A fast website not only delivers a better experience but can also increase conversion rates and improve your search engine rankings. Google has introduced the three Core Web Vitals metrics to measure user experience and is using them as a ranking factor.
Let’s take a look at the latest techniques to optimize the performance of your website.
Lazy Loading
Lazy loading is a technique that loads only the visible portion of the page initially, and then loads the rest of the page as the user scrolls down. This can significantly improve page speed by reducing the amount of content that needs to be loaded initially. Most modern CMSs, frameworks, and libraries have built-in support for lazy loading.
Lazy loading is like taking a big picture and only showing a small part of it at first. As you look at more of the picture by scrolling down, the rest of the picture loads in little by little. This makes it faster for you to see the parts of the picture you want to see without having to wait for the whole picture to load.
HTTP/3
HTTP/3 is the latest version of the HTTP protocol and is designed to improve page speed by reducing latency. It uses a new transport protocol called QUIC, which is faster and more reliable than TCP. Many web servers and browsers already support HTTP/3.
HTTP/3 is like a super-fast highway that makes cars (or in this case, information) move really quickly. It’s like going on a fast ride at an amusement park!
WebP Images
WebP is a newer image format developed by Google that offers better compression than JPEG and PNG. Using WebP images can significantly reduce image file size without compromising quality, resulting in faster page load times.
WebP images are like magic pictures that look the same as regular pictures, but are actually much smaller and load faster. It’s like having a bag of candy that looks small on the outside, but actually has lots of candy inside!
Critical CSS
Critical CSS is a technique that extracts the CSS needed to render the above-the-fold content of a page and loads it inline. This allows the page to render faster, as the CSS needed for the above-the-fold content is available immediately.
Critical CSS is like having the most important parts of your clothes ready to wear as soon as you wake up in the morning. Instead of having to put on all of your clothes, you can quickly put on the most important parts and be ready to go.
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
AMP is an open-source project led by Google that aims to provide faster loading times for mobile pages. AMP pages use a stripped-down version of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and are cached by Google to load faster. Many CMSs, like WordPress, have plugins that enable AMP.
AMP is like having a special fast lane just for mobile devices. It helps mobile devices load pages faster, like when you’re watching a video on your tablet or playing a game on your phone.
These are the few ways to optimize your website for speed in 2023. Keep checking Google Console to ensure that the performance of your website does not impact your search ranking as speed is one of the important criteria for search ranking and search engine optimization (SEO).