Slow page loading severely affects the search engine ranking of a website. A site that is built with Webflow will not automatically achieve fast loading performance until you optimize the speed. How to optimize Webflow website page speed? It’s undoubtedly an important query that you need to know in order to boost the revenue of your website.
There are some chores that you have to attentively carry out with the view of improving the loading speed of your webpages. Most of them are easy to accomplish, while some may make you break a sweat. But don’t worry, everything is possible with the proper guidelines. In this article, we’ve come up with an array of tips that may help you conduct subtle speed optimization. Let’s look further!
How to optimize Webflow website page speed?
Optimizing website page speed is a vital SEO term. It’s almost impossible to get a higher rank on the search engine result page if a page fails to load faster than its competitors. So, every marketer or website owner should pay extreme attention to this aspect to flourish in their online business. But how to optimize Webflow website page speed? Of course, there are some approaches that can help to enhance the loading speed. The major terms are covered below.
We feel happy to share with you that we have a group of technical personnel who are specialized in building fast-loading Webflow websites. We also have some individuals at our disposal who can optimize the speed of your websites. So, without further ado, let’s work together in order to improve the conversion and insights of your website.
Maintain a preconnect to the origin of assets:
Ensuring a preconnect to the origins of the assets of your website is a groundbreaking step towards improving loading speed. As the Webflow server contains huge assets from a certain domain, it typically takes enough time to load the entire assets. The browser seems to be lazy and makes an extra connection to the domain. But with a preconnect tag, these niggles can be solved.
By dint of a preconnect tag, your browser will get a signal to establish a fair connection with the server. The tag helps interchange quick messages between the server and browser. As a result, the loading time is reduced considerably. So, you can promptly ensure a preconnect tag. To set the tag, you need to add <"preconnect" href="https://assets.website-files.com/"> above the head tag of the project’s settings option.
Make sure the LCP image is preloaded:
The LCP image needs to be preloaded in order to overcome the loading issues. What is an LCP image? To explain, the LCP image stands for the largest contentful paint image that becomes visible in the viewport. To enhance the light fastness of a website, an LCP image should load first and soonest. If it fails to load at a rapid speed, it will slow down the server's response time.
As a result, the server will become unable to show all other assets immediately. How to ensure the LCP image is preloaded? In this case, you need to reach out to a preload tag. The tag will inform the browser about the vital resources and the viewport’s largest visible element.
Make use of image elements instead of background images:
Background images are not as light as other visual elements. Every single background image puts extra pressure on a web server. And it becomes too slow to load. That’s why, a website with an array of background images seems to be drastically slow. Even in terms of optimization, this type of image doesn’t fare much.
So, what do you need to do? You have to smartly make use of image elements instead of background images. Try to replace every existing background image with the image element. And make sure the image elements contain the object-fit property. Otherwise, all of your attempts will be in vain.
Pay close attention to image compression:
When it comes to optimizing the website’s speed, image compression always breaks into contention. Seriously speaking, you will never hope to have a fast-loading website if the uploaded images are not perfectly compressed. How do the compressed images contribute to the page speed?
Once you scatter a pile of images throughout your website, it becomes heavier. The interactivity also seems a bit dull because of the excessive images. As you can’t make your site well-organized without uploading the necessary images, you need to minimize the number of bits in the images. And if you compress them with the online image compressors, you can definitely optimize the speed of your Webflow website.
Ensure all the images are resized:
You may need to insert a wide range of images in various sizes. Image size is a major factor behind the lower loading speed of web pages. You need to try to upload the images as small as possible. Some images need to be sized to fit the object. You can resize them with an online tool without any concern.
Whenever you resize the images, they become lighter. Your site can load them faster than before. And there will never be a delay in showing all the images to the audience instantly. So, in order to optimize the Webflow website speed, you need to ensure all the uploaded images are properly resized.
Avoid unnecessary interactions and triggers:
A sophisticated website becomes flooded with a massive range of interactions and triggers. Some interactions are indispensable, but a wide majority of them are optional. These are integrated to enhance the vibrancy and sparkle of the site. Apparently, the interactions and triggers are good for a website as they bring about real life.
But virtually, they affect the loading speed of web pages. Excessive interactions make the server work harder to transmit requests to the browser. They also take up a lot of space and muck up the common functionalities. That’s why you should avoid using unnecessary interactions and triggers to improve the speed of your website.
Optimize Lottie animations:
A Lottie animation is a JSON-based animation file format. It empowers the designers to embrace high-end animations with maximum soothing. Lottie animations are comprehensively used in innovative and dynamic websites. Although they are useful, they affect the website speed terribly. Your web pages will face several time-sensitive issues if you use multiple Lottie animations across the website.
Compared to other normal sites, your site will take more time to load. That’s why you need to reduce the use of Lottie animations. If you can't help but use a certain number of animations, you have to consciously fix and optimize them. You will find plenty of online tools for optimizing this form of animation. You can get help from one of them to lessen the workload of your website.
Optimize SVG:
SVG is a common element of a traditional website. SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics. It’s an XML-based vector image format that is widely used on websites to ensure optimal interactivity and animation. There is no question that excessive use of SVG makes a site bulky. They cause several inefficiencies and reduce the usability of a website. But properly optimized SVG files are not as impactful as regular ones.
