Speeding up website for better rankings

The problem is it is setup, but I am still running slowly and I have gone from 1000-1200 page views a day to 300-400. I want to correct this.

 

Is there some kind of script I can add to the head / body / footer of my site to load the entire contents of the page, but then load the adsense ads up last?

 

The main reason you are running so slow is all of the bloated code that you have.

You are loading 23, yes 23, javascript files. That is a lot of code you are loading, and much of the code is DUPLICATED in every file. Further, dimes to dollars, I bet that 90% of the code is NOT EVEN USED. Bottom line is there is NO reason to have over 2 javascript files with UNIQUE code in each one.

Further, you are loading 5 CSS files and should never need more than one.

Every file you load requires additional handshaking time as well as loading time. Why load code that is never used? Why load the same code over and over again?

I also noted that you are having problems with your menu on mobile because of javascript issues with your menu. What about the mobile users (and desktop for that matter) that TURN JAVASCRIPT OFF for security reasons or simply because of cost? If your site will not work with javascript off, your bounce rate will be high simply because your site is NOT USABLE.

Finally, your front page (and probably all pages) are full of errors >>> https://validator.w3.org/nu/?doc=http://highperformancejunkies.com/. Errors cause all kinds of problems particularly with the indexing bots. When they hit errors, those bots will often QUIT indexing a page. If you are not getting indexed, you will not be found when people search using tags relevant to your topic. And if you can't be found, your visitation numbers will suffer.

I also notice that your page contains NO TITLE. One thing that means is people will not bookmark your site. Another thing it means that if someone does find the page via search, they may ignore it because they have no clue whether your site is spam or a real site that the visitor is looking for. It also means that the indexing bots may stop indexing your page since there is no title to display on the search results pages.

 

Thanks for jumping in - I don't know that I have too much control over the code - given this is a wordpress site I am probably handcuffed by a lot of what the theme has for coding.

I am not sure if the site works with Javascript off? It doesn't work when converted to AMP through plugins on mobile - desktop however does work even under the amp settings. I am not sure if there is a way to test how the site works for those who disable javascript? (I don't even know how to disable javascript on my computer)

For the errors - thank you for the link - it looks like some errors are pointing towards my google tag manager and I am not quite sure what many of the other errors mean.

I think I may have fixed the no page title (that may have disappeared when I swapped themes)

I also don't have any custom CSS any longer - so I am not sure why those errors are showing?

Any recommendations on how to fix these issues given it is a wordpress theme?

 

I have gone and rejigged some stuff - deleted some plugins and tried to consolidate some things. At the time of this post I have 6 errors and they all seem to have to do with images on the right hand sidebar that I have as advertisements - can anyone explain why those are coming up as errors and how it is impacting me?

 

You're wasting your time and money by assuming it's a loading speed issue. You have much bigger issues:
If your date stamps are correct-you only have 1 new article this year. Only 1 article in 2018. There's no way your going to maintain traffic.
You will eventually fall in the rankings over time from new content from competitors.

"Freshness" is a ranking signal, so keep adding content. Also go through every article and update with 100-200 words for update/freshness, Google will notice this! Add a plugin that removes/hides the date stamp on old posts. Search-results with old dates, that are several years old, hurts click-through rates, even if it's not a time sensitive topic. People would rather click/read a 3-6 month old article over a 3 year old one.

As far as loading speed, just eliminate those 12 render-blocking resources through Cpanel. Then optimize images (you're using huge images) and call it a day. No need to worry about getting a perfect score or even in the "green" with G page speed.
Future articles be mindful of images/videos/ads/even social buttons on a page, as these all increase loading speed.

Switching to https wouldn't hurt either.

 

The thing is - most of my other content is looked at here and there, the major article I had was made in 2012 and was about repairing scratches /key marks on your vehicle. It was pulling alone about 900-1000 views per day and has now literally in the course of less than 2 months dropped to 80-100 views per day. I completely agree that my stuff isn't "fresh" but to drop practically over night in page views tells me something else is up.

 

You haven't updated your site very much, so it's not like all the sudden loading speed tanked and warrants a fall in rankings.
Most likely several people over the past 6 months to a year posted similar content (internet is ever changing). Over the course of months they rose in rank and your page fell several spots. You must always be actively doing things to keep a great ranking once you get it. Either updates to the article or building backlinks every now and then.

Google ranks pages not sites, so other pages can still look stable in traffic, as nobody has taken your spot, yet.
A drop in page views/traffic over 2 months is far from overnight. Get a penalty and you'll see what overnight looks like lol.
You can send me the details of this article in Messenger if you want and I'll take a look at it/rankings.

 

Thanks - I just sent you a message. I hear what you are saying that it isn't overnight, but I expected to see any issue in rankings to drop over the course of about a year. I mean it took forever to rank high, just seems like it fell out of the blue for not being freshened up.

You do make very valid points though that it is quite possible many others have posted about this topic and have evidently taken my "spot".

 

Also realize that, what worked several years ago to rank isn't the case today.

Maybe how ever many words your article is, was perfect back then. Lets say it was 1500 words. Longer content tends to rank better now.

On-page SEO factors- you're missing several.

Google updates with changes to the weight of importance of ranking factors change.

So someone could write a longer more in-depth article with better on-page SEO and take over. Not to mention links and authority that can play a role.

If you make those changes I sent you, you'll be in great shape.

 

Much appreciated. I will look at address these and check back in

 

The best is to have all the photos in .jpeg format and you can search for a plugin named "Media Webp" and install it.
Also, because you have a blog, I recommend installing also a plugin named "AMP" to optimize mobile pages