How To Reduce Page Requests

Optimizing your website for SEO and retaining your web visitors are essential to your business’s success. However, some of the factors that affect these goals can lie within your site’s code, making them harder to detect. This article will discuss what website speed looks like, why it is important, how HTTP can impact your site speed, and finally, inform you of how to reduce page requests. 

Increasing Website Speed

If this article caught your eye, you may be asking, “Why would you want to reduce page requests in the first place?” HTTP page requests have everything to do with your website’s speed. Your website speed is essential to your SEO and the success of your online business. 

Even a speed increase of as little as 0.1 seconds can boost conversions by as much as 8%. The longer a website takes to load, the more likely visitors are to lose interest and leave. When people leave your website prematurely before exploring or making a purchase, it negatively impacts your SEO. Website speed is essential, and a page request can make a big difference in your loading times. 

What Are Page Requests?

In diving into the issue of how to reduce page requests, it is important to first understand what page requests are. So, what is a page request, and how does it affect your website’s speed? 

A page request, or HTTP request, is made when a web browser sends a “request” to a website’s server to gain information about a specific page. This is essentially the way that users are able to access your webpage. 

When a web user enters a URL into their browser or clicks a link, the web browser will send a request to the corresponding web page. It is almost like the browser is asking to view the website itself. The browser establishes what is known as a TCP connection in order to send this request. When the request has been sent and the server has responded, the connection is closed. 

There are a variety of different HTTP requests that can be sent from a browser to a specific server, such as GET requests, which are used to retrieve resources like loading pages, and POST requests, which create new resources like comments. 

Page requests can have a significant impact on your website speed, which in turn can have an impact on your SEO. This relationship will be discussed in full below. 

Understanding HTTP vs. HTTPS

Before we jump into the details of page requests and how to improve your website speed by reducing HTTP requests, it is important to clarify: HTTP requests are not the same as HTTPS requests. Because the two look so similar, it can be easy to confuse them. However, it is important to understand the distinction for the benefit of your website. So, what is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS? 

The primary difference between HTTP and HTTPS is a matter of internet security. HTTPS is secure; HTTP is not. HTTP comes in plaintext, which means that anyone has access and the ability to read it. If you want to secure your channels, you can do so through an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). If you are working with an e-commerce platform, HTTPS can help secure your customers’ payments and any other information. 

The other key difference between HTTP and HTTPS is the TLS that it uses. TLS stands for Transport Layer Security. It is very similar to SSL and is essentially a means of creating more security for your site. HTTPS, once again, is a bit more secure. 

At the end of the day, however, whether you are using HTTP or HTTPS, the way that your website responds to page requests will look similar. Understanding page requests and website speed will be helpful no matter which version your website has. 

Why Would You Want To Reduce Page Requests?

You may be wondering why you even need to make the effort to reduce your page requests. There are a couple of reasons why this is the case: website speed and status codes. 

Site Speed

As we have briefly touched on before, your website’s speed is an important element of your SEO, and more specifically, your audience retention. When your website takes too long to load, your site’s visitors can become impatient and even frustrated, causing them to leave your site prematurely. 

Page requests can be a serious culprit of your long loading times and slow site speed. If you have a lot of files, images, videos, and more on your website, there will be a lot of HTTP requests coming through. The larger your files are, the longer your requests will take. The fewer HTTP requests, the quicker your website will load. 

Status Codes

When a page request is made, it also generates an HTTP status code. These codes essentially report what the outcome of the request was. Some of these codes show success, while others result in redirects or failures. If you are familiar with errors like 404 and 409, you likely know exactly what these status codes mean or at least what they look like when you stumble across them. When the web browser is informed that your website has redirects, missing files, or other types of errors, this can have a negative impact on your website’s SEO and push you further down the search engine results page. 

How to Reduce HTTP Page Requests

Now that we have answered the question, “What are page requests?”, we can move on to discussing how to reduce them and keep your website running smoothly with fast loading speeds. Some of these fixes are quick and easy, such as: 

• Remove unnecessary images: The more images and unneeded files on your website, the longer your load time will be. 
• Reduce file sizes: While maintaining the highest-quality images you can, try to reduce your file sizes to keep your request times quicker. 

Other solutions are more complex but might be able to offer a more permanent fix, such as:

 

• Set your website to load JavaScript files asynchronously: normally, files on a website load one at a time. If they load asynchronously, it will take less time. 

• Combine CSS files: Every CSS file on your website adds to the number of HTTP requests the browser makes. If you combine these files, you can reduce the number of requests and subsequently increase your site’s loading speed. 

Reducing HTTP Requests With Plugins

We now know the answer to “Why would you want to reduce page requests?” But there are a lot of different ways to accomplish this task. As listed above, there are some simple and some more complex solutions to resolve your HTTP request issues. There are also means of reducing these page requests with plugins. 