You can extraordinarily improve the load speed of your website by optimizing the massive SVG files. The smaller the files are, the faster your site will be. You can optimize this type of graphic in various ways. But it would be better if you seek support from an online SVG optimization tool, as there are countless tools ready to serve you.
Optimize fonts:
A website’s lower page speed depends on a variety of factors; applying unoptimized fonts is one of them. In order to make your website look classy, you definitely need to use fonts in different styles, boldness, and forms. All the requisite fonts are not available in the Webflow repository, so you need to download some from Google. The downloaded file might be bulky and affect the overall interactivity of a website significantly.
So, how do you get your website rid of such issues? Of course, you need to optimize the fonts before using them. How to optimize fonts? It’s easy to do. You can use the font display property to optimize fonts. Besides, you can delete the unnecessary styles and forms of fonts at the time of integrating Google fonts. Always try to use custom fonts over Google fonts.
Remove unnecessary CSS:
One of the best ways to optimize the Webflow website page speed is to remove unnecessary cascading style sheets. Almost every website contains some additional style sheets that are literally never used. These make the site weighty and disrupt the performance. Ultimately, excessive CSS affects the page load of a particular website.
So, if you want to get a higher speed for your site, you need to refurbish your CSS file. Simply delete the unnecessary stuff that is responsible for the slow page load of your site. If you have a short observation session, you could easily find the CSS that is of no use.
Minify source code:
Minifying code can make your site lighter and faster to load. There are a number of popular minification tools available, such as Google Closure Compiler or UglifyJS, but it's worth trying out a few to see which one works best for you.
Minification can also be done manually by editing the source code. If you think you’re competent to modify the source code of your web project, you can use this method without any further consideration. It seems better than a tool.
Defer scripts:
Scripts can be a huge time-sink. By deferring them, you can free up more space and make your website lighter. In order to defer scripts, you can make a list of the scripts that need to be deferred and when they need to be deferred. This will help you stay organized and avoid forgetting about any scripts.
You can defer any scripts that do not have a due date or that are outside of your normal work hours. This will help you conserve your energy and ensure that you are able to deliver quality work when it is needed most. When it is time to review a deferred script, make sure to read it completely and mark any notes or changes that need to be made prior to execution.
Simplify style guides:
Style guides can be a lot of work, but they're essential for consistency and clarity when writing for a group. As much as possible, try to simplify your style guide by grouping similar styles together and sticking to a few key principles to increase your website’s speed.
To do so, always use lowercase for words that are not specifically mentioned in uppercase, use the present tense rather than the past or future, and avoid plurals unless they're specifically mentioned. These simple tips will help you create a style guide that's easy to follow and will help your site load faster.
Reach out to a fast hosting service:
If you need a quick and easy way to get your website online, reach out to a fast hosting service. It can help you get your site up and running in minutes without having to worry about the details.
A fast hosting service will allow your website to handle heavy traffic. You can also keep your users happy and ensure that your site runs smoothly if you opt for one of the best companies that offers lightning-fast page loads.
FAQ:
Why is my Webflow site so slow?
There might be plenty of reasons behind the slow page loading of your Webflow site. First, check the internet connectivity. If internet speed is okay, then identify the image size, CSS file, HTTP request, flashy content, JavaScript issues, and many more factors. These are all responsible for making your Webflow website slow.
How do I speed up my page optimization?
If you’re desperate to speed up your web page optimization, then you need to perform a wide variety of tasks. For instance, you need to enable image compression, remove render-blocking JavaScript, use a content distribution network, reduce redirects, and so on.
How do I optimize LCP for Webflow?
To optimize LCP on Webflow, try to avoid using large images in the hero and the rest of the page. Compressing images can also be a handy method for it. Always set the assets above the fold to allow for easy loading. Adding the "section" tag to sections is another great approach that you can follow. Most importantly, you need to prompt them to clean up unused styles and interactions to increase LCP on Webflow.
Are Webflow sites fast?
Yes, Webflow websites are extraordinarily fast. Their interaction and loading speeds are higher than those of other platforms. But you need to make sure all the optimizations are perfect to get the best speed for your existing Webflow website.
How do I optimize SEO on Webflow?
To help you optimize SEO, Webflow comes with an SEO section. In the section, you could optimize URLs, meta titles, meta descriptions, sitemaps, 301 redirects, indexing, site verification, and many more major search engine terms. But you have to ensure page speed by yourself.
Final words:
Having superior page speed is always a plus point for a website, no matter whether it's built with Webflow or other web builders. But a significant portion of websites fail to ensure great loading speeds due to several barriers. If you intend to have a fresh and hasty Webflow site, you need to keep a sharp eye on the speed optimization methodologies. How to optimize Webflow website page speed?
The good news is that you’ve already known the entire process of optimizing the speed. If you carry out most of the highlighted chores, you can definitely hope for a swift website. But one thing that you need to keep in mind is that you should avoid integrating extra stuff into your website. Rather, try to include the most necessary elements to get your site functioning well.
