Digital Marketing

Importance of website loading speed and efficient ways to control it

Website loading speeds, if you put it simply, is the time for a website page to load in a way users should see it. And if website loading is slow, it is not only a serious issue for users. It is one of the main reasons for a website’s low ranking in search engines’ and ads systems’ queries. Thus no matter the effort you put into website modernization, without improving its loading speed it will be impossible to reach the top rank.

Website loading speed importance

Google research and the ad system claim that the loading speed of a website should be from 1 to 3 seconds. But Google and other search engines don’t really tell you exactly how they measure speed metrics. Though it is certain that they evaluate not how fast the page loads, but how fast the first visible part is displayed.

From the point of view of conversions and usability, the only thing that matters is how quickly the page loads in the form the user needs immediately after logging in to the website. This can only account for 30% of all content and features. 

Website loading speed importance

Numerous Google studies have shown that visitors interact less with websites that load slowly. Therefore, Google has made website speed a ranking factor for search engines and advertising. This happened after the introduction of Mobile First and Speed Update priorities. This is a system update of Google’s internal algorithms that makes loading time a ranking factor for mobile devices. 

This means that slow loading of a web page can reduce the rankings in the results of advertising and Google search in both desktop and mobile versions. So you need to know how to optimize your website to increase web pages’ loading speed. 

Ways of checking and improving website loading speed 

Optimizing website speed should be a priority if it hasn’t already been done. And in order to correctly identify all of the website loading speed problems, constant monitoring should be carried out. This will allow you to find and fix problems as efficiently as possible. But there are some ways to make things work even without monitoring.

First of all, it is useful to utilize Content Delivery Networks (simply CDN) to virtually reduce the distance between the website and its users. To improve mobile website version performance it is best to check with Google Search Console. It is the best way to find all loading speed issues. It will help to find out how a website looks for users and how fast it is loading. And it will help to find what problems there are.

Ways of checking and improving website loading speed 

Also it is important to remember that the main thing that slows down the loading of a website will be, of course, its images and data. The basic ways to improve website loading speeds are easy and obvious. First thing to do is to get rid of all unnecessary content. Or, basically, to do a cleanup. So, the first thing the webmaster needs to do is to combine CSS elements as tight as possible. Then it is needed to convert images to JPEG and use GZIP. And then it is required to clean all website code, place JS files at the bottom and CSS files at the top. 

Ways of monitoring loading speed of websites

The best thing a webmaster can do to quickly find out what is slowing down website loading is to monitor a website. Simply put, to conduct a full diagnosis on a regular basis. To provide that in the best way, a webmaster should use not some conventional methods, but automated website monitoring.

You can use a website monitoring service like the HostTracker. It is designed for 24/7 website monitoring. And this service allows the webmaster to carry out all required checks in a short period of time. This will drastically raise response effectiveness in case of any stability, accessibility and loading speed threats.

Also with this tool every webmaster will always be aware of the status of the monitored website. Basically, it will be possible to react as quickly as possible if the loading speed slows down. And a webmaster also will be able to use the statistics’ archives to search for sources of persistent problems.

Moreover, thanks to the instant notification system, detailed statistics and other additional functions, the webmaster can easily find the cause of the slowdown or other problems with the website. This means that the webmaster will be able to quickly respond to all problems and eliminate them as soon as possible.

Ways of monitoring loading speed of websites

Website monitoring and Google Ads campaign efficiency 

Everyone who has a website probably wants to be sure that the advertising campaign will be successful. And when launching an advertising campaign, website owners want nothing to interfere with their work. But even the most reliable websites sometimes become inaccessible. 

Thus, if for any reason the website becomes unavailable, the Google Ads system completely blocks all your advertising campaigns. The reason for unavailability does not matter much for this contextual advertising service. And the website owner can only restore it manually. But that’s not the worst of it.

In addition, the Google ad analyzer blocks ads if a web page contains errors or is incorrectly configured. But Google suspends advertising campaigns on websites only if they are completely inaccessible to users. A large number of minor failures, specific failures and errors on an Adwords-enabled website go unnoticed by Google systems. 

Moreover, even a short-term failure can suspend an advertising campaign for a long time. For example, if a website is available but does not work as expected, Google will not suspend the advertising campaign. This would lead to a lot of losses because users would click on empty links. In the end, even if the website owner is able to localize the problem in time, he will have to make a request to restore the subscription and wait for it to be completed.

Website monitoring and Google Ads campaign efficiency

Ways to control Google Ads using website monitoring

If the webmaster uses a reliable website monitoring tool, such as HostTracker, to track problems and prevent them from occurring, the webmaster will be able to easily manage Google advertising campaigns. With this service, you can easily set up an individual monitoring and control system to track advertising campaigns. 

The system will manually suspend all Google-related advertising campaigns via the Adwords API before Google’s own system takes any action. And as soon as the website is working again, the service will turn on the advertising campaign again. This approach allows website owners to avoid serious monetary losses, reduce the consequences of website downtime and significantly reduce the load on the webmaster or technical team.