Using a plugin like WP Rocket can quite simply and easily solve a lot of issues, such as your overall website performance, page size, loading time, and more. All you have to do is install the plugin and connect it to your website, and it can make a lot of your HTTP request issues disappear. 

Test And Measure HTTP Requests For Your Site

Another detail to keep in mind for your website as you figure out how to reduce page requests is the fact that sometimes, these page requests can be virtually undetectable. It can be tricky to find the biggest culprits of your slow site speed or even know exactly how to measure any of the other analytics that go alongside it. This is why you should run tests on your website in order to properly measure your HTTP requests.

If you want to handle your HTTP requests completely on your own and operate your website by yourself, you can use sites like GTmetrix to test your website’s speed, tell you exactly why it’s running slowly, and even offer optimization solutions. 

Website Testing

If you are looking for some assistance with website testing, consider turning to an SEO and website specialization service like SEO Design Chicago. Companies like ours offer website SEO testing, not only for speed, but for other factors like security, compatibility, usability, integration, and more. 

Working with a service like ours at SEO Design Chicago means that you can get a comprehensive analysis or audit of your website, suggestions for solutions, and a real person to talk to and explain the best ways of improving your website. 

How SEO Design Chicago Can Help

Now that we have answered the question, “What are page requests?” and learned about the ways to address the concerns raised by HTTP page requests, remember that our team at SEO Design Chicago is always here to help. Our team of skilled professionals knows exactly what to look for on every website and can help reduce your page requests, increase your site speed, and optimize your website for SEO. Contact our team today to take your website to the next level.

FAQ: How To Reduce Page Requests

1. What is considered a good number of HTTP requests for a website?

A well-optimized website should aim for 50-100 HTTP requests per page, though this can vary based on your site’s complexity and purpose. Simple landing pages might have 20-50 requests, while feature-rich e-commerce pages could have 100+ requests and still perform well if properly optimized. The key is balancing functionality with performance – focus on reducing unnecessary requests rather than hitting a specific number. Use tools like GTmetrix to analyze your current request count and identify optimization opportunities.

2. How can I identify which files are causing the most HTTP requests on my website?

Use browser developer tools (F12 in most browsers) to view the Network tab while loading your page. This shows every HTTP request, file size, and load time. Tools like GTmetrix, Google PageSpeed Insights, or Pingdom also provide detailed breakdowns of all requests. Look for patterns like multiple small CSS/JavaScript files that could be combined, oversized images, or unnecessary plugins. These tools will highlight the biggest culprits affecting your page load speed.

3. Will combining CSS and JavaScript files always improve my website speed?

Combining files generally improves speed by reducing HTTP requests, but it’s not always beneficial. If you combine everything into one massive file, users might download unnecessary code on pages that don’t need it. The best approach is strategic combining – group related files together and use conditional loading for page-specific resources. Modern HTTP/2 protocol can handle multiple small files efficiently, so the benefits of combining are less dramatic than with older HTTP/1.1 but still worthwhile for optimization.

4. What’s the difference between reducing HTTP requests and using a CDN?

Reducing HTTP requests decreases the total number of files your server needs to deliver, while a CDN (Content Delivery Network) speeds up the delivery of those files from geographically closer servers. Both strategies work together – you should reduce unnecessary requests first, then use a CDN to deliver the remaining files faster. A CDN is particularly effective for static assets like images, CSS, and JavaScript files, but it doesn’t eliminate the need to optimize your total request count.

5. Can reducing page requests negatively impact my website’s functionality?

Only if done incorrectly. Removing essential files or combining incompatible scripts can break functionality. Always test changes on a staging site first and make incremental improvements. Some requests are necessary for features like contact forms, analytics, or interactive elements. The goal is eliminating unnecessary or redundant requests, not removing everything. Focus on optimizing images, combining similar files, and removing unused plugins or scripts rather than cutting functional elements.

6. How do plugins affect HTTP requests, and which ones should I avoid?

Each plugin typically adds CSS and JavaScript files, increasing HTTP requests. Social media widgets, slider plugins, and complex form builders are common culprits for adding multiple requests. Avoid plugins that load scripts on every page when only needed on specific pages, plugins with poor coding that load multiple unnecessary files, or redundant plugins that duplicate functionality. Regularly audit your plugins – deactivate unused ones and choose lightweight alternatives when possible.

7. What tools should I use to monitor my website’s HTTP requests over time?

Use Google PageSpeed Insights for regular free monitoring, GTmetrix for detailed analysis and historical tracking, and Google Search Console to monitor Core Web Vitals. Set up automated monitoring with tools like Pingdom or UptimeRobot to alert you to performance changes. For WordPress sites, plugins like Query Monitor can help identify issues during development. Regularly test your site (monthly or after major changes) to catch performance regressions early and maintain optimal loading speeds.