If you have done some research into SEO practices, you'll understand that website speed is pretty important.
Website or page speed is a rank variable used by Google, giving sites with faster speeds precedent in search results. It's all part of providing better outcomes to their users because the truth is, people don't need to hang around for slow-loading sites.
Together with Squarespace being a hosted platform, we often wonder just how much control they have over website speed. The solution is, not complete control, but you still have choices to optimize site speed.
Here Is What you can do:
Get our record variant here: What to do to Accelerate your Squarespace website
Site speed: It matters
Search engine optimization is important in terms of your website getting found in search results, however, that is not the only motive to prioritize site rank. Think about what you do if you land on a web site that takes a long time to load. Do you hang around and wait?
Most individuals won't hang about. This study shows they'll abandon the site if it does not load within three seconds. This seems like a short time, but with improvements in internet speeds over the years, we've been conditioned to expect that things should work quickly. Otherwise, there's bound to be a rival website to check out instead.
So while SEO is a concern, there is another thing that ought to be a larger concern: user experience. Improving website speed delivers a much better user experience and means that your website visitors are more likely to stick around a little longer.
Evaluation your Site first
How can you know if your site requires less than three seconds to load, or when any changes you make have made any difference to rate? You can examine your site speed first.
There are a few different tools available to assist and many will also create a report highlighting problem areas. This is helpful so you're not left to guess.
Squarespace recommends that you use their built-in tools, or a tool like Pingdom to make certain you're receiving accurate results. If you're using the Google Chrome browser, you can follow those steps:
Click the Network tab.
Refresh the page to display the loading time.
They state this is prone to error loading page html as it's designed for developers who code their websites from scratch and may return false negatives for Squarespace sites which are constructed on a custom CMS. That means in the event that you use it and register a mistake, that does not necessarily mean there is anything wrong with webpage rank on your website.
Ways to speed up a Squarespace website
Listed below are a Couple of areas where you may Have the Ability to reduce load speed of your site and of individual pages:
This is a fundamental that we would anticipate most designers to be familiar with, yet large picture files continue to be frequently the culprit behind slow-loading pages. We know - you're trying to strike the right balance with picture quality and retain that sharp appearance onscreen, but you don't require print quality pictures to attain this.
Some key things to remember are:
Use JPG over PNG many of this time (some vector images do not seem so great in JPG).
Maintain the picture width low. Squarespace recommends that you don't go past 1500 - 2000 pixels in diameter, although in some cases, you may be able to make them even smaller.
The Getty stock images or free Unsplash pictures you can download and add directly via Squarespace are often big. To make them smaller, you can download them in the page you have put them and utilize an image resizing tool to decrease file size.
There are numerous free image resizing tools. For instance: PicResize, ResizeImage and Tiny PNG.
A type of"quick win" with Squarespace website speed is to be certain you're using the SSL option. Why? Because your website will be delivered via the quicker HTTP/2 protocol.
You can also consider switching on the HSTS option, that has been proven to improve security and SEO. These two are found under Settings > Advanced > SEO and some other changes can take up to 72 hours to become active.
Switching on AMP (Accelerated Mobile Internet Pages) can considerably improve page speed for blog articles, particularly on mobile devices. It is pretty important to keep in mind mobile once you're looking at page rate because so much surfing action happens on cellular devices.
When AMP is switched on it will deliver quite fast-loading blog pages to mobile users, provided that people have been accessed via a Google search.
AMP works by stripping out"non-essential" programming by a page and using smart caching to load pages immediately. It's well worth reading up on it as it simplifies quite a few standard Squarespace blocks, such as type cubes and code blocks.
WATCH THIRD-PARTY scriptS
There are all types of third party scripts you may be working on a Squarespace website, such as those connected with plugins you decide to add. As a general rule, only add those that are absolutely vital to achieve the functionality you want on your website - extras can slow you down.
If you've had your website going for a while and you're not certain what impact third-party scripts are getting on web site speed, it's well worth doing an audit. The website speed tools we mentioned previously can tell you that are slowing your site down.
