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Need For Site Speed: Practical Guide For The Average Blogger

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Better Go Faster... NOW

In my last post about site speed as a new search engine factor, I hopefully convinced you how important it is to improve your site speed.

However, as most of you know, I am not a big fan of theory.

I am more of “Don’t tell me WHAT, tell me HOW” kindda gal.

And here lies the problem.

After I wrote the first post and moved on to the practical nitty-gritty of the topic, I realized that the web is FULL of brilliant theory on the matter, but not the practical tips for an AVERAGE blogger like you and me.

It really sounded like you needed a PhD in programming to make your site any faster…

I am stubborn though…:) and a bit OCD, which definitely helped in this situation.

So after a lot of trial and error, which some of you reading my blog in the past few days noticed since it was in a constant state of disarray, and with help of my good friend Dev Sharma of TechNShare.com, I managed to come up with the list of practical tips you can implement today to speed up your blog.

To give you a starting point for this guide, I am posting a screen shot of my blog performance as per Google Webmaster Tools.

If you don’t have a free Webmaster Tools account, you should get it right now.

After you log in, you’ll see your dashboard to the left. Go under “Labs” and then “Site Performance” to check out your own stats on this.

site speed ranking factor image

As you can see from the image above, pages on my blog take 6.5 seconds to download. That’s on average, mind you; some pages took as long as 20 seconds to download! That’s SLOWER than 84% of all sites.

By the way, 2 seconds is what’s considered to be acceptable site speed.

(I can’t believe how embarrassing it is to share those appalling numbers with you, but then again - I showed you mine, you show me yours and we’ll see who comes out ahead!)

Now let me stop talking and get to the point: how do we improve our site speed?

1. Update to the latest version of WordPress.

Seems to be an obvious one, yet I know many bloggers don’t upgrade when they should for fear of “messing up their blog”. Back it up and do it!

2. Delete plugins without mercy

We are all guilty of this one.

“But this one looks so shiny and it comes in a pretty package! Plus, my friend has it…”

So we go ahead and keep loading more and more plugins, without realizing that the very thing we hope will increase our blog usability actually significantly decreases it instead.

Show me a reader who is willing to wait for 10-20 seconds to load a page on your blog? That’s my point.

3. Use videos sparingly

Particularly, in your sidebars. Remember, your sidebars load on EVERY page and so do your videos. Do your readers really watch them?

4. Use a slash at the end of your links

Let me explain why first.

When a server opens a link that looks like this: “https://trafficgenerationcafe.online/about“, it will have to take time to figure out what content is attached to that link.

If, however, the link has a slash “/” at the end like this “https://trafficgenerationcafe.online/about/“, then the server knows exactly which directory it points to, thus reducing the time to load the page.

This is a very simple change to make.

In your WP dashboard, go to Settings, then Permalinks. We won’t argue about the best permalink structure, but I think it’s /%postname%/

Whatever structure you chose, make sure you have a slash at the end to close your link.

The improvement on the loading time of links ending with a slash will not be astronomical, but when it comes to speeding up a website every small bit helps.

5. Optimize Images

Images are necessary to draw readers attention, no question about that.

Yet, they happen to play a huge factor in slowing your site down.

Solution? Optimize your images before you post them to your site.

By “optimizing” your images, I mean reducing them in size and quality to the point where a reader can’t really tell the difference, but the image file size is drastically smaller.

Ways to do that:

  • Crop all the white space around images.
  • If using Photoshop or other photo editing software, make sure to use “Save for the web” option.
  • Use Online Image Optimizer by Dynamic Drive. There are many others, but this one is my favorite. It’s free (!) and you can save your image as JPEG, PNG, GIF. From personal experience: JPEG version gives you the most options and when your image is ready just drag and drop it to your desktop.

I know going through your old images is a pain in the neck - after all, there may be hundreds of them on your blog!

However, you should definitely start using this technique for all future posts.

PLUS, go back and optimize ALL the images that load on every page, like your header and images in your sidebars.

6. Dump external ads

Unless you are making real money worth writing home about, DUMP them. Things like external banner ads and Google AdSense do contribute to slow websites AND frustrating user experience.

Marketing Takeaway:

These are very simple and non-technical tips that ANYONE should be able to easily implement on any blog/website. Invest 10 minutes of your time to see some great long-term results.

By the way, I’ve got more tips. Just didn’t want to overwhelm you in one day (I hear a faint “Thank you, Ana”). You are welcome.

Do let me know what your site speed is right now though; I’d love to compare notes!

