Improving Site Speed: Unconventional Approaches for Enterprise Websites
In the realm of SEO, professionals often rely on established “best practices” to optimize their efforts. However, when it comes to enhancing site speed for JavaScript-based enterprise websites, a broader perspective is necessary. Standard solutions alone do not always apply in the context of enterprise sites. In this article, we will explore why conventional methods may fall short and present alternative approaches to achieve optimal site speed.
The Limitations of Server-Side Rendering (SSR) Migration
Picture this scenario: you approach the CEO or a senior leader with a proposal to migrate your website to server-side rendering (SSR) to improve site speed. When they inquire about the rationale behind such a change, your response—relying on it being a “best practice”—elicits laughter. The truth is, the business implications and costs associated with SSR migration often outweigh the expected benefits.
Unless an enterprise website is specifically designed for server-side rendering or is already undergoing a migration process, migrating to SSR is rarely justified. Consider the considerable challenges and expenses involved:
- Reviewing all systems and APIs for compatibility, which is a complex task often lacking comprehensive documentation.Investing thousands of man-hours in refactoring, quality assurance, and accessibility review for the entire website.
- Training existing staff on the new framework, which may involve dozens or even hundreds of individuals.
Dealing with potential hiring or firing of developers and engineers who may not be willing or equipped to adapt to the new framework. - Incurring additional server fees, adding to the financial burden.
- Rather than subjecting your organization to an arduous and resource-intensive process, alternative strategies can achieve significant speed improvements for enterprise websites.
Building Collaborative Relationships with Other Teams
At the enterprise level, SEO professionals must possess the adaptability of a chameleon. Success relies on collaborating with various teams to prioritize tasks and accomplish objectives. SEO is no longer limited to its traditional definition but encompasses a broader scope of activities related to site speed, accessibility, and more. In the words of Tom Critchlow, a renowned SEO expert, being an enterprise SEO requires investing time in understanding the work of others and demonstrating how their contributions enhance the website’s organic visibility.
Creating advocates within different teams establishes a feedback loop, ensuring a steady stream of updates on their activities and the subsequent impact on the website. Half the battle lies in fostering these relationships. The other half involves working closely with developers, designers, and analysts to achieve tangible outcomes. Remember, treating team members as individuals with their own thoughts, feelings, and goals paves the way for smoother collaborations compared to demanding changes without considering their perspectives.
Collaboration with Developers and Producers
In many enterprises today, site speed plays a crucial role in conversion rates. Development teams often have site speed as a key performance indicator (KPI). Leveraging this common goal allows you to align your objectives and capitalize on their expertise in the codebase. If executed effectively, this collaboration can lead to shared successes and rewards.
Developers can contribute significantly to site speed improvements in various areas, including:
1. Size/Weight of Code
Monitoring your teams’ tech debt sprints or allocations provides insights into when code optimization occurs. Recognize their efforts and acknowledge the impact of their refactoring work.
2. Image Loading and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
CLS can significantly affect the perceived load time, especially for large JavaScript-based enterprise websites. Implementing a placeholder JS library that “holds” image positions can prevent page shifts and reduce perceived load time.
Redirect Management
Effective redirect management can contribute to improved site speed. While this area may present challenges in enterprises with fragmented redirect systems, a more centralized approach can yield significant benefits. By managing redirects, consolidating rules into regular expressions, and addressing technical debt, you can reduce the time required for page loading caused by redirect rule processing.
Usage of <button> Instead of <a href>
A nuanced issue often encountered with JavaScript developers is their default use of <a href> links as buttons. This tendency is primarily driven by time constraints and the native defaults of the frameworks they employ. During the quality assurance (QA) process for new page templates, it is essential to identify and flag these instances, prompting developers to update them to <a href>. This optimization ensures a more efficient and correct implementation of links, ultimately contributing to improved site speed.
Collaboration with Designers.
