Website load time is important: if a web visitor has to wait too long for your website to load, they may back out. However, it is also important to note that a complete page load time is different from the render time.
When you first go to a webpage, the render time is how long it takes to begin seeing elements on the page. Render times are much faster and much more important than the time it takes to load the entire webpage. This greatly skews website speed test results and site load time estimates. When a tool such as Think With Google’s - Test My Site runs on your site, it’s scoring based on total load times– not render times. Generally, any site that renders in less than 3 seconds is considered optimized for SEO and is very unlikely to lose visitors. The best way to gauge a visitor's experience on your website is to try loading it up on your computer or phone and seeing how long it takes for you to be able to browse the page.
So what are website speed tests for?
Webpage analysis tools and site speed tests are designed to provide suggestions to web developers on how to speed up load time. These tools are useful when you are managing a homemade website, but they often present misleading results for sites built on CMS platforms such as Squarespace, which all Legwork websites are built in. When analyzing a Squarespace site, these speed test tools pick up on platform code built into every Squarespace site. You may see the error message “Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content.” This JavaScript and CSS code doesn’t actually increase load time or cause issues for the end user; but, it will always be flagged by tests and lower your scores.
The way these tools are intended to be used is to help you find and measure website speed improvements. But a website does not need to score high to be fully optimized. Try running these same tests on some other popular websites like apple.com or xbox.com and see how they score. In short, worrying over site test scores is always going to lead to disappointment, they present results and information that doesn’t truly represent your site visitor’s experience.
But, what can Legwork do to improve my site speed scores?
The main item to look at in these web site speed tests is how much time is spent loading images. Often, the test will provide suggestions on which images in your site may benefit from some further image compression. We can double check and further compress any images that are increasing the sites load time. However, be aware that further image optimization may have little or no effect on the site’s test results or scores. This is simply a practice for improving user experience.
The size and quantity of images on your site also affects the total load time and your website speed scores. If you are still concerned about your websites speed test scores turning off image banners and galleries can improve speed scores however, your website will no longer look as nice to your potential patients. This is why Legwork tries to balance loading speeds with good design to put your business’s best foot forward to potential patients.
If you would like us to make edits to your site to improve loading speeds, please contact our team and we will assist you with editing your site.