The other thing we would suggest is being rather discerning in the first place about which third-party plugins you allow. A general rule would be to select reliable, well-reviewed tools which have a very clear history of regular updates by the owner. Plugins that aren't kept updated can really drag a site down.
DON'T GO TOO FONT-CRAZY!
We all know. Some fonts are just so stylish, you have to get them on your own site. Web fonts really can produce the look of a website, but the problem is they can also drag load rate.
You will find a couple of typefaces which are considered "web safe" with minimal effect on website speed, but of course those are your boring ones, such as Times New Roman or Arial. Most individuals do opt to utilize some type of internet fonts to spice up the appearance of the page.
Here are some things to think about:
There is some evidence to indicate that Google Fonts load more quickly than Typekit fonts. (The two of which are available in Squarespace's web font library).
Try to stick with just one internet font. Should you move too"font-crazy," it is going to slow your site down.
USE CUSTOM VIDEO THUMBNAILS
Have you got embedded videos in your Squarespace site? If this is the case, selecting the custom thumbnail alternative for video embeds can help improve speed.
There are a couple of reasons for this: firstly, without the custom thumbnail, Squarespace might need to look up content and load it from whichever site that the video is uploaded also (e.g. YouTube or even Vimeo). This happens even if the visitor does not click on the movie and could lead to a lag if big files are being loaded.
Secondly, doing with no custom thumbnail leaves you open to third-party cookies being run in your website - another speed bump.
ENABLE AJAX LOADING
If you're running Squarespace 7.0, certain templates permit you to allow Ajax loading (asynchronous Javascript and XML). This implies it may tell browsers to load your site page at a time, speeding the overall load time for people.
Final thoughts
Squarespace recommends that wherever possible, restricting your pages to under 5mb in size. This should keep you near optimum performance speed-wise.
The tips listed above should continue to keep your pages under that 5mb threshold. We would also add that it's important to avoid too many embeds on one page. These can otherwise encourage third-party scripts to operate and can inhibit your own speed.
Website or page speed is a rank variable used by Google, giving sites with faster speeds precedent in search results. It's all part of providing better outcomes to their users because the truth is, people don't need to hang around for slow-loading sites.Together with Squarespace being a hosted platform, we often wonder just how much control they have over website speed. The solution is, not complete control, but you still have choices to optimize site speed.
Here Is What you can do:
Get our record variant here: What to do to Accelerate your Squarespace website
Site speed: It matters
Search engine optimization is important in terms of your website getting found in search results, however, that is not the only motive to prioritize site rank. Think about what you do if you land on a web site that takes a long time to load. Do you hang around and wait?
Most individuals won't hang about. This study shows they'll abandon the site if it does not load within three seconds. This seems like a short time, but with improvements in internet speeds over the years, we've been conditioned to expect that things should work quickly. Otherwise, there's bound to be a rival website to check out instead.
So while SEO is a concern, there is another thing that ought to be a larger concern: user experience. Improving website speed delivers a much better user experience and means that your website visitors are more likely to stick around a little longer.
Evaluation your Site first
How can you know if your site requires less than three seconds to load, or when any changes you make have made any difference to rate? You can examine your site speed first.
There are a few different tools available to assist and many will also create a report highlighting problem areas. This is helpful so you're not left to guess.
Squarespace recommends that you use their built-in tools, or a tool like Pingdom to make certain you're receiving accurate results. If you're using the Google Chrome browser, you can follow those steps:
Click the Network tab.
Refresh the page to display the loading time.
They state this is prone to error loading page html as it's designed for developers who code their websites from scratch and may return false negatives for Squarespace sites which are constructed on a custom CMS. That means in the event that you use it and register a mistake, that does not necessarily mean there is anything wrong with webpage rank on your website.
Ways to speed up a Squarespace website
Listed below are a Couple of areas where you may Have the Ability to reduce load speed of your site and of individual pages:
This is a fundamental that we would anticipate most designers to be familiar with, yet large picture files continue to be frequently the culprit behind slow-loading pages. We know - you're trying to strike the right balance with picture quality and retain that sharp appearance onscreen, but you don't require print quality pictures to attain this.
