8 Techniques to Boost Your Website’s Loading Speed and SEO

In the digital age, website loading speed is a critical factor for SEO success, so we’ve gathered insights from eight industry experts, including SEO specialists and CEOs. They share specific techniques ranging from optimizing image sizes to prioritizing critical CSS, all aimed at boosting site performance and search engine visibility.

Want to get quoted in MarketerInterview.com content just like this? Apply to become a contributor today!

Optimize Image Sizes and Usage

One specific technique I’ve employed to enhance the loading speed of my website is optimizing image sizes. By ensuring that images are appropriately sized for web use and compressed without compromising quality, I’ve significantly reduced loading times. 

Additionally, avoiding the use of videos, which can be large in file size and slow down loading, has been crucial. Instead, incorporating lightweight GIFs where necessary maintains engagement without sacrificing speed.

Katlyn Paskorz, SEO Specialist, Katydid PGH

Compress CSS and JavaScript Code

Unless your website is extremely slow, no change in speed will significantly impact SEO, though a slight improvement may be observed.

Having said that, one way to achieve a minor enhancement is by combining and compressing your website’s CSS and JavaScript code. If you’re using WordPress, plugins like WP Rocket or Autoptimize can facilitate this process.

Marco Genaro Palma, Freelance CMO and SEO Consultant, GenaroPalma.com

Reduce Redirects with Cloudflare

Redirects are one of those things that both marketing and tech teams often overlook, but they’re actually a big deal when it comes to how fast your site loads. The main issue with redirects is how they affect the time to first byte, or TTFB for short, which is basically how long it takes for the server to send over the first bit of data to the browser. If your TTFB is high, getting good scores on Core Web Vitals (like LCP) can be a real challenge, or even impossible. This isn’t just an SEO problem—since Core Web Vitals are a ranking factor—but it’s also about not creating a poor user experience.

Now, if you’re thinking a few redirects here and there won’t make a difference, you’re not wrong. But once your site starts to accumulate them into the tens of thousands, that’s when things get problematic. Research has shown a 41% jump in total page loading time when you hit 50,000 redirects. And it only goes up from there.

So, what did we do about it? We switched over to handling our redirects with a Cloudflare Worker. This move shaved off a good chunk of loading time, bringing our LCP down from 2.95 seconds to 2.22 seconds. It’s a pretty clear win for both our SEO and for users visiting our site, proving that sometimes simple technical changes can really make a difference.

Ed Roberts, SEO & Paid Manager, Hovia

Implement Slow-Loading Content

A technique to optimize site speed and SEO is implementing slow-loading content. This lets the user scroll through the site to view all media, improving page performance.

This lets websites prioritize loading major content first, allowing users to interact with the page. This experience impacts several SEO metrics, like bounce rate and session duration, as users are more likely to stay on the site longer and engage with its content more.

Faster loading times contribute to better search engine rankings. Various search algorithms prioritize websites that offer heightened user experiences—this allows algorithms to prioritize websites that offer better user experiences. Google, for example, considers page speed as a ranking factor in its algorithm.

Implementing slow-loading for content optimizes website performance and boosts SEO by improving user engagement and prioritizing user experience, leading to better visibility and rankings.

Nicholas Robb, Head Honcho, Design Hero

Minimize Impactful Third-Party Scripts

We scrutinized the impact of third-party scripts, which are essential for features like social sharing and visitor analytics but can slow down the site. We tackled this by selectively minimizing these scripts, ensuring only the most crucial ones were loaded, and doing so in a way that they wouldn’t hinder the site’s initial load time.

This careful balance significantly improved our site’s performance, contributing positively to our SEO, as faster loading times are a key factor in search engine rankings.

Tobias Liebsch, Co-Founder, Fintalent.io

Utilize Browser Caching for Speed

One technique that has proven to be effective in optimizing the loading speed of a website is utilizing browser caching. This involves setting up an expiration date for certain types of files, such as images, CSS, and JavaScript files, so that they can be stored in the user’s browser cache. This means that when a user revisits your website, the browser can load these files from the cache instead of having to request them from the server again. This greatly reduces the loading time and improves overall performance.

From an SEO perspective, faster loading speed is a crucial factor in search engine ranking algorithms. Websites with slower loading speeds tend to have a higher bounce rate and lower user engagement, which can negatively impact their SEO rankings. By implementing browser caching, you can not only improve the user experience but also boost your website’s SEO performance. This simple technique can have a significant impact on loading speed and ultimately contribute to better search engine rankings for your website.

Pavel Khaykin, Founder & CEO, Pavel Buys Houses

Integrate a Content Delivery Network

One specific technique we’ve implemented to optimize our website’s loading speed was the integration of a Content Delivery Network (CDN). By distributing our site’s content across multiple, geographically dispersed servers, the CDN significantly reduced the load time for users, regardless of their location. This improvement not only enhanced the user experience but also positively impacted our SEO rankings. 

Search engines prioritize fast-loading sites, and as a result of this optimization, we observed an uptick in our website’s visibility, with increased organic traffic and higher search result placements. This strategic move underscored the direct link between website performance and SEO success.

Fahd Khan, Director of Marketing & Technology, JetLevel Aviation

Prioritize Critical CSS for Faster Loading

One simple yet powerful technique I’ve used to speed up our website is Critical CSS. This method focuses on the essential styles needed to quickly display the first part of the site that visitors see. By identifying and embedding these styles directly into the HTML, the top part of the page loads super fast, even before the whole CSS file is downloaded.

Implementing Critical CSS on our site significantly reduced load times, boosting our SEO by helping us improve our Core Web Vitals. This quicker loading improves the user experience, encouraging visitors to engage more with our content. It’s a straightforward approach that made our website faster and slightly more favorable in Google’s eyes.

Amar Ghose, CEO, ZenMaid

Want to get quoted in MarketerInterview.com content just like this? Apply to become a contributor today!