In this article, we covered how page speed is evaluated, how it impacts users and search engine rankings & what you can do to increase it.
What is page speed?
The faster a page loads, the better, is the usual rule of thumb. Every additional second it takes for your website to load results in a 7% loss in conversions, say conversion optimization experts at Crazy Egg.
The user experience, on the other hand, is the primary focus; site performance is merely a part of it. Google greatly emphasizes the user experience overall by fostering a competitive climate that encourages website owners to make their sites more user-friendly.
In the fast-paced, hyper-optimized world of the modern web, websites that need a solid foundation and use old technology become invisible.
Page speed vs. site speed
Further simplifying these ideas, site speed will consider all pages and their particular components, such as graphics, sliders, or videos on every page of your website. The time it takes for each page to load is called page speed. The sites you want to rank better in search engines should typically be the fastest. Therefore each landing page should be optimized as much as possible.
The importance of page speed for SEO
Back in 2010, Google made its first official announcement on the consideration of site performance when evaluating pages. According to Google, who made this announcement eight years later, page speed will also be a consideration in mobile searches.
Customer satisfaction and page speed are directly related. And when ranking your website, Google considers several essential variables, including user experience.
As mentioned above, visitors start to leave if the page loads slowly.
Although page speed significantly impacts user experience (UX), it also affects how well various search engines crawl and index your content.
Other factors that determine your place in the google ranking:
When optimizing your page for search engines, there are numerous additional factors besides page speed.
Quality and relevancy of your content are two more factors that Google values highly. For instance, Google will typically be aware if you plan to use a lot of unrelated headlines to improve your positioning.
When determining how to rank your pages, Google will also take into account many additional factors in addition to the quality and relevancy of the content:
- Do you have a mobile-friendly website?
- Your website’s responsiveness?
- What level of user experience is there?
- How many internal and external links are there on the website? How is it optimized?
How to measure your page speed?
Core Web Vitals is the most frequently used method to gauge page speed.
The Core Web Vitals is a set of fundamental requirements for all web pages. There are three of them:
- LCP stands for Largest Contentful Paint. The LCP only measures how long it takes for the most significant component of your page to load.
- FID stands for First Input Delay. It gauges how quickly your page reacts to the first engagement, such as clicking a link or downloading a lead magnet.
- Cumulative Layout Shift abbreviated CLS. The CLS informs you of the visual stability of your page when loading.
What affects the performance of your pages, and what can be done to improve it
You may imagine it as a living organism where, as soon as one organ begins to fail, the others will quickly follow. Similarly, if your website has one weak connection, it will continue to slow you down no matter how hard you work to strengthen the others.
The impact of your hosting service on your rankings
Switching hosting providers is a simple process, and once you realize that your current provider is giving you trouble, you should consider doing so. Changing your hosting strategy is always possible, but you must ensure you can do so before you enhance other aspects.
The location of your server is a crucial factor. A distributed network of physical servers is called a CDN or content delivery network to shorten the distance between a user’s computer and a server. Points of Presence (PoPs) are the term used to describe these distributed servers, which are spread worldwide. Caching servers, also known as cache servers, are part of PoPs.
They will likely have to wait longer for pages to load if, for instance, your server does not offer a physical service in the addressee’s location.
You must be informed of the location of your hosting provider’s servers and choose to follow that knowledge if you want to prevent this.
Choosing the right tech
More and more frameworks and tech stacks are becoming available as web development develops. Each can be utilized alone or combined to perform better in a given situation.
The Jamstack technique, which enables the creation of rapid static websites, has recently become the most popular option. We can maximize efficiency for every project thanks to Jamstack, a unique methodology that is highly configurable. Below is an illustration of what can be done with the correct tools.
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Modern technology offers much versatility in designing and editing interactive themes. Yet, a lot of the time, these themes have a ton of extraneous components that can eventually make your website clumsy.
Thus, if you want to speed up your website, ensure it is organized. You should consider working with a web development business that can make a technical discovery for you if you need experienced developers on staff that can handle this.
Images and videos
You will eventually experience significant performance problems if your material isn’t optimized for the best performance initially. You may need to change your material to fix them.
It will be quite beneficial to use image compression. Even when your photographs are 80% lighter, they can display in just as excellent quality.
Consider using internet tools like compressor.io to compress photos.
The speed of your website can also suffer from video files. An excellent hack you can use to improve it is to upload a video clip disguised as an image. You link the image and the video after that. Voila. Your video is now equal in weight to an embodiment.
While investing in your website, how concerned should you be?
Other elements like your hosting plan, the caliber of your server, and the relevance of your content all impact how well you perform in search results. The quality of your website is, however, first and foremost, determined by speed.
If your page takes less time to load, many visitors will abandon it. Ultimately, whether you run an eCommerce store or any other online business, if you want to compete with other companies, you will have to put some effort into keeping your website current.
Conclusion
Make a variety of adjustments to speed up your website. If your website is your primary source of income, you should work with experts who can help you make it as quick and user-friendly as possible.
