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Introduction
Learn how to speed up web page loading time for a law firm website.
Maybe you’ve asked yourself:
“How fast should my law firm website load?”
According to 2018 research by Google, 53% of mobile users leave a site that takes longer than three seconds to load.
This is a problem.
Why?
The same research revealed the average mobile site takes 15 seconds to load.
And, most desktop sites have a load time of 8–11 seconds.
In this article, I’ll explain how to fix your law firm website load time.
Let’s dive in.
Does page speed affect SEO for law firms?
The short answer is yes.
Google can measure the speed of your website and the number of people who ‘bounce’.
If the algorithm feels like your website is annoying people, your ranking will drop.
This means less traffic, less leads and less potential clients.
The long answer is:
“Google has indicated site speed (and as a result, page speed) is one of the signals used by its algorithm to rank pages.
And research has shown that Google might be specifically measuring time to first byte as when it considers page speed.
In addition, a slow page speed means that search engines can crawl fewer pages using their allocated crawl budget, and this could negatively affect your indexation.
Page speed is also important to user experience. Pages with a longer load time tend to have higher bounce rates and lower average time on page. Longer load times have also been shown to negatively affect conversions.“
Moz.com
Okay, so web page load time affects your SEO.
So you probably want to know how to speed up web page loading time?
Let’s have a look.
How to make web pages load faster
There are many ways to improve website speed.
Here are just a few.
Perform a web page speed test
Test your site speed using this tool provided by Google
The tool will examine WHAT is slowing down your site and HOW to speed it up.
Go through the recommendations or contact an expert who understands the technical language.
Also, use GTMetrix
This is the preferred tool used by Legalsites for law firm websites.
GTMetrix will provide a clear outline that explains how to speed up web page loading time.
But it might be a bit complicated if you’re not a web develope.
In this case, consider hiring a professional web design service for law firms.
Install and optimise plugins (WordPress users only)
These WordPress plug-ins can speed up your law firm website:
- W3 Cache
- Autoptimizer
- ShortPixel Image Optimizer
- GTmetrix for WordPress
- WP Fastest Cache
Optimise your law firm website images
Use these simple tips so your images load faster:
Enable lazy load
This makes your images load as the user scrolls.
Compression
Try the plugin ‘ShortPixel‘ and/or the compression website tool ‘TinyPNG‘
Use stock images that are automatically optimised
I recommend the plug-in ‘Instant Images’.
It provides high-quality stock photos from Unsplash.
And, it automatically resizes them and adds them to your media library.
This means that your images will probably load faster than if you downloaded them externally.
Test your server speed (website hosting)
Pagespeed insights might find that your website host is slowing your site down.
In simple terms, your host holds all your website information on these fancy computers called ‘servers’.
When someone visits your website, the servers need to send the information to the user.
If your host is letting you down, contact them or migrate your website to a different host.
This can be a rather technical process.
So, I suggest you hire an expert.
Otherwise, you might lose your website data or crash your site entirely.
Additional learning resources on how to speed up web page loading time
This article doesn’t cover every detail about the Google recommended page load time.
Learn more about how to speed up web page loading time by using these learning resources:
Services by Legalsites – Law Firm Web Design
9 Essential Law Firm Website Requirements
Take my law firm website homepage quiz
3 QUICK steps to a better law firm website
5 Best Law Firm Websites Australia 2020
Need help with your web page loading speed?
Our team of law firm web developers are experts in making web pages load faster.
Check out this case study for a comparison.
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