Update: The period for this contest has now ended and we are not accepting any more free WPO requests. If you are interested in getting Web Performance Optimization work done on your Renaissance website, please contact your account manager. You can likely still get it done for free by leveraging your early renewal credits.
Here at Real Estate Webmasters when it comes to the front end/website we focus on 4 main things
- Does it look amazing (and represent our customer’s brand well)
- Is it SEO friendly (and does it convert your traffic into leads)
- Is it accessible (ADA compliant)
- Is it FAST! (Google Page Speed)
Now if you’ve read anything I’ve written on any of these topics, you’ll know that they are not mutually exclusive.
Accessibility helps with performance (and looks great if done well), Looking great increases time on site, which can help with SEO, making it fast improves bounce rate which helps to rank, and so on.
Today, I want to focus on Page Speed. And I have a fun idea!
If you’re not up on page speed and why it matters , you should read this article.
One thing about page speed is that the goal posts are always changing.
Technology evolves (quickly) and Google and others are constantly tweaking their measuring tools and scoring algorithms. As such, your score can decrease even if you had a great score before and have not made any changes.
It’s an ongoing process.
Now because of that (and because we have several awesome new team members on our teams here at REW) I proposed that we have our teams brush up on page speed.
How? Why not make it fun, and also benefit some of our clients?
So here’s what we’re going to do:
All designers and programmers must take on one WPO project. Max 5 hours.
We’re going to have our leaders and some of our other WPO experts like @hatzopoulos and @MattPinneo assist them in their projects to make sure it’s done right and they learn all the latest techniques to improve page speed (especially on mobile)
We’re also going to have them document any significant changes and share them here on the forums, so that you can learn what they did and how they did it.
Now here’s where it gets fun! We’re going to let clients volunteer their sites for a completely free WPO project.
Here’s how it works: (and how to qualify)
#1: You have to be on Renaissance (but it’s totally cool if you’re customized)
#2: You must have a page speed of less than 70 on mobile (if you’re higher than that, you’re already doing well, and probably don’t need a lot of help, but definitely follow along here if you want tips.
#3: You must post here on the forums to apply (no PM’s on Facebook, or emails please) we’re trying to encourage forum participation and learning.
That’s it! Fun right?
The team will be working on your “homepage only” and up to a maximum of 5 hours. We should be able to make a good dent in improving your score with that.
And for our team members? The pair that achieves the “best score” will win a $100 gift card each (why not make it fun and interesting, right?)
And even though they can’t win the prize (it’s for their team members) I’m going to challenge the design and programming leads @matthutchings and @moriahkemila to do the first project!
If you want your site considered, it will be on a first come first served basis (no other criteria other than that and the items above) - just post it here, we’ll check your scores and away we go!
Please note: While customers should be able to do the vast majority of what we do for WPO here, some things may require using your agency team (retainer) to get done. The more advanced, programmatic stuff that is.
