One of the most common issues that small businesses struggle with is website speed. The last thing you want is for a potential customer to find your website, only to click away in frustration when things aren’t loading quickly enough. If you’re not sure why this is happening, don’t worry. There are a few easy methods you can try to address this problem, and MonsterInsights is an obvious choice.
Table of Contents
- Why Website Speed is So Important
- MonsterInsights’ Solution for Slow Sites
- The Technical Details
- Staying Within Processing Limits
- Getting Started with the Performance Addon
Why Website Speed is So Important
But is website speed really that big of a deal? After all, most people are patient enough to wait a few seconds for the site to load… right? Well, you might be surprised at how short attention spans have become in the modern era. In addition, website speed can have an impact on a number of additional factors. These include:
- Conversions
- Loyalty
- Google Search Rankings
That’s right – website speed can even affect your site’s ranking within Google’s algorithm. So not only are your customers getting frustrated with your slow site, but they’re also less likely to even find it in the first place. In addition, sites with good load speeds can expect a 27% increase in mobile conversions (which is a big deal when you consider the fact that 70% of all shoppers now make purchases with their phones). If that wasn’t enough to convince you, statistics show that 80% of customers are less likely to come back to your online store if it’s too slow.
The fact that site speed affects your Google ranking is a relatively new development. Google’s algorithm only started taking this factor into account in 2021, so many small business owners may be completely unaware that this is affecting their SEO performance.
MonsterInsights’ Solution for Slow Sites
MonsterInsights has identified one of the key reasons why sites become so slow. It’s the Google Analytics script – a helpful tool but one that can cause clear obvious for your web presence if you’re not careful. Not only has MonsterInsights identified the root cause of many slow websites, but they’ve created a solution that actually works. This company has updated its site so that it loads at lightning-fast speed, optimizing Core Web Vital scores in a way that few other sites have been able to accomplish. And now, the MonsterInsights team is giving you the tools to accomplish the same thing.
The Performance Addon by Monsterinsights provides you with the ability to host your gtag.js script locally on your own server. So what exactly does this mean? As a small business owner, we know that you might need a clear translation of these technical terms. So here it is:
You can use this feature to make your website load times as short as possible. The way this works is pretty simple. You’re basically creating less work for your site, as it has fewer external resources to load when you use MonsterInsight’s Performance Addon. So if you’ve been asking yourself how to make your site run faster, this is a clear and obvious solution.
The best part is that the Performance Addon automatically fetches the latest gtag.js file from Google every 24 hours, so it’s always updated. This means less work for you, and we know that most small business owners don’t have the time to constantly make adjustments to their websites. A “set it and forget it” approach often makes the most sense for these entrepreneurs.
The Technical Details
So why is it beneficial to host your gtag.js script locally? To answer that question, we have to dive into a few technical details. Here’s a basic rundown:
Google Analytics has a two-hour cache time by default. Normally, this may affect load times. However, if you can serve the Google Analytics script locally, you have complete control over the caching of the file. This radically improves load times on your website. But don’t get the wrong idea you won’t have to “control” this process manually. The Performance Addon completes this process automatically, which allows you to achieve higher speeds while still keeping things easy and convenient.
Staying Within Processing Limits
Another factor that can slow down your website is Google Analytics’ processing limit. This is only really a factor if you’re running a site with high traffic, which may not always be the case for a small business. However, even the smallest businesses can see sudden surges in traffic. After all, the goal for many entrepreneurs is to grow their small businesses into something bigger in the future. When that happens, you need to be prepared.
MonsterInsight’s Performance Addon also has you covered in this department. With this tool, you can ake sample rate and site speed sample rate adjustments. In other words, you can choose what percentage of users are being tracked, allowing you to stay within the processing limit at all times.
What are Core Web Vitals Scores?
Okay, so we know that the Performance Addon helps you optimize your core web vitals scores… But what exactly are core web vitals scores? In short, your core web vitals report shows you how your pages perform. Real-world usage data is used to determine things like load times and bounce rates, giving you a better idea of how your site actually feels for the average visitor.
In addition, core web vitals scores give Google a better idea of how your site is doing. If you receive a poor score, then this will likely affect your ranking on the search engine. In other words, it will be harder for potential leads to find your site.
Getting Started with the Performance Addon
To access the Performance Addon, you must have the Plus license plan or higher. You should also install the MonsterInsights plugin and make sure that it’s authenticated with Google Analytics before proceeding.
The next steps are pretty easy:
- Go to “Insights”
- Find “Addons”
- Find “MonsterInsights Performance Addon”
- Click “Install”
Once you click install, the plugin will auto-activate after the installation process is complete. You can also hit the “Activate” button manually just to make sure.
Once it’s installed, simply navigate to “Insights” once again, hit “Settings,” go to “Advanced,” and finally select “Performance.” From there, you can easily adjust your sample rate and site speed sample rate.
That’s all you need to start using the Performance Addon!
This is a great tool that we suggest to small businesses. Get started with Monster Insights and boost your website’s page speed!
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