One of the most significant opportunities to enhance site speed on enterprise websites lies in optimizing image size and weight. Over time, internal standards can become misunderstood or lost, especially in agile and decentralized teams. Upon joining an enterprise project, I was astonished to find images as large as 10MB on product pages—an unnecessary burden for web performance. Engaging in delicate conversations with designers, I collaborated with them over the course of eight months to reduce image sizes.
While aiming for an ideal size of 100KB, any reduction achieved—such as bringing a heading banner or frame image down to 300KB—represents an improvement. In the realm of enterprise SEO, incremental wins are often the key to success.
Collaboration with Analysts
Analysts play a crucial role in managing tagging systems and third-party tags on websites. Engaging in conversations with them opens up opportunities to evaluate the necessity of specific tags and explore alternatives. Third-party scripts can contribute to significant website bloat, impacting site speed. Through dialogue and analysis, compromises can be reached, such as selectively activating user experience monitoring scripts on actively tracked pages, auditing implementations for duplicates, and deferring the loading of chatbot or customer service tags until they are interacted with, rather than during page load.
Collaboration with the QA Team
Collaborating with the QA team can prove to be a secret weapon in your arsenal. Both SEO and JavaScript SEO entail binary requirements or best practices, such as consistency between meta data in the page source and client-side rendered page, presence of canonical tags on client-side rendered pages, and the proper formatting of links as <a href> rather than <button>. By working closely with the QA team and incorporating these requirements into their regular processes, you establish a network of advocates who monitor compliance. Their diligent efforts contribute to maintaining and improving site speed across the enterprise website.
While other teams can also play a role in optimizing overall website SEO, the teams mentioned here are particularly important when addressing technical aspects of implementation.
Advocating for Collaborating Teams
Effective collaboration hinges on acknowledging and respecting the individuals involved. Two essential approaches can facilitate this:
Respecting Their Time: Instead of proposing sweeping changes without considering the practicality, collaborate with the Product Owner (PO) to create a proof of concept that falls into the “easy” category. Validating its impact allows you to avoid investing significant resources in a project that may prove unsuccessful. Successful outcomes can then be used to present a business case to the finance team, securing the necessary support and resources for a comprehensive implementation.
Amplifying Their Efforts:
SEO professionals often struggle with effectively communicating and sharing their successes. By shifting the focus from self-promotion to highlighting the achievements of the teams you collaborate with, you create a culture of shared success. Emphasizing how their contributions have improved the overall website performance and user experience can foster a sense of pride and motivation among the teams. Sharing success stories in internal newsletters, team meetings, or company-wide presentations can showcase the impact of collaboration and encourage other teams to prioritize website speed and optimization.
Ongoing Monitoring and Maintenance:
Once the initial optimizations have been implemented, it is crucial to monitor and maintain the website’s speed and performance on an ongoing basis. Collaborate with developers, analysts, and QA teams to establish regular checks and processes for monitoring key performance metrics. This includes regularly reviewing page load times, identifying and resolving any new issues or bottlenecks, and staying updated on industry best practices and emerging technologies.
Additionally, leverage web analytics tools and SEO auditing tools to continuously analyze the website’s performance, identify areas for improvement, and track the impact of optimizations over time. By keeping a close eye on the website’s speed and performance metrics, you can proactively address any issues that may arise and ensure that the website maintains optimal speed and user experience.
Optimizing site speed in enterprise SEO requires collaboration with various teams and stakeholders involved in website development and maintenance. By working closely with developers, designers, analysts, and QA teams, you can implement technical optimizations, streamline processes, and improve website speed and performance.
Effective collaboration involves respecting the time and efforts of the teams you work with, amplifying their contributions, and fostering a culture of shared success. Ongoing monitoring and maintenance are essential to ensure that the website’s speed and performance remain optimized over time.
By prioritizing site speed and involving cross-functional teams in the optimization process, enterprises can deliver better user experiences, improve search engine rankings, and ultimately drive more organic traffic and conversions.
Remember, optimizing site speed is an ongoing process, and continuous collaboration and communication with the teams involved will help ensure long-term success. By making site speed a shared goal and aligning efforts, enterprises can create faster and more efficient websites that provide a competitive edge in the online landscape.