TRAFFIC
Figure 1: HTML5 link rel attributes
worth considering, especially if you have
a good idea of users’ general path through
your site (see Figure 1).
Image optimisation
Images play a huge role in the speed of
a web page, something which is both a
ranking factor and a determinant of a user’s
experience on your site. Engaging visual
content adds a lot to the quality of content,
but should never come at the expense of
the search experience.
Once you’ve selected images to use
on your site, save them as either JPEGs
or PNGs, with relevant filenames (both
descriptive and including targeted
keywords) and scale them to the size that
they’ll be needed. Often - if images are
not minimised to the size in which they’re
needed – pages are slowed down as large
image files unnecessarily load.
You can further streamline images by
reducing their file size with tools such
as JPEGmini. Compressing images has
no effect on their quality, but can have
significant results in terms of load speeds.
When adding the images to pages, also
make sure that a descriptive alt. text (again
including keywords) is added to them to
help users who for whatever reason can’t
see the image, as well as to aid search
engines’ understanding of your content.
When pages are still in draft stage, test
them using Google’s PageSpeed Insights.
This will give pages an overall speed score,
and flag up any elements which could be
hindering page speed. Another option is
the YSlow chrome extension, which gives
pages a grade based on overall performance
symbols. They vary in size due to the
complexity of the vector paths making up
each glyph, and the number of glyphs used
by the font. When selecting a font, consider
its aesthetic values, and weigh these against
their file size.
It’s also worth considering whether the
font works in other languages in order to
retain a consistent “look” on international
sites, and that certain web font formats
are only supported by certain browsers.
This can prove a costly mistake if you
come to create market specific versions of
a successful piece of content, only to have
to go back to build phase to accommodate
a font that works in the target market. If
it’s necessary to serve different formats to
different users in order to give all a good
experience, this can mean a re-design.
Whilst of course they’re all different,
fonts contain some broadly similar
information, so can be compressed in
the same way that images can. Some
are auto-compressed, and for those that
aren’t, using GZIP can significantly
reduce file sizes. There can be an
advantage in using more common fonts
such as Typekit or Google Fonts, as these
are more likely to have already been
cached by your site visitor.
Our final tip in our experience as an
agency that works on multiple content
projects for operators and affiliates alike,
is to include a speed checklist into your
project briefing process. Be sure to discuss
technologies, use of images, font selection
and any internationalisation of the piece
prior to going into production. Not only
will your content efforts complement
your SEO and site performance goals,
but this can contribute to the smooth and
profitable running of content marketing
projects on a per item basis.
Fonts and styles
You should also consider the fonts you
use when optimising your content for
performance. Think about how many
typefaces, weights and styles are necessary
before adding them, as each will result in
an added request to the server, meaning a
slower overall page-load time.
Fonts are made of a collection of
“glyphs” – shapes describing letters or
NICHOLA STOTT is
founder of theMediaFlow,
a multi award-winning
digital marketing agency that
specialises in organic search and
content marketing. Nichola has almost
two decades of experience in digital
communications and features in the
BIMA Hot100 Digital People of 2015.
iGB Affiliate Issue 57 JUN/JUL 2016
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