How To Increase Website Speed for User Engagement

Increasing organic traffic levels is the number one priority of any SEO program. But merely getting people to your site is not enough.

Attracting and keeping visitors’ attention after they click through to your website is essential to ongoing conversions and search engine success.

Keep in mind that Google always looks at your site’s experience as part of its ranking algorithm.

Read on as I discuss a few ways you can boost website user engagement, including some of the necessary tools.

• Prioritizing Speed and Performance
  • Optimize the Experience
  • Upgrade Your Hosting
• Mastering Content Creation for Engagement
  • Quality
  • Engaging Videos
  • Accessibility
• User Feedback
• Final Thoughts
• FAQ: How can I effectively improve my website speed to increase engagement and keep users on the site longer?

Prioritizing Speed and Performance

Research conducted by Google indicates that 53% of people will abandon a website if its load time is over three seconds.

Website performance and speed are critical for user engagement. A website that loads at a snail’s pace can cause user frustration and lead visitors to click off before engaging with your content.

Optimize the Experience

Optimizing your website for maximum speed and functionality is fundamental for a satisfying user experience.

Google outlines ways to do this, including looking at key areas such as:

1. Core web vitals: Are your pages performing well in terms of loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability?
2. Security: Is your site served over HTTPS?
3. Mobile usability: Does your content display well on mobile devices?
4. Ad placement: Does your content avoid excessive or intrusive ads that distract users?
5. No intrusive interstitials: Do your pages have pop-ups that block access to content?
6. Content layout: Can visitors easily distinguish between the main content and other elements on the page?

To assess your page experience, use resources such as:

• Core web vitals: Understand how these impact your page ranking.
• Search Console’s HTTPS report: Monitor your site’s security status.
• Chrome Lighthouse: This tool identifies page experience improvements, including mobile usability and other performance metrics.

Learn more by reading our page experience series of articles.

Upgrade Your Hosting

Your servers and web hosting provider can impact how your website performs, especially during traffic surges.

Shared hosting, while cost-effective, can lead to slower load times as resources are shared with multiple sites.

Consider upgrading to cloud hosting or dedicated hosting solutions for enhanced speed, performance and security.

These options offer better resource allocation, ensuring a smoother user experience even with increased traffic.

Mastering Content Creation for Engagement

To increase time on page, your content should resonate with your audience and offer practical value.

Not every website visitor will convert into a paying customer, but creating premium content increases the probability of repeat visits and helps to affirm that your website is a trustworthy resource.

But how can you develop content that truly captivates your audience?

Quality

High-quality content is crucial for engagement. A visitor who finds your content valuable is more inclined to return, strengthening engagement over time.

Top-notch content encompasses elements like E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust), ethical journalism and professional-level writing.

Google wants us to focus on people-first, helpful content rather than search engine-first content.

Today, AI can assist in content creation to make things more efficient, but it should be used carefully with human editing to ensure value and uniqueness.

There are many AI content tools out there — I recommend trying our own PreWriter.ai, which automates the time-consuming aspects of writing to move SEO projects forward faster.

Learn more: Crafting High-Quality SEO Content: A Comprehensive Guide

Engaging Videos

Research from Wistia indicates that people spend 1.4 times longer on pages with video content than those without such media.

Simply put, video content is a highly immersive media channel. Videos can distill complex ideas, making it easier for viewers to understand topics.

This makes videos a great tool for educational content or product demonstrations, boosting audience engagement.

But don’t stop at just creating videos; make sure they are optimized so they have a better chance of showing up for a search.

Learn more: A CMO’s Guide to YouTube SEO in Less Than 5 Minutes

Accessibility

Web design accessibility ensures that everyone can use your website, including those who are living with disabilities.

Incorporating accessible design principles, like providing alt text for images, helps to boost your site’s inclusivity.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which were developed by W3.org, act as the universal benchmark for web content accessibility geared toward individuals with disabilities, including those who have vision, cognitive, hearing and motor impairments.

