Prodcast: Home Page Performance
September Topic:
Home Page Performance
This video talks about one of the newest and most impactful updates to our initial consultation and website design process: Home page performance.
The Video
The Why
Home Page Performance
You can see all home page performance topics in Confluence.
Website performance is important to user experience. Studies have shown that pages with longer load times tend to have higher bounce rates and lower average time on page which can negatively affects conversions. Because of this, Google has announced that website speed is one of the main factors used by its algorithm to rank pages.
Our customers should know that the home page is supposed to serve as the primary landing page for the website. Having certain features on the home page can negatively affect performance and search engine rankings.
Like the rest of us, the builders are held accountable for their work and are trained to NOT ADD any feature that negatively affects home page perforance unless it’s specifically requested. So it’s important that the instruction is written exactly word for word in the correct spot so there’s no ambiguity or confusion. The builders don’t assume anything and are trained to design according to your instructions.
The How
First Things First:
If your customer is adamant about having one of these features on their home page, then it needs to be notated in red exactly as it’s written here and in Confluence:
Customer Approved Use Of: (specify requested feature here)
Other Features That Negatively Affect Home Page Performance:
Module animation – any animation on the homepage negatively affects homepage performance so keep animations on modules and columns to a minimum, especially on mobile devices
Slider modules – such as testimonial sliders, image carousels, logo carousels, content sliders, etc.
Photo galleries—pretty self explanatory. No photo gallery should be on the home page ever.
Modal popup modules—also known as modal windows or lightboxes are also not recommended on the home page
Hover modules – such as ihovers and interactive banners
Interactive Callout modules – such as flipboxes, slideboxes, and info circles
Social feeds – the only suitable social feeds are Instagram feeds. Other feeds such as Facebook and twitter feeds are highly unnecessary especially on mobile – If Instagram feeds are being used, make sure to hide the Instagram feed rows from mobile view.
Particle backgrounds – keep rows with particle backgrounds specific to desktop view only
iFrames/Paypal/script embeds – If any of these are requested, then the rest of the content on the home page should be simple and elegant versus dynamic and flashy.
Nested modules – such as saved rows or templates inside of modules like tab modules or accordions
Chat plugin—this may be a big one for some customers, but it’s definitely not recommended on the home page
Any module with moving parts and high JavaScript content is not recommended and will negatively affect home page performance.