Have you ever tried to improve your conversion rate by optimizing your website’s resource loading? Although it's not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of conversion rate optimization, optimizing resource loading can significantly impact the conversion rate. 

To improve resource loading, you must optimize your image, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. This can impact not only your conversion rate but also your SEO rankings.   

What Is Resource Loading?

Resource loading is the process of parsing and downloading resources to a user's browser from the hosting server. A website may load resources such as scripts, stylesheets, images, and HTML files. The webpage is subsequently rendered for the user using these resources.

Let’s understand in a simple way. When a user requests your web page’s content, the browser sends an HTTP request to the hosting server, which sends back the HTML file along with the other website’s resources. 

The browser loads and parses the resources. Once the resources are downloaded, the browser can display your web page to the end user. 

The Importance of Optimizing Resource Loading

Before diving into the direct solution, the first thing that may come to your mind that why we need to optimize your resource loading. Here we will discuss the significance of optimizing the resource loading on your website which includes:

Boost Your PageSpeed and Enhance the User Experience

According to the Queue.it website, “Stress levels increase by 33% when content takes more than 6 seconds to load, the equivalent of a math test or watching a horror movie”. Web optimization is the only way to mitigate this problem, enhancing your user experience.

Users would engage in your fast-loading website, increasing the average on-page time by reducing the bounce rate. 

Increase the Conversion Rate

Conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors who complete the desired action, such as making an online payment, submitting an online form, purchasing from an e-commerce platform, or taking another action, and converting to potential leads. 

The conversion rate is negatively correlated with the bounce rate. That means if the bounce rate decreases, the conversion rate will automatically increase. Below we will show you 3 case studies of increasing the conversion rate by improving the loading time.  

Improve the SEO rankings

Page speed is an important factor in the Google ranking algorithm. Google always prioritizes a fast-loading website. Thus, in order to increase organic traffic, you need to improve your website’s PageSpeed performance by optimizing the resource loading.  

3 case studies on the impact of Optimizing Resource Loading on increasing the Conversion Rate

As per the case study here, we listed 3 cases that show you the improvement of conversion rate or sales just by increasing the page loading time.

1. Vodafone:

Vodafone is the most popular company, facing a problem with the slow initial loading time and it affects the user experience. Therefore, by increasing the loading time by 31%, Vodafone increases the conversion rate by 5%.  

2. Renault:

Renault is a French multinational automobile company. To improve the core web vitals performance, Renault optimized the PageSpeed performance. Consequently, this website's conversion rate increased by 13%.

3. Carpe:

Carpe is popular for selling skincare products. Shopify collaborated with Carpe to optimize website performance. By increasing the loading time by 52%, they were able to increase the conversion rate by 5 % and revenue by 15%.

How To Optimize The Resource Loading Using RabbitLoader?

At this point, you are quite knowledgeable about the importance of optimizing the resource loading. But how to optimize the resource loading?

Before you start to panic, we will delve into the most effective optimization technique for optimizing resource loading to boost the conversion rate.  

First, you need to understand the website resources that can be optimized.

Type of resources

Every website has a set of fundamental resources that the browser needs to load to render the web pages which include:

• Image files
• HTML files
• CSS stylesheets
• JavaScript files.

How to Optimize the Image?

Images are the most crucial resource for a website as they make it more attractive. Adding a lot of images is beneficial especially when you have an e-commerce site . However, high-resolution images can affect your initial loading time.  

To mitigate this issue, you need to optimize your image file by implementing the below strategies.

Compress Image Files

JPEG and PNG images can increase the size of your image file. Converting them into a next-gen format, such as modern WebP and AVIF, can decrease the size of the image file without reducing its original quality. This process is known as lossless compression.

RabbitLoader converts all images into WebP and AVIF format with it’s inbuilt bulk image optimization feature. So, by using RabbitLoader, you can losslessly compress your images and optimize the resource loading.

Add Lazy Loading For Above-The-Fold Images

Above-the-fold images refer to the images you can see during the initial loading time. By adding lazy loading to the website, you tell the browser to load only the images that are available above the fold, and the remaining images will load later.

RabbitLoader adds a lazy load to improve the loading time especially the performance of the First Contentful Paint (FCP). 

Add Link Pre-Load For LCP Image

The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) image is known as the hero image. When you apply lazy loading for above-the-fold images, it loads all images available above the fold. To speed up your website, you need to add a link pre-load for the hero image.

Assume you have a total of 5 images on your webpage of which 3 are the above-the-fold images. Among these 3 images, 1 must be the hero image. By adding a link pre-load in the hero images, you can improve the LCP time.

When you are using RabbitLoader for the above two optimization techniques, you don’t need to add pre-load manually. RabbitLoader will take care of this.

How To Optimize The HTML File?

HTML code creates your website’s content. The browser first parses and loads this HTML file, so HTML file optimization is essential to increase the loading time. To do so, you need to minify and compress the HTML code.

• HTML Minification

To make the HTML code more readable, many developers use line breaks, comments, and meaningful variable names. These unnecessary characters make the HTML file larger.

By minifying the HTML file, you can significantly improve the initial server response time. When you are optimizing your page speed performance with RabbitLoader, it will minify your HTML file.

Note: To improve the loading time, RabbitLoader will minify the CSS and JavaScript files as well. 

• Compress The HTML File

By compressing the HTML file, you can optimize your website’s resource loading time. Compression of HTML files reduces code redundancy by replacing the same string with the pointer. 

RabbitLoader has its own GZIP compressor, which reduces the HTML file size and improves page speed performance.

How To Optimize CSS Files?

Without CSS stylesheets, your website may look messy. CSS stylesheets make your webpage more presentable. When you are optimizing your resource files, you can’t ignore CSS files. Let’s see the technique for optimizing your webpage’s resources.

• Generate Critical CSS

RabbitLoader successfully generates a critical CSS file for your above-the-fold content and improves the initial server response time. Learn more. 

• Remove Unused CSS

If you frequently audit your website’s page speed, you are quite familiar with this warning: Remove unused CSS. Unused CSS refers to styles or rules that are not utilized on the website but are present in the CSS file and increase its size.

By removing these unused CSS styles or rules, you can reduce the CSS file size and improve the core web vitals performance especially in LCP, and FCP.

How To Optimize Javascript Files?

Many developers use script languages, mostly JavaScript, to make their websites interactive. These JavaScript files are often known as render-blocking resources because they block the main thread and increase the Total Blocking Time.

• Defer JavaScript File

The only way to mitigate this issue is by deferring the JavaScript files that are not required for the initial loading, such as alert messages. When you use RabbiLoader to optimize the other resource loading, it will defer your JavaScript file as well.

Conclusion

Optimizing your resource loading can dramatically increase your user experience and conversion rate. If your conversion rate is low, install RabbitLoader and see how RabbitLoader can speed up your website and help[ you achieve a desirable conversion rate.