ReviewTrackers.com’s speed suffered from similar problems that many slow sites have: Every stylesheet, script, and image load simultaneously from the instant a page begins to load. All of those resources compete for bandwidth at the same time: hero elements, an image below the fold, a retargeting script. The result is that the simultaneous load of dozens or hundreds of items all slow each other down, giving the appearance of a slow loading site if the user has anything other than a fast computer and internet connection.
The solution was to organize how these resources load: deliver to the user what they see first, account for site resources, and organize everything else to load as the user encounters them.
Problems
- Resources load without any consideration for each other
- Lots of tracking scripts load at the same time as above resources
- Some resources like fonts were loading twice unnecessarily
- CRUX reports showed FCP and LCP: both over 4s sitewide
Solutions
Prioritize the page itself over marketing and tracking scripts
Marketers might have a problem with the idea of (sometimes) dozens of their tracking scripts demoted to waiting last to load. I get it: I know how much platforms like HubSpot and Terminus cost, and they need to fire on time for them to be of much use to the people using them.
But consider the existing UX problem:
- The user is already having a bad experience because the page is slow, and maybe their browser is freezing momentarily because a litany of scripts are firing as the user is just trying to get the page to begin to load. Right now they might be looking at a white screen as over 100 network resources are requested at the exact same millisecond.
- Engagement, like a form being filled out and submitted, is less likely to happen here because the user might give up on trying to see the page at all
- In the case of abandonment, the user exits the tab or window and those tracking scripts — if they initialized before the user left — will accurately record a conversion rate of zero.
But if the page can load quickly and without competing against those scripts, tracking loads faster and without the condition that the user stays to endure the slow initial page load. The user doesn’t bounce because the site is lightning fast, providing more time for other scripts to load. This solves for UX and tracking delivery together!
(IMAGE reviewtrackers.com home waterfall here)
Saving a few more bytes and requests
This might be considered control freak behavior; I’ve stared at a site’s network waterfall enough to where I immediately spot and twinge at anything hogging up load time. At this point, so much has already been done to improve load time. Look at my icon font files, though: they’re the biggest page resources I have by a long shot. And my normal font files took up four separate requests; there has to be another way.