It’s official: we want things quickly and we want them now!
From takeaways to taxis, we all expect things to come to us as fast as possible. And the same logic applies to the websites we use too.
In fact, website conversion rates drop by an average of 2.11% for every additional second of load time. So the slower your independent school site, the less likely people are to make enquiries.
As the SEO experts when it comes to independent school websites, we know all about the benefits a fast website can offer.
So let’s take a look at why school website speed is so important.
How does school website speed affect the user experience?
From the first click to the last, you want to provide each visitor with the best experience possible. After all, the happier web visitors are, the more likely they are to download brochures, sign up for newsletters, and make enrolment enquiries.
The issue is that a slow website can drive prospective parents away. And the bad news is, even a slight drop in speed can have a significant impact. One in two mobile users will leave a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.
So if you notice high bounce rates on specific pages, a slow loading speed may be the culprit.
How does school website speed affect SEO?
A slow school website speed doesn’t just affect visitors to your site; it can also affect your search engine ranking.
Search engines like Google want to showcase the best websites to users; they don’t want to put their reputation on the line by promoting slow, poorly designed sites. As a result, faster sites get a boost in the rankings, while slow sites get pushed down.
Google announced that page loading speed was a direct ranking factor in 2018. In 2021 it rolled out the core web vitals algorithm, additional page speed factors that contribute to how a page fares in the SEO results.
How to check your school website speed
As you can see, a slow website doesn’t just annoy prospective parents. It can significantly affect your website’s ranking in the search engines too.
Curious about your school’s website speed? A great place to start is Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. Just enter the URL of your choice, and you’ll receive a report detailing how quick your page is and what you can do to make your website faster on both desktop and mobile.
You can also see which pages need a little extra boost in their step through Google Search Console. Log in, go to Core web vitals, and Google will provide you with a report, detailing URLs that could be faster.
What is the ideal page loading speed for independent school sites? We recommend keeping it under two seconds. If your pages are loading slower than that, keep reading…
Six ways to speed up your website
If you want to make your school website lightning-fast, it’s best to make friends with your IT team or web development agency.
They can make tweaks to your website behind the scenes to make it faster. For example, optimising JavaScript and CSS, as well as implementing caching that takes the pressure off your website server.
The good news is that there are things you can do in-house to increase your school website speed too. Here are six ways you can power up your pages.
1. Get rid of unnecessary extensions
WordPress is great for websites as it’s easy to use, free to install, and has many cool extensions you can download to customise your site.
However, the issue with using many extensions is that they use a lot of resources, bringing your pages to a screeching halt. This is because these extensions add extra code and resources to your site.
Take the time to audit the extensions you use, eliminating any you no longer need. Also, read the reviews before installing new plugins, to see if anyone comments on how the extension performs.
2. Optimise the images on your website
We once worked with a school that was struggling with sluggish website speeds. When we did some digging, we found the site was slow because all the photos on the website were over 10 MB in size!
It’s vital to showcase your school with eye-catching, high-quality images. However, overly large photos, infographics, and logos will drag your site speed down and make your pages load slowly.
You can use a crawler like Screaming Frog to find all the images on your website and see how big they are. If anything is over 1 MB, we recommend replacing it with a more optimised version. Alternatively, if you use WordPress, Smush is fantastic for downsizing your photos.
Another top tip is to remove any images from your servers you are no longer using, freeing up space. If you’re using WordPress, you can apply the Unattached filter to identify images that aren’t used on any pages.
3. Clean up your page content
Including a lot of visual content on one page, like videos, photos, and gifs, can lead to a slow page loading time. Be savvy with your content and optimise your pages. Think quality rather than quantity!
If you need to include a lot of visuals on a page, run a page speed test before promoting it. If it loads slowly, take a piece of content out and see if this affects the time.
4. Remove unnecessary redirects
When moving content from one place to another or deleting pages, redirects can be a lifesaver! However, like everything in life, you can have too much of a good thing.
Let’s say you’ve redirected page A to page B, page B to page C, and page C to page D. Each page redirect results in additional communication between the browser and web server, leading to a slow page load.
In this situation, you can speed up the process by setting page A to redirect directly to page D, meaning web users don’t have to wait as long to see the content they want.
Find all the active redirects on your website. If this isn’t something you can access in your content management system, your IT or web development team can provide you with a list. Then identify all the convoluted page redirects in place and get streamlining!
5. Take advantage of external hosting platforms
Let’s be honest; people love videos. They’re a brilliant way of showing off your school’s facilities, introducing prospective parents to your team, and showcasing your student’s achievements.
The only issue? Videos take up a lot of space on your server. A five-minute video can easily reach 150 MB. When lots of people try to watch a video at the same time, it can lead to annoying pauses and lags.
An alternative solution is to upload your videos to a third-party hosting system like YouTube or Vimeo and embed the video on your website. This saves valuable server space and means your videos load more quickly.
(Plus, as YouTube videos rank highly in Google, it’s another way for people to find your content!)
6. Consider a new hosting provider
You’ve shrunk your images, moved all your videos to YouTube and neatened your redirects. The only issue is… your school website speed still leaves much to be desired. What next?
If you’re getting a lot of traffic, it might be that moving to a new hosting provider is the way forward, especially if you’re using cheap shared hosting. You may opt to have your own dedicated server, or move to cloud hosting. One of the benefits of cloud hosting is that you can pay-as-you-use, meaning you can up your package during busy times of the year.
Want to increase your school website speed? We’re here to help
A fast website is a fantastic website. When your school website loads quickly, you’re keeping your users happy, whether they’re checking you out on desktop, tablet, or smartphone.
If your independent school website isn’t firing on all cylinders, we can help. We specialise in SEO for independent schools and know what is needed to make sure your website makes the grade.
Take, for example, the work we did with Wells Cathedral School.
We conducted an SEO audit and found that the school’s website was loading slowly on both desktop and mobile, leading to frustrated web users and low rankings in the search engine results.
Our team of SEO experts used the best SEO practices, and as a result, Wells Cathedral School experienced an incredible 30% increase in search visibility!Want to experience the same speedy results for your school’s website? Book your free SEO audit today.