Page Speed/Website Optimization Question

[carlystemmer]

We recently relaunched our website and after running multiple page speed tests (GT Metrix, Google, etc.) our results aren't great.

We would love any suggestions on how to improve our site as we are not experts in what exactly these results mean - https://gtmetrix.com/reports/loyalty360.org/DKRN0hKg.

Thanks!

[Deacyde]

Hello,

Page loading speed is a huge deal, not just in SEO matters, but for user experience that will equal SEO value as well.

From a glance:

1. Images are a big factor - what these means is many images might be saved as too high a filesize or maybe the resolutions are too much for what is needed, normally under 800px by 800px unless you have a image site and even then a image optimization strategy would be helpful there. **Way to fix this: **Go through your images and add file dimensions as well edit their image size to better fit what is needed ( many images are saved as 1000 x 1000 but are rendering as 100 x 100 so you could resave them as 150 x 150 and save a lot of time ) also make sure filesizes are normally under 100kb Read more - https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/optimizing-content-efficiency/image-optimization?hl=en Try sites like this - http://optimizilla.com/

2. You have a good sized redirect chain going, I understand you want to keep link juice going, but maybe look further into what is being redirected and if they are being done as you need them, or if you could stand to prune them a bit.

Mainly though, seems you will see a huge improvement if you do some image optimization, since that is the bulk of your loading issue.

Hope this helps! And I'm sure others can add more about the report, such as browser caching, the search queries in urls and a few others I didn't mention.

[Bryan_Loconto]

Deacyde is spot on here! Page load is a HUGE deal in several aspects of your optimization.

Get those images tweaked and clean up those redirects (I need to do the same on a few of my sites). Good luck!!

[carlystemmer]

Thanks!

One question I do have - do you typically recommend setting image dimensions/ratios in the code, or no? We have faced an issue in the past with this where if are image or logo is not the correct size (ex: a rectangular logo trying to fit in a square box) everything gets distorted. I am just curious if this is a best practice, or you typically recommend just uploading images at a particular size each time.

[Deacyde]

It's best to use dimensions in your img code, since this helps speed up the whole rendering process, and if those images are already scaled both in size and resolution for that image size, then things work even better. This is what image optimization is all about, creating less file waste both in time and size during page loads for the user.

The best way to prevent distortion with images, is to make sure they are scaled for their size and resolution, using a image editing program like photoshop ( paid ) or Gimp ( free opensource ) you can properly scale the images in just a way to keep the pixels at the right variables for the image quality.

Here are a few articles to help explain further.

http://www.sitepoint.com/resize-an-image-in-photoshop/

http://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=282942&p=1888162

http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-resize-and-make-images-larger-without-losing-quality/

And a website that claims will resize without loosing quality, but be warned, I have not used it, just appeared in results and felt it could be of use.

http://www.simpleimageresizer.com/