Some key things to remember are:
Use JPG over PNG many of this time (some vector images do not seem so great in JPG).
Maintain the picture width low. Squarespace recommends that you don't go past 1500 - 2000 pixels in diameter, although in some cases, you may be able to make them even smaller.
The Getty stock images or free Unsplash pictures you can download and add directly via Squarespace are often big. To make them smaller, you can download them in the page you have put them and utilize an image resizing tool to decrease file size.
There are numerous free image resizing tools. For instance: PicResize, ResizeImage and Tiny PNG.
A type of"quick win" with Squarespace website speed is to be certain you're using the SSL option. Why? Because your website will be delivered via the quicker HTTP/2 protocol.
You can also consider switching on the HSTS option, that has been proven to improve security and SEO. These two are found under Settings > Advanced > SEO and some other changes can take up to 72 hours to become active.
Switching on AMP (Accelerated Mobile Internet Pages) can considerably improve page speed for blog articles, particularly on mobile devices. It is pretty important to keep in mind mobile once you're looking at page rate because so much surfing action happens on cellular devices.
When AMP is switched on it will deliver quite fast-loading blog pages to mobile users, provided that people have been accessed via a Google search.
AMP works by stripping out"non-essential" programming by a page and using smart caching to load pages immediately. It's well worth reading up on it as it simplifies quite a few standard Squarespace blocks, such as type cubes and code blocks.
WATCH THIRD-PARTY scriptS
There are all types of third party scripts you may be working on a Squarespace website, such as those connected with plugins you decide to add. As a general rule, only add those that are absolutely vital to achieve the functionality you want on your website - extras can slow you down.
If you've had your website going for a while and you're not certain what impact third-party scripts are getting on web site speed, it's well worth doing an audit. The website speed tools we mentioned previously can tell you that are slowing your site down.
The other thing we would suggest is being rather discerning in the first place about which third-party plugins you allow. A general rule would be to select reliable, well-reviewed tools which have a very clear history of regular updates by the owner. Plugins that aren't kept updated can really drag a site down.
DON'T GO TOO FONT-CRAZY!
We all know. Some fonts are just so stylish, you have to get them on your own site. Web fonts really can produce the look of a website, but the problem is they can also drag load rate.
You will find a couple of typefaces which are considered "web safe" with minimal effect on website speed, but of course those are your boring ones, such as Times New Roman or Arial. Most individuals do opt to utilize some type of internet fonts to spice up the appearance of the page.
Here are some things to think about:
There is some evidence to indicate that Google Fonts load more quickly than Typekit fonts. (The two of which are available in Squarespace's web font library).
Try to stick with just one internet font. Should you move too"font-crazy," it is going to slow your site down.
USE CUSTOM VIDEO THUMBNAILS
Have you got embedded videos in your Squarespace site? If this is the case, selecting the custom thumbnail alternative for video embeds can help improve speed.
There are a couple of reasons for this: firstly, without the custom thumbnail, Squarespace might need to look up content and load it from whichever site that the video is uploaded also (e.g. YouTube or even Vimeo). This happens even if the visitor does not click on the movie and could lead to a lag if big files are being loaded.
Secondly, doing with no custom thumbnail leaves you open to third-party cookies being run in your website - another speed bump.
ENABLE AJAX LOADING
If you're running Squarespace 7.0, certain templates permit you to allow Ajax loading (asynchronous Javascript and XML). This implies it may tell browsers to load your site page at a time, speeding the overall load time for people.
Final thoughts
Squarespace recommends that wherever possible, restricting your pages to under 5mb in size. This should keep you near optimum performance speed-wise.
The tips listed above should continue to keep your pages under that 5mb threshold. We would also add that it's important to avoid too many embeds on one page. These can otherwise encourage third-party scripts to operate and can inhibit your own speed.