Many web owners are questioning if page speed affects SEO and Google rankings. With the advancement of the Internet, Google is updated and made it important for every website to have a good page speed to rank up.

What is Page Speed?

Page speed is differently called a page loading period and it is the time it takes to display uploaded content from a device. Page speed is also called time to the first byte. This tells you how long it takes the browser to use to get the very first bite of all the content from a server. 

Although it is more on the technical side, page speed is a really big factor when it comes to a search engine ranking your page.

Continue reading to find more about it. 

 

How to check Page Speed of your website?

The answer is simple: with Google PageSpeed Insight. You can keep an eye on your page speed using Google’s page speed insights.

Page speed insight is a tool that works online which is provided by Google to manage how good a website is performing.

It mostly shows what the technical issues are. For this tool to view your website performance, you just need to enter the URL of your website and in a short period, it will give you the page of results. At the very top of the page, it will indicate whether you have a high score or not based on many factors.

Just to be clear that this score isn’t anything just the amount of seconds a page takes to open. It is measured in seconds and presented in the form of a score.

If you continue to read the results page you will see more detailed information on what factors are affecting your speed. This page speed tool is available for desktop and mobile also. 

In many cases page speed is relative

It does not only depend on the performance of the website but in many other factors such as servers performance, the connection type, Internet package, the service provider, the device progressing power, the webpage you are on, the browser, how many apps are running, what the user is doing in that particular moment, and so on.

We might as well work on the only thing we can control which is our server and our website.  

How does page speed affect overall SEO?

The simplest answer when we can give is a big yes. Page speed is a big factor when it comes to SEO. This is due to the speed update that Google has done frequently. Speed mainly affects three things which are:

• Bounce rate 
• Reducing dwell time 
• Ranking

After several studies, Google has seen that most users lose their patience if a page they clicked on doesn’t open after three seconds.

This action is not what Google wants, in fact, Google wants its users to get the information they are searching for as soon as possible. That’s why having a bad Loading Speed makes it harder for you to rank. Google just does not like to read pages that have a bad loading speed.

While using Google tools to understand what you’re up to, the loading speed of your website is also not that accurate. There are websites with a poor score that is lower than 50 that rank very well on Google search engines.

On the other hand, some pages have a perfect page speed score that is not ranking at the top. This happens because it matters where and how Google takes the test. Your server could be from Greece and get tested in the US. Because of the connection, you can expect lower speeds.

This is why you don’t need to rely only on page speed insights to test the speed of your page. You just need to keep an eye on it from time to time not only just for ranking but also for the people who will click on your website.

How to improve the page speed score?

You don’t have to have a 100% score when it comes to page speed. Although it is very important to maintain a good page speed. These are the key elements that will make your site a little faster and improve SEO.

Before making any improvements on your loading speed you need to make sure that you perform a backup of your database and your file. If you do not take this step the database and files can create problems and mess up your site. 

1. Compress images

Images can be one of the main problems when it comes to low loading speed. When attaching a photo on the content you’re about to upload you need to remember to crucial things, the first one is the desk size of the image and the second one is the image size in pixels versus the screen size.

2. HTML structure

The structure of HTML and CSS is also a contributing factor to your loading speed. If you don’t want to structure them accordingly but you ride in a messy structure then it will eventually lead to a slower loading time giving Users a bad experience. 

3. Themes and plugins

The more your website is loaded with plug-ins the slower it takes to load. The theme of your website the biggest plug-in of all. Choose it lightly as most seem to have huge plugins that make your site run slow.

4. The response time of the server

You cannot do anything if the server you were using is a bad one and it is that you’re loading speed for worse. The only thing you can do is to choose a good server beforehand. If you are a local business and want to localize your website and also are more focused on local SEO, then it is best to stick to a local server where its data center is located near you.

It is a bad idea if you are a local website and you choose a server that is from the other side of the country. This is because the information will have to travel a long way to get to the audience you are targeting. 

Conclusion

Page speed is an important factor in your overall website success. Here we have explained the basics of how to regulate your loading speed for your website.

Although it can be complicated like a subject, your webpage loading speed will make a big difference when it comes to finding clients, getting views, and getting ranked on Google search engine.