Website Optimization: Tools to Improve Page Load Time

Web Optimization Tool Pingdom reveals webpage file loading times as a cascade. This indicates which files are contributing to webpage load time.

Like iconic comic book characters such as Superman, websites need to be updated. Websites are essential software, and updates can impact a site's ability to convey your offering and business objectives

Man of Steel. Many people are familiar with the reference to Superman, let alone the story. The 2013 reboot of Superman on film is proof that even a legendary character needs to be reimagined to rekindle interest.

Websites also need to be "reimagined"  or updated.  Part of the process can begin with how pages are loaded into a website.   This means developing an optimization process to improve how your website appears to potential customers in their browsers.  The time require to load a page, dictated by the volume of calls to the website server, is crucial to site performance.

Page load service Yottaa, for example, discovered in its analysis that a 1 second delay in page load speed can lead to a 7% decline in conversion – that means lower sales online for digital retailers, lower leads from online contact form, or lower signups for events.  A 1 second delay can also mean 16% lower customer satisfaction.

The answer to this performance is page load optimization. Page load optimization, just like web analytics solutions, started as a diagnostic activity of website performance.   More recently, people who arrive to a website are increasingly doing so through a mobile device. This has made fast page loads an essential quality for purchasing online and reviewing site content.   Mobile devices vary in capability, which means the coding parameters for loading a webpage must fit for the devices with the least capability – no detection of flash or javascript on a sight for example.

There are a number of page load optimization tools available.  Two page load optimization tools, Yottaa and Pingdom, provide a terrific framework for indicating website segments on which a changing performance has occurred.

Yottaa is an online service. It loads a user’s website from various servers all over the world. It then returns a report that explains how the site performed. This can seem like a lot for a site meant to attract local traffic, but it does provide some advantages if a business is looing to expand Yottaa is powered by mongoDB. The usage for online page load measurement means more flexibility in examining the data. The tool tracks 6,000 websites with up to 300 samples/URL/day.

Pingdom differs slightly from Yottaa. It also analyzes a site, featuring a waterfall graph that can indicate which elements are taking a long time to load.  Pingdom also  offers a website monitoring service – it provides text alerts if a site is down, for example.

Both Pingdom and Yottaa make page load verification easy and instructive – I particularly liked Pingdom’s waterfall reporting. With website complexity increasing, development must now optimize page code to load in many devices and browsers.

Packet sniffers – software that verify calls to a website host server – can also aid website performance testing.  Two popular software are Charles and Fiddler.

Finally, developers have offered Chrome and Firefox plugins such as:

• YSLow
• PageSpeed Insights
• SEOquake

All have page load measurement tools, though not as advanced as Charles and Fiddler in terms of verification.  Yet, SEOquake has features such as degree of severity in its reports, allowing the user to determine and group issues as needed.

All of these page load optimization tools are well poised to help small businesses link nuanced information about website performance to their objectives.