Does Website Speed Affect Your SEO?
Speed in general, is essential for a website. This was made very clear when Google made website page speed a ranking factor for webpages on their Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). With the rise of mobile devices, Google now also recommends optimizing speeds on mobile as well.
Google defines page speed as the duration a visitor on a web page needs to wait before it loads completely. Webpages that load faster improve the user experience and make it easier for bots to crawl pages. As a result, Google “rewards” pages that enhance the user experience through fast load times with a higher ranking, thus directly impacting your SEO efforts.
Here is a closer look at other ways website speed affects SEO.
Decrease Bounce Rate
One thing to note when targeting high converting keywords is that you are targeting customers on their discovery journey, looking for more information or to make their purchase. They often will not wait for your page to load. It has been shown that around 40% of users leave the site if the page takes more than 3 seconds to load. Many web users will abandon the page entirely and seek other buying options as the wait time continues to increase past this point.
Easier to Crawl
Search engines like Google work by indexing webpages. A fast loading page allows Google bots to crawl the page faster and index it more quickly, thereby decreasing the time it takes to return results. As a result, search engines give preference to pages that have a faster loading time.
Mobile Devices Versus Desktop Website Speed
Website speed is an important factor across all devices that can browse the internet. With the increased use of mobile phones and tablet devices to search for answers and access content, optimizing mobile speeds is key, along with ensuring your site is mobile-friendly.
Website Speed Test Tools
The first step when optimizing your website speed is determining how fast your website is currently. Below are some of the tools you can use to find out your site speed and factors that might impact it.
PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights (PSI) analyzes a web page’s content of on both desktop and mobile devices and reports on its performance with additional recommendations on improving the page. The tool uses lab and field data about a page. Lab data helps in debugging performance issues while field data capture the real-world experience and bottlenecks that user’s experience. The performance is then classified into “good”, “needs improvement” and “poor”.
Chrome User Experience Report
The Chrome User Experience Report gives user experience metrics on how Chrome users experience popular web destinations. The report is obtained from real-world users who have enabled usage statistics, are syncing their browsing history and do not have a Sync passphrase set up.
GTmetrix
GTmetrix offers a suite of options and features that make it clear and easy to optimize your website. It allows you to see how your site performs across different devices and countries in a simple yet comprehensive report and helps you discover opportunities for optimization.
What Is A Good Page Speed?
The best page speed is ‘as fast as possible’ — there is no standard ideal speed. That said, top-ranking pages on Google tend to have a load speed of 5 seconds or less. As a rule of thumb, the faster you can get your page to load, the better. This can also offer a competitive advantage over other sites with slower speeds.
How to Improve Website Speed
There are many ways you can increase your website speed. In order to ensure you are getting the most of these tools and methods, it is best to consult with a technical SEO expert or a web developer.
Reduce the Number of Redirects
Get rid of additional and unnecessary redirects. Your pages slow down when they must continuously redirect.
Clean Up Code
Remove any extra code that does not serve a purpose on the site anymore. These can include obsolete features, tracking scripts and page elements that you no longer use.
Reduce Image Size
Consider resizing and compressing images that are bigger than they need to be. Crop and save all your images to the exact size needed for the page plus compress image sizes based on web best practices.
Evaluate Your Website Hosting Server
Your hosting server plays a major role in your site speed and performance. Ensure that your hosting package resources are optimized and sufficient for the platform your site it built on.
Optimize Your Site Speed for the Best SEO Results
To ensure you are getting the most from your SEO efforts, it is essential that you continuously monitor your site speed and work to optimize and improve it. Having a quick website will not only help you rank better on SERPs, but it will also ensure that customers making a purchase will remain on your site.
