PAGE LOAD SPEED, A SEARCH ENGINE RANKING SIGNAL
If designing websites with a CMS like WordPress, keep it simple for fast-loading web pages. SEO tip: Use lightweight plugins or don’t use plugins. Plugins add easy functionality so don’t delete too many, just the heavy-weight plugins. When searching for new plugins, always use the word “LIGHTWEIGHT“.
WHY FAST-LOADING WEB PAGES IN 2021?
In May 2021 Google put more importance on User Experience (UX). Long waiting times for pages to load, especially on mobile devices leads to poor UX. Also paying for unnecessary data download bills because a web designer forgot to optimise an image is also a poor UX.
Search for plugins that slow your page load speed down. Delete or at least deactivate plugins such as sliders, forms, image optimisers etc. There are options.
I don’t use sliders but rather a static aerial photo (header image, hero image at the top of pages). It doesn’t look as good as a slide show but without the javascript powering it, it sure helps pages to load faster. Besides I’m not a web designer, it’s not my job to make web pages look good.
LIST POPULAR PLUGINS SLOWING PAGE LOAD SPEED
Following is a list of popular plugins which can cause web pages to load slowly. Just because they have 5-star ratings and a gazzillion installs doesn’t mean they’re good for fast page load speed and therefore SEO.
- Contact Form 7
- All Social plugins
- EWWW Image Optimizer. Instead use an image optimiser that optimises in their CDN.
- Revolution Slider
- Broken Link Checker
- NextGen Gallery
- WooCommerce
- Yet Another Related Post
- WordFence
- Updraft/Plus
- Similar Posts
- WordPress Multilingual (WPML)
- WP Super Cache (and most other caching plugins)
- Disqus Comment System
- Jetpack
BACKUP YOUR SITE BEFORE DELETING PLUGINS
Create a full backup of your site before deleting or replacing plugins.
Don’t use a plugin to backup a website. Instead, use the control panel (eg cPanel) provided by your web hosting service provider or if your host does not provide a control panel, ask them to back up your site, in case it’s needed for disaster recovery. If you want a worry-free, one-stop-shop for complete monthly web server hosting management/maintenance then phone professional Sam Giandzi in Perth on 0417922778 or visit Sam’s Web Support site.
PLUGIN TIPS TO SPEED UP WEB PAGES
Some but not all plugin problem solving for WordPress site SEO. (I can’t give away all my SEO tips otherwise you’d never hire me.)
DELETE HEAVYWEIGHT PLUGINS
Use lightweight plugins instead or use a plugin or feature which does not process on your site’s server. For example, consider using Google forms instead of a WordPress contact form.
BENEFITS OF GOOGLE FORMS:
David Vincent
Director – Estimator – Designer
Mobile: 0423 381 312
perthofficefitout.com.au/contact
JAVASCRIPT DRIVEN SLIDER PROBLEM SOLVING
You can use a caching plugin to load javascript ASYNCHRONOSLY but even caching plugins (they’re for speeding up web pages) can slow page load speed down. (if you’re a coder not using a CMS here’s the code after the < open bracket: script async=”async”
For a new 2021 clients, starting with just removing a javascript slider on a Shopify page, it more than doubled the page load speed.
BEFORE JS DRIVEN SLIDER REMOVAL
In summary, get rid of sliders or at least use a lightweight slider. If you google something like “seo company atlanta” you won’t see one professional SEO company website which uses a slider.
TURN OFF PLUGIN FEATURES
Most plugins have unused features turned on by default and are often difficult to find where to turn off plugin features. Social plugins are some of the worst. Keep in mind that
- most web designers add links FROM your sites to social sites instead of follow buttons to link FROM social sites TO your site.
- links from social sites are useless for SEO, nofollow links. (Good for peer to peer buz marketing)
PLUGINS FAST PAGE LOAD FOR SEO SUMMARY
Check that heavyweight plugins aren’t slowing page load speeds down.
If you really want to use a plugin, optimise it by switching off unused features.
FAST LOADING WEBPAGE DESIGNER PERTH
If you’re looking for a Perth web designer who designs fast loading webpages in Perth try webdesignerperth.com