How Does Website Speed affect my SEO and Where I Rank in Google
The speed of a website has significant influence over its search engine placement. A few years ago, Google modified its SEO algorithms to put high priority on website speed above less important factors. Subsequently, a faster site speed also means visitors less likely to leave for a competitor’s site.
Do you know how quickly your website responds to a click – if it takes longer than two or three seconds to load on desktop or mobile platforms, that’s an issue. We know no one wants a low quality website. If your site is taking that long to load though, it unfortunately means Google will see it as ‘low quality’. And, when it’s deemed as such, it’ll fall deeper into Google’s web pages for relevant search queries. Anything you do with your search engine optimization (SEO) inches closer to a complete waste of time.
Why does Google value speed so much – the answer’s a simple one. They seek to provide users with the best, most relevant websites to queries. When a site responds slowly, visitors are likely to go elsewhere and that’s not a positive experience. If you don’t know how to measure site speed, there are several tools that can be used. Page Speed is an open-source Firefox add-on, YSlow is a free tool from Yahoo, and WebPagetest; these are all applications that analyze pages’ load performing. They can provide insight into how your website measures up.
If you are working with a web design or digital marketing company, discuss with them your site speed. This may be one of several things you can do to improve the user experience and your search engine ranking. Sometimes, simple changes like this can contribute a lot to SEO campaigns. If you’re not generating big returns on your campaign, there may be optimization issues similar to site speed or mobile responsiveness that need to be addressed. In this day and age, there’s a lot that can slow down site speed including coding errors, using too many images, a host server that’s unable to handle the amount of information you want transferred, and more. Examine where improvements can be made. You might be surprised by the results of these changes.
Sometimes, you may see website speed lower on certain pages than others. Thereby, it’s important to analyze the whole site page by page and not just a single page. Measure across both desktop and mobile, ensuring there is no speed difference in translation. Ensure you’re partnered with an experienced web and digital marketing company who know all the tricks, strategies, and techniques to maximize one’s speed. They’ll be able to help in elevating your marketing, SEO, and site performance.
Speed has an impact, whether one admits it or not. Visitors are impatient. They want an immediate response to their clicks and when they don’t get it, they’re not going to wait around for three seconds, four seconds, five seconds, and beyond. It’s up to you to meet their standard for site load speed.
For more information on how to improve site speed and other SEO tips, tricks, and strategies, visit Unlimited Exposure to speak with a representative. Knowledgeable about Google algorithms, optimization strategies, and SEO, we can help elevate your site to where it deserves to be.
