BigCommerce speed optimization - Store speed improvement services for a great user experience

If you want to rank well in search engines, you need to make sure your site loads quickly. A recent study found that web pages with loading times under 2 seconds receive 37% more traffic than those with slower speeds. If your site takes too long to load, people won't wait around for it; they'll go somewhere else. And guess what happens to your rankings? You lose out on potential customers.
 

So how do you know whether or not your site loads fast enough? You use PageSpeed Insights, a free tool offered by Google. Simply enter your URL into the tool, and it will tell you exactly where you stand. You can even see how much time you're losing by waiting for slow-loading images, JavaScript files, CSS stylesheets, and other assets.

You can start doing many things today to optimize your page speed. Here are some tips to consider:

Enable compression - Compressing images, CSS, and JavaScript files reduce the amount of data transferred over the internet. This helps decrease page load time.

Minify CSS & Javascript - Minification removes whitespace, comments, unused code, etc., while keeping the functionality intact. This helps compress the final output size without affecting the original code.

Reduce Redirects - When you use redirects, you're sending visitors away from your page and directing them elsewhere. This slows down the page load time.

Optimize Images - Optimizing images can significantly affect how fast your page loads. You'll save bandwidth and improve your page load time by compressing images.

Use Browser Caching - Browser caching stores static resources like images, stylesheets, scripts, and even favicons in local storage. If a visitor returns later, the browser will pull those items directly from the cache rather than having to download them again. Optimized Websites Reduce Page Load Time.

1. Check the URL structure of your URLs. You want to make sure that it’s easy for people to find what they're looking for without going through too much work. For example, if you sell shoes, don't use /products/shoes/men because that could take someone down a rabbit hole. Instead, just use /men/shoes. This makes things easier for both customers and employees.
2. Make sure that there aren't unnecessary redirects happening. If you've got a lot of products, you might have a few hundred redirects happening every time someone goes to one of those pages. That adds up quickly. You'll want to check each product page individually to see where you can eliminate redirects.
3. Don't forget about JavaScript. A good rule of thumb is to keep JavaScript under 20kb per page. Even if you think that your page loads fast, you still want to keep it light.
4. Be careful with CSS. Keep it under 10kb per page. Again, even though you think your page loads fast, it doesn't mean that you don't need to compress your stylesheets.
5. Avoid large images. Large images are slow to load and reduce your page size. Instead, try to use small images with high resolutions.
6. Reduce HTTP requests. If you do add a lot of custom code to your pages, you'll want to look into reducing HTTP requests.

Page speed affects your ranking regarding how long people are willing to stick around on your site. A slower load time means less time spent browsing and more time looking for something else. This could mean fewer conversions.

A faster loading site doesn't just make your site easier to navigate. It makes your customers happier. People are more likely to return to a site that loads quickly. They're more likely to come back again. And they're more likely to buy what you sell.

The best way to improve page speed? Start with the basics. Make sure your images are optimized for size and resolution; use responsive design techniques, and compress your code.

Getting a site ready for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) takes anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months, depending on how much work you want to be done.

If you want to improve your rankings quickly, we recommend starting with a tiny task, such as adding a few keywords to your meta tags. This will help speed up the process of getting ranked higher in the search engines.If you are looking for a complete overhaul, you'll likely need to do keyword research and add the most relevant keywords into your meta description, H1 tag, alt text, image ALT tags, etc. We use Screaming Frog for this type of analysis. Once we've completed the initial crawl and analysis, we send a detailed report outlining what needs to be fixed. Our goal is to ensure that your site is completely error-free and ready to rank.

Once everything is set, we begin optimizing the site using the best practices outlined above. Depending on the size of your project, we might suggest hiring us to handle the entire process. We'd love to hear about your experience with our services and answer any questions you might have.

Page speed optimization is extremely important for two reasons: first, because it improves the user experience by making your website faster and easier to use; and second, because it can have a significant impact on your website's search engine rankings.

Google considers website speed to be one of the most important factors in determining a website's rank, and recent studies have shown that slow-loading websites are penalized in search engine results pages. So optimizing your page speed is essential if you want to improve your website's visibility and traffic.

There are a number of ways to improve page speed, and the most effective approach will vary depending on the specific characteristics of your website. But some general tips include using a content delivery network, compressing images.