Love it or hate it? Comment to show me that you’ve alive!

ana hoffman seo link buildingana hoffman speed site ranking factor

PS For more no-nonsense traffic generation and conversion tips from Ana, fill out this short spam-free form:

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47 Intelligent comments · espresso yours below

  1. I know what you mean about plugins slowing your site down. I started using plugins because I wanted to avoid having to start using code. I got to the stage where I thought I was going to have to bite the bullet and look into using code to add functionality instead of plugins. Luckily, I found a solution - W3 Total Cache. It’s actually a plugin, but it really does increase site speed.

    • I do like W3 Total Cache, Mark; however, it happens to clash with some other plugins on my site.

      In the end, I’d hard-code them all, if I knew how.

  2. I haven’t checked into video hosting, Wayne - I don’t post nearly enough videos (would like to though), so never thought it was time and expense worth it for me personally.

    But if you find a good solution, I’d love to know what it is!

  3. Ana,,Nice walk thru. I’m like you ” stubborn and OCD” haha

    I was all about getting my blog to load faster.. I tried Super Cache.. it sucked.. then I added W3 Cache, and it dropped my load time from 14 sec to about 9 sec… then I did some of what you shared here and basically dropped any button that was draggin.

    I am now at about a 6sec load, which is good enough for me, till the cost for CDN makes sense for me.

    But what I will say,, is I have NOT noticed any difference in rankings since I went from a load of 14 to about 6.. and it has been at 6 over a month.

    So I would say if your dropping load time for search luv.. dont bother.. but if your dropping load time for your readers, and to better the chance visitors will make it thru your blog,, then do it.. the search luv is a bonus if it happens or not.,

    • You said it, John Paul - better search ranking is just a bonus.

      User experience is the biggest consideration in improving your site speed; nobody wants to loose readers due to a slow-loading page. 🙂

      I am glad to hear that you used some of the same methods I talk about in the post to speed up your blog; that’ the difference between theory and practice!

      Ana

  4. I’m really bothered by the stats shown by Google Webmasters Tool as it can also be affected by the speed of the visitors internet connection. So far so good, I’ve managed to stay @ 4 secs according to gtmetrix.com and that’s fine by me 😉

  5. Average Load Time for Stevescottsite.com

    Average (1.349 Seconds), 58% of sites are slower.

    -not too bad I guess. I noticed a while back a plugin was slowing it down A lot (like an extra 4 seconds) As much as I liked it I had to dump it for this reason. Sometimes the cuts an hurt and some plugins are worth a little drop in speed, but it can be a tough thing.

  7. Hey Ana,

    Wow another goodie bag of tips here. I didn’t know about the slash at the end of links although by default my blog posts all have backslash at the back of their links. And also about ads, I agree with you. I’ve recently dump a lot of useless ads that aren’t making me any money. I think its best to use ads sparingly and if it works.

    • Thanks for dropping by Bryan. I’m glad you find the tips I shared here very useful. That’s why I’m always inspired to posts more of it.

      Have a nice day,

      Ana

  8. Incidentally, before I change my permalink structure to add a / at the end. Do you know if it will break the links to my posts out on the web if I just add a / at the end?

  9. Hi Ana,
    Wow, really great post! I used it as a guide to check my site speed on webmaster’s tool. I had previously already tried to speed it up a bit by dumping some plugins. After checking webmaster’s tools, I saw it was still slow. Your tip really nudged me in the right direct to dump some of my low performing external ads. I’m also going to add the slash at the end of my permalinks. Thanks for the tips!

    • Anything external can slow down your blog; it’s hard enough to control your own server. 🙂

      Glad you got some good tips out of the post, Richard; let me know how your speed improves.

      Ana

  10. Hi Ana!

    Like Tommy, W3 Total Cache sped up my site a great deal. I love that tool.

    I would also suggest that people upload images that they use for advertising or for their posts to their own sites. That little change seems to make a big different in timing as well.

    And using tools like the javascript-based Delicious and Facebook sharing buttons with serious consideration. I love them, but boy, the time it takes (especially for Delicious) to load can be a killer. Better to ditch the script they provide and just copy the image to your site and then do manual sharing code. If that makes any sense at all! lol

    Cheers,
    Tia

  11. Hi Ana,

    I will be tweaking a few things after reading your post, thanks.

    For some reason I have never been able to verify my blog on Google Webmaster Tools although I have other sites verified.

    I tried to resolve this previously but as per usual everyone just points a finger in someone else’s direction and nothing gets solved.

    I will have to add it to my list again for the future. Annoying as much as technical can be.

    ~Marcus

    • I wish I knew the answer to your Webmaster troubles, Marcus, but at least I can tell you that you are not the only one.

