Table Of Contents
1. Why Site Speed is it important?
- For your Users/Consumers: When users click on your ad, they expect your landing page to load quickly and deliver the same quality experience promised by your ad copy. A slow site disrupts this expectation, leading to frustration and potential drop-offs.
- For you (Business): Google found that as page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds, the probability of bounce increases by 32%. A high bounce rate can severely impact your ad performance, leading to wasted ad spend and reduced effectiveness.
2. How to check your Site Speed?
- Go to the page you want to test and copy the URL
- Go to https://pagespeed.web.dev/ and paste the URL
3. Webflow Site Speed: The 7 Steps
1. Delete unused images
- Best Practices: Regularly audit your project to remove any images that aren't being used on your site.
- Optimal Frequency: Conduct audits every 3–6 months to keep your image library up to date.
- Reason: Unused images can bloat your project file, resulting in longer loading times and increased storage requirements. Removing these images not only enhances performance but also streamlines asset management, making it easier to find and use necessary images.
- How to Do It in Webflow:
- Navigate to “Assets” in the left panel.
- Click the right arrow at the top to expand the Assets Panel.
- Identify unused images, hover over them, and click the tick.
- Select “Delete.”
2. Delete unused styles
- Best Practices: Regularly review and remove styles that are no longer applied to any elements in your Webflow project.
- Optimal Frequency: Conduct style audits every few months or before making major design updates.
- Reason: Unused styles can clutter your style sheets, increase file size, and potentially slow down your site. Removing these styles simplifies your CSS, improves loading times, and keeps your project organized and efficient.
- How to Do It in Webflow:
- Navigate to “Style Selectors” in the left panel.
- Click the broom icon at the top (“Clean up unused styles”).
- At the bottom, click “Remove.”
3. Delete unused interactions
- Best Practices: Regularly audit your Webflow project to identify and remove animations that aren't applied to any elements.
- Optimal Frequency: Perform animation audits every 3–6 months or before launching new campaigns or making major updates.
- Reason: Unused animations can add unnecessary complexity to your project, increase file sizes, and cause potential performance issues. Removing these animations streamlines your project, improves loading times, and enhances the user experience.
- How to Do It in Webflow:
- Navigate to “Interactions” in the right panel.
- Click the broom icon at the top (“Clean up unused interactions”).
- At the bottom, click “Delete.”
4. Minimize HTML, CSS and JavaScript
- Best Practices: Use minification techniques to reduce the file size of your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript by removing unnecessary characters, comments, and whitespace.
- Optimal Size Reduction: Aim for a 20–30% reduction in file size after minification.
- Reason: Minified files load faster because they contain fewer characters to process, which enhances overall site performance. This leads to quicker loading times, improved user experiences, and better SEO rankings.
- How to Do It in Webflow:
- Navigate to “Site Settings” (hover over your project and click the settings wheel).
- Click “Publishing” in the left panel.
- In “Advanced publishing options,” set Minify HTML, Minify CSS, and Minify JS to “On.”
5. Compress the images
- Best Practices: Use image compression in Webflow to reduce file sizes while maintaining acceptable web quality.
- Reason: Compressed images load faster, enhancing user experience and reducing bounce rates. This optimization significantly improves overall site performance, especially on mobile devices with limited bandwidth.
- How to Do It in Webflow:
- Navigate to “Assets” in the left panel.
- Click the right arrow at the top to expand the Assets Panel.
- Identify assets that are not .avif or .svg (as these can’t be compressed).
- Click “Compress” at the top and select ‘avif’ -> Compress.
6. Reduce or remove your fonts
- Best Practices: Limit the number of font families and weights used in your Webflow project to improve performance.
- Optimal Limit: Use no more than 2–3 font families and 1–2 weights per family for a clean, cohesive design.
- Reason: Each font family and weight increases the overall file size and loading time of your site. Reducing the number of fonts decreases HTTP requests and speeds up loading times.
- How to Do It in Webflow:
- Navigate to “Site Settings” (hover over your project and click the settings wheel).
- Go to “Fonts” in the left panel.
- Delete any unused fonts.
7. Delete unused code
- Best Practices: Regularly review your Webflow project for any unused embed code, including tracking codes, third-party scripts, and widgets that are no longer needed.
- Optimal Frequency: Conduct audits every few months or before major updates to ensure your site remains optimized.
- Reason: Unused embed code can slow down your site by adding unnecessary requests and increasing load times. Removing these elements improves performance, enhances user experience, and reduces potential conflicts with other scripts.
- How to Do It in Webflow:
- Navigate to “Site Settings” (hover over your project and click the settings wheel).
- Go to “Custom Code” in the left panel and check the Head Code and Footer sections for any unused embed code.
- Switch to Design Mode (click “Design”).
- Select the page you’re working on and click the settings wheel (“Edit page settings”).
- Scroll down and check both the Inside </body> tag and the Before </body> tag for any code that’s no longer in use.
By implementing these strategies, you're not just enhancing your landing page's site speed; you're unlocking faster loading times, reducing bounce rates, and driving more conversions. According to a study by Google:
- A 1-second delay in mobile page load can reduce conversions by up to 20%.
- Pages that load within 2 seconds have an average bounce rate of 9%, compared to 38% for pages that take 5 seconds to load.
- For every second faster your site loads, you can expect up to a 2% increase in conversion rates.
Ready to give your visitors a seamless experience? A landing page optimized for speed is your key to higher engagement, better ad performance, and more sales. Contact us today to ensure your site is lightning-fast and primed to convert every click into a customer.