images.
Resize oversized images. Right click on the images on your website and “inspect” it. Your browser can show you how large the image is showing on your site vs how large it’s raw size is.
If you loaded a 2000 pixel wide image but it’s only showing 500 pixels wide, then resize it to 500. The image and your web design will still look the same, but now you just eliminated 75% of unnecessary bloat to make the page load faster.
2 – Stop loading hidden data on images
Did you know that when you buy stock images they embed copyright and user info? Or if you upload an original photo that you took, your phone or camera stamps the image with the device you used and date it was taken? Sometimes it even includes the latitude and longitude in the hidden meta data of your pics.
You can strip that data before you upload it to your website, reducing your image load and speeding up your website.
- If you’re on a Mac, drop your images into an app called ImageOptim before uploading to your website.
- Windows? Try a software called Caesium.
- WordPress? Add a plugin called Smush.
Most websites take 5-6 seconds to load. Goal is to get your website under three seconds. Get it to load under two seconds and you’ll lift conversions, and smoke your competition. 🔥
