How to Make Your Website Load Faster for Better SEO begins with understanding how page speed affects your ranking factor and user experience. For Australian businesses, improving page load times on web pages is essential to keep users engaged and to earn higher rankings on Google. When pages load quickly, visitors stay longer, interact more, and have a smoother journey through your entire page content. Slow loading processes frustrate users and lead to higher bounce rates, hurting your site’s visibility.
In this blog post, we’ll examine the page loading process, explain individual metrics like first contentful paint and first input delay, and show you how lab data and field data from tools such as PageSpeed Insights or the Chrome User Experience Report can guide your optimisation efforts. You’ll learn practical steps—from image quality improvements and next gen formats to configuring browser caching and choosing a content delivery network—that will reduce server response time and decrease page load time. By following these strategies, your web pages will fully load faster, giving users a seamless experience and better performance.
Why Page Speed SEO Matters for Your Website
When visitors arrive at your site, they expect pages to load without delay. Research shows that pages with longer page load times see more users leave before interacting. Google wants web pages that fully load in under two seconds to deliver a smooth user experience. Core Web Vitals—Google’s set of page speed metrics—track the most important parts of the loading process, such as:
First Contentful Paint (FCP): when the first visible element appears
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): when the main page content loads
First Input Delay (FID): how quickly pages respond to user interactions
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): visual stability as elements move
By focusing on these metrics, you improve your site’s lab data in Pagespeed Insights reports and field data in the Chrome User Experience Report. Better scores on these tests lead to higher rankings and a better experience for users.
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The Impact of Slow Loading on Users
Every second counts. When pages load slowly, users may abandon a blog post or product page before it fully loads. For an e-commerce site, slow load times can mean lost sales. Even for a service site, if the contact form or key images take too long, potential clients move on. Improving the loading process across all pages of your site has a direct impact on conversions and overall satisfaction.
First Step: Measure Your Page Speed with Tools
Before you make any changes, test your site’s current performance:
PageSpeed Insights: Enter your original URL to see file sizes, server response time, and individual metrics.
Chrome User Experience Report: Review real-world speed metrics from actual users.
Lighthouse or WebPageTest: Get a full list of recommendations for code, images, and caching.
These tools provide lab data for testing in controlled environments and field data from live traffic. Record your baseline scores for FCP, LCP, FID, and CLS so you can track improvements.
Optimise Images to Improve Load Times
Images often make up most of the page weight. Reducing image file sizes without sacrificing quality is key.
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Use Next Gen Formats
Switch from JPEG and PNG to WebP or AVIF. These next gen formats deliver smaller file sizes and faster downloads for users. Many WordPress plugins or CDNs convert images on the fly, serving the right format based on each user’s browser.
Compress and Resize Images
Compress images with tools or plugins before uploading.
Use responsive image attributes (srcset) so the browser picks the right size for desktop or mobile.
Lazy load images that appear below the fold to defer the loading process until users scroll.
Leverage a Content Delivery Network
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) stores a cached version of your static files—images, CSS, JavaScript—on servers around Australia and the world. When a user visits your site, they download files from the nearest server. This cuts down on latency, improving the speed important to reducing server response time and overall page load.
Popular CDNs integrate easily with WordPress via plugins or custom code. After setup, confirm that your CDN is serving files by checking the given URL in your network tab and verifying faster load times.
Configure Browser Caching
Browser caching stores static resources on users’ devices after their first visit. On subsequent visits, pages load faster because the browser retrieves files from the local cache instead of making new requests.
Set cache headers to specify how long browsers should store images, CSS, and JavaScript.
For HTML, use shorter cache durations so content updates display promptly.
Use a WordPress plugin to automate cache control settings and deliver a cached version of pages quickly.
Minify and Combine Code for Leaner Pages
Every extra line of CSS or JavaScript adds to the load. Minifying your code removes unnecessary spaces and comments, shrinking file sizes.
Minify CSS and JavaScript: Use tools or build processes to reduce code footprint.
Combine files: Merge small CSS or JS files where appropriate to reduce HTTP requests, balancing against HTTP/2’s ability to handle multiple parallel requests.
Inline critical CSS: Embed the styles needed for above-the-fold content directly into the page’s head, then defer loading the rest.
These steps help your site achieve faster first byte and first contentful paint, essential speed metrics tracked in Pagespeed Insights.
Optimise Server and Database for Faster Responses
A fast server response time ensures that every request your site receives is handled quickly.
Choose the Right Hosting
Choosing the right hosting plan ensures your website has the resources and technology needed to deliver fast, reliable performance.
Upgrade from shared hosting to managed WordPress hosting, VPS, or dedicated servers for more resources.
Ensure your host supports HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 to speed up file delivery.
Tune Your Database
Optimising your database ensures quicker data retrieval and contributes to a faster overall page load experience.
Clean up unused data, and remove old revisions or spam comments.
Index key columns used in search queries and filters.
Use a database optimisation plugin to schedule regular maintenance.
Advanced Techniques: Prioritise Critical Resources
Beyond the basics, these advanced steps give your site an extra speed boost:
Defer non-essential JavaScript: Use defer or async attributes so scripts load after primary content.
Preload key assets: Use <link rel="preload"> for fonts or hero images to tell the browser to fetch them early.
Use HTTP/3: If your host supports it, HTTP/3’s QUIC protocol reduces connection setup times.
Monitor and Maintain Your Speed Improvements
Optimisation is an ongoing process. Set up monthly checks to review:
Core Web Vitals scores in Pagespeed Insights.
Field data metrics in the Chrome User Experience Report.
Load times for key pages using Lighthouse or WebPageTest.
Align your content updates with speed guidelines. For every new blog post or image you add, follow compression, sizing, and caching best practices.
Conclusion
Improving page speed for SEO is not a one-off task but a commitment to a better user experience and stronger search rankings. By measuring your current performance, optimising images, leveraging a content delivery network, and fine-tuning code and server settings, you ensure your web pages load quickly for all users. These steps help you meet Google’s Core Web Vitals thresholds, boost your lab data and field data scores, and earn higher rankings.
ACT Marketing provides expert support to streamline your page loading process, implement browser caching, and integrate next gen formats with ease. Contact us to start improving load times and enjoy a faster, more reliable website that delights users and performs better in search results.