Getting a webpage to load in less than 2 seconds ~ Possible?
YES BUT!
If a client comes to me and says all their pages must load in 2 seconds or less I will usually refuse the job.
Here’s why – read carefully …
The potential clients that approach me to help them with their page speed come AFTER their website has been built and has gone live.
This tells me that they are not being realistic about page speed and have little or no idea what is involved to get a webpage to load in less than 2 seconds never mind in less than 4 seconds.
If you want a webpage to load in under 2 seconds you have to DESIGN your site with that goal in mind.
Otherwise, it’s like wanting to build a suspension bridge but you have already created a girder bridge. You would never do this!
If you want a website to load fast and specifically fully load in less than 2 seconds, it must be created BY DESIGN to be fast.
This means that you have to choose these things VERY CAREFULLY:
- The server
- The server location
- The server stack (software used on the server including caching)
- The code platform for the site eg Vue JS, WordPress
Loading WordPress sites in less than 2 seconds
98% of my clients run WordPress sites.
WordPress by design is NOT a fast platform. It is primarily designed to be a FLEXIBLE platform. Speed has to be compromised to allow for flexibility.
Now, this is not to say you cannot get a WordPress website to load fast – you can – but the WordPress platform by design is not designed for speed.
So if a potential client has a strong expectation to get their website to load in less than 2 seconds they often are not being realistic.
The only way most existing WordPress sites will load in less than 2 seconds is with a site rebuild! Of course, most clients would not be willing to do that!
So if you want your WordPress site pages to load in 2 seconds or less you need to DESIGN your site from the BASE UP with speed in mind.
Otherwise, you will spend a lot of time and money trying to fix things up! You will keep people like me in work for years to come!
Here’s a recent site speed example.
I worked on a client’s WordPress site for 4 days.
At the start, their home page took 20 seconds to fully load and when finished it took 4½ seconds – a huge improvement.
BUT!
The client wanted better speeds so I recommend they drop WordPress and use a custom Vue JS system!
They had inherited the web system and were never happy with it. So they followed my recommendation and I consulted with their developer to build the new site.
Their home page now fully loads in a ½ second from anywhere in the world!
Page speed is by design!
How to make a WordPress page load in less than 1 second
OK, so maybe you thought loading a webpage in less than 2 seconds was good – how about 1 second page load for a WordPress page?
It’s very possible to get a WordPress page to load in less than 1 second but only by design.
Out of the box – using an average WordPress theme – it’s very unlikely any of your pages will load in less than one second.
With a lightweight base WordPress theme, a few tweaks and great server hosting, you may just surprise yourself with a 1 second WordPress page load.
want some FREE speed?
I will send you a free 100% coupon for my latest super-in-depth speed cheat sheet worth $47 that shares with you my step-by-step easy speed optimisation process that I use to get red-hot speed results every time… PLUS 5 key speed tips you can use on your site today – All good for any site.
So what's it with the 1 second page load time anyhow?
I don’t know what it is with the 1-second page load goal-post — but to be honest, it’s really an arbitrary web page load speed!
I like to be pragmatic and stick to strong realities when it comes to site speed.
So here is a page load speed question for you:
Would you be able to tell the difference
if a web page loaded in 1 second or 2 seconds?
No! I thought so! 🙂
After all, is the 1-second page load at 200 Mbps or 10 Mbps?
How you test your speed makes all the difference. And also where you test as in how far the test location is from your nearest server.
And let’s not forget while we are wiping off with a pragmatic wet sponge that you also need to define the actual test being performed – is it :
- Fully loaded time
- LCP – Largest Contentful Paint
- Time to interactive
- On load time
- or what!
So if you are wanting to get down to such fine speed definitions, then the extra speed parameters ALSO need to be specified so that the test is more accurate and consistent and in fact comparable to another speed test on another website.
So I like to stay away from the hype when it comes to anything including page speed and I recommend you do the same!
What is the most important thing when it comes to page speed?
The most important thing is USER EXPERIENCE. This is why Google created a whole set of standards and metrics to measure and monitor this and rank sites by called Core Web Vitals.
Google calls this PAGE EXPERIENCE
This is how I recommend you think about your page speed – think in terms of your users and the experience they want.
Your average user is probably happy with a page FULLY loading in 3 seconds – and this is an easier target to aim for especially on an existing WordPress site.
And if you want to create a new WordPress site where your pages load is less than 1 second I recommend you work with me for page speed consultancy before your site is built, so that you end up with the page speed results you want.
If you want pages loading in 1 second or less on WordPress don’t come to me after the site is built unless you want to see my super huge grin!
Setting page speed site standards
If you don’t currently have site page load speed standards I recommend you start with these.
- Every page on your site should load in 3 seconds or less at DSL speeds
- And 4 seconds or less on mobile networks
These standards may seem a little ‘light’ for you but right now 98% of all the sites I have worked on over the last two years could not pass this standard on all their web pages because of the way they were designed and because their server hosting is not fast enough.
And the key thing that I experience day in and day out is that no one focuses on page speed!
Having this simple metric as a core publishing standard starts the quality assurance process.
And then in 12 months’ time, I recommend reducing the standard by a small fraction as web speed technologies and team skills improve.
Talking more about server speeds
If you want a fast-loading website your server needs to be red hot as well.
I won’t go into too much detail right now, but, I use Cloudways for all my server needs and I fully recommend them to you.
If you want a slightly more hands-off fast hosting provider then I also recommend Kinsta – they have great support and a great site management admin which is intuitive and easy to use.
And of course, Kinsta (like Cloudways) is fully supported hosting.
Cloudways provide full VPS cloud hosting with leading providers like Digital Ocean and AWS.
They also have a super easy site migration plugin for WordPress so it only takes a few clicks to migrate your site.
[ If you want help with migrating your current site to Cloudways for a fixed price sign up here. ]
If you use this link: getus.at/cloudways
… you can give the Cloudways system a full run around for free for 3 days (no credit card required)
And if you want 20% off your first month use the coupon code AFFYBOY20
Getting more page speed with less work
Page speed is a big subject and can get a little technical at times.
If you want to get your site to load super fast I I highly recommend you sign up for my free speed cheat sheet above. That work sheet gives you a ton more speed tips as well as a step-by-step process to get started. it will save you a lot of time trying to create your own best-practice speed processes.
Talking more about server speeds
If you want a fast-loading website your server needs to be red hot also.
I won’t go into too much detail right now, but, I use Cloudways for all my server needs and I fully recommend them to you.
If you want a slightly more hands-off fast hosting provider then I also recommend Kinsta – they have great support and a great site management admin which is intuitive and easy to use. And of course, Kinsta (like Cloudways) is fully supported hosting.
Cloudways provide full VPS cloud hosting with leading providers like Digital Ocean and AWS.
They also have a super easy site migration plugin for WordPress so it only takes a few clicks to migrate your site.
[ If you want help with migrating your current site to Cloudways for a fixed price sign up here. ]
Next steps on your page speed journey
If you really want to get to the top and stay there with page speed I recommend my super comprehensive page speed training course [ check out some of the free preview video modules ].
And if you would like me to personally consult with you on your page speed projects check out my speed consultancy service here.
If you would like to get some free quick speed tips on your site check this : free speed tips
Speed Consultant