WCAG compliance levels run the gamut from minimal to optimal. Start by meeting the basic requirements and use your available resources to build upon them.

User Feedback

Deploying a feedback loop is important for refining your website and satisfying customer demands.

Collecting users’ input provides insight into what’s working and which areas could use improvement, ultimately enhancing the user experience overall.

You can use several methods to collect feedback, including surveys, polls and contact forms.

This invaluable information allows you to make data-backed changes and build a website that’s easier to use and more engaging for all users.

Go to Ask Your Target Market (AYTM) for key insights.

Final Thoughts

Getting a firm grasp on user engagement and making efforts to improve it is integral to any website’s digital success.

Constantly assess user habits, amass feedback and tweak your tactics to address your customers’ evolving needs and expectations.

And be sure to make use of helpful tools along the way to amplify your effectiveness.

Need better website user engagement? Our SEO experts can help!

Schedule a free SEO consultation

FAQ: How can I effectively improve my website speed to increase engagement and keep users on the site longer?

There are multiple strategies you can employ to speed up and enhance website user engagement, keeping visitors browsing.

Image optimization is one of the key elements to ensure websites load fast. Large images without proper optimization can substantially slow page loads times — reduce file sizes by compressing them with modern formats like WebP without compromising quality.

Utilize browser caching effectively; it enables frequently visited resources to be stored locally on users’ devices instead of being downloaded again upon subsequent visits. Setting appropriate cache headers will further expedite site speed.

Minifying CSS, JavaScript and HTML code is another useful strategy to reduce file sizes and speed up loading times. Tools like UglifyJS and CSSNano make this process even simpler by automating its processes to keep your code nice and clean.

It’s important to select the right hosting provider. A top-quality hosting service with resources tailored specifically for your website’s requirements can significantly speed it up. Look for dedicated servers or content distribution networks (CDNs) that distribute content globally to reduce load times regardless of where your users are located.

Implementing lazy loading is an advanced strategy designed to delay loading non-critical resources until they’re needed. Deferring loading until the resources are within view of users decreases initial load times while improving performance.

You’ll also want to focus on reducing server response times. Optimize your server configuration, implement HTTP/2 and upgrade resources as appropriate to handle more concurrent users efficiently.

Regularly monitor your site performance using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix. Look for bottlenecks and areas for improvement.

Implementing these strategies to increase your website speed, keep visitors on your pages longer and increase the chances of conversion.

Step-by-Step Procedure

1. Assess your current website speed. Tools like GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights can help.
2. Reduce file sizes and convert images into current formats like WebP.
3. Implement browser caching by setting appropriate cache headers.
4. Minify CSS, JavaScript and HTML files using automated tools.
5. Choose a high-quality hosting provider with robust resources.
6. Consider using a CDN to distribute content globally.
7. Implement lazy loading for images and videos.
8. Optimize server configuration for faster response times.
9. Upgrade your server resources if necessary.
10. Regularly monitor performance and adjust strategies based on data.
11. Reduce the number of HTTP requests by combining files.
12. Use asynchronous loading for JavaScript files.
13. Eliminate unnecessary plugins and scripts.
14. Optimize font loading by using display swap.
15. Implement server-side rendering if using JavaScript frameworks.
16. Use HTTP/2 for improved loading times.
17. Secure your site with SSL to enhance performance.
18. Test your site across different devices and browsers.
19. Analyze competitor sites for best practices.
20. Continuously update and refine your optimization strategies.
21. Educate your team on web optimization techniques.
22. Keep up on the latest in technology and trends.
23. Gather user feedback to identify performance issues.
24. Set performance goals and track progress over time.

Bruce Clay is founder and president of Bruce Clay Inc., a global digital marketing firm providing search engine optimization, pay-per-click, social media marketing, SEO-friendly web architecture, and SEO tools and education. Connect with him on LinkedIn or through the BruceClay.com website.

See Bruce's author page for links to connect on social media.