      I had a couple of complaints about the same problem recently.

      All I can say is definitely try again; they now have 4 options of verifying a website - more than the last time I verified my blog.

      Hope you figure it out!

      Ana

  12. I think we shouldn’t worry that much to the site speed, it is just one of over 200 ranking factors and I guess that it won’t affect user experience as it differs for a few seconds.

    • With all due respect, it DOES affect users.

      The difference between a 2 sec download and a 10 sec download is huge when you are staring at the screen.

      As far as Google ranking is concerned, might not seem like a huge thing, but if 2 websites are equal in any other ranking algorithm and one of them is faster than the other, guess which one will be first?

      Everything matter, when put into perspective…

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

      Ana

  13. Living in Namibia where I have a much slower connection that much of the world, page speed has always been really important to me. Bloggers have become so widget mad these days that most blogs I visit I end up hitting the stop button on Firefox just so that the page gets done. On days that the web is really slow, I start using a text only browser.

    My site, since you asked, is at the top end of the scale, but it is mainly because I rolled my own blog engine and work hard to keep it fast.

  14. I recently installed the w3-super-cache plugin and my load speed improved by nearly 40%. Takes a little effort to set it up but worth it.

    Andrew

    P.S. Must admit, I am a little guilty of having too many plugins!

    • Ahh, you are into “shiny things” too, Andrew?

      I used to get every plugin I thought sounded cool, until I knew what I was doing to my blog. 🙂

      I love W3 Super Cache; my site performance jumped up as well since I started using it.

      I was planning on talking about it in my next blog post, but since you brought it up…

      Thanks for stopping by.

      Ana

  15. I think it is a mater of getting done and then see what could be more optimized… Things are changing with SEO. Google makes 300-400 tweaks per year. So, SEO will stay with us and our sites…

    On your suggested article I liked the #5 🙂

    Thank You!

    Slavik G

  18. Nice points, Ana. One more point that I find out when I do speed optimization for my site is place a share box on sidebar and float it can really increase your blog speed.

    The reason lies within the HTML structure. With traditional share box, it’s in between the content and footer sections. If one of the share services like Digg, etc, loads slowly, it will drag your site down, too!

    Putting a share box float resolves this issue. You can put this box in footer and use CSS to position it in your blog. When your blog loads, all of the content, sidebar and comment will be loaded first so it doesn’t create feeling of content load slowly for users, and your sidebar share box can take time to load while users start to read the content. Very nice, right?

    • Thanks for sharing your own technique Mike. That is very helpful as well. I will also try using that one. Anything, to increase speed.

      Thanks Mike. Glad you came by

      Ana

  19. Hi, Ana-

    Great tips! I’m ashamed to say that my siteload was 5.3 seconds, which I consider atrocious! Apparently, I fell into the “ooh…that’s shiny” trap, and had far too many plugins activated. I’ve murdered a few of them, thanks to your reminder. I’ll have to wait to see what my new “official” loadtime is, but I can tell it’s much better already… around half.

    Thanks!

    • You’re welcome Doc. I think that’s one of the most common problem we bloggers have, that’s why I decided to share these tips.

      All the Best,

      Ana

  20. Hi Ana,

    I’m floored. My site takes 7.6 seconds to load. Yikes…thank you for the tips. Guess I have some work to do. 🙂 I’m thankful to have your speedy solutions to my slow as molasses blog!

    Heather

  21. Hey Ana,

    Awesome tips list, I love the one titled “Delete Plugins without mercy”, I hate installing Unnecessary Plugins because all they do is not only crowd your blog and make it look so unprofessional, but it also increase the chances of getting errors because the more Plugins you have the higher chance one of the will contradict with another.

    By the way, when I clicked on “Site performance” under “Labs” in Webmasters tools, it said: “No data available”. No idea why it didn’t show me an evaluation of my site, my site is both added and verified too. 🙁

    Thanks for sharing those tips Ana. 🙂

    • You are so right about the plugins, Sayed - the more you have, the more problems you are asking for.

      Give Webmaster Tools a day, maybe the site took a sick day and forgot to let us know - happens.

      Ana

  22. Hey Anna
    Great list here, Im always checking on my webmaster tools in Google, it has some great info in there if you know how to use it right and what everything means. As soon as I read this post I went to my back office and deleted about 15 unused plugins…. thanks for the reminder to get that done
    cheers
    Nat

  23. It is a never-ending battle, Ana! I just responded to someone on LinkedIn last night, who was looking for an SEO evaluation of his website. The first thing I checked was the load time, which was 5 seconds. It pays to start with a solid foundation, and that is the ~2-second load times, like you mention.