You are using every SEO strategy right but the website is facing a higher bounce rate? Ever wonder why Google is not favoring your website? Try opening your website from time to time with different devices and check it’s loading time. Observe the page speed. Clear the cache memory while doing that. Here’s why!
Often, when your device’s cache memory has stored the web data, it will help opening the site without trouble. But not all your visitors are going to have that. Would they?
Google declared in 2010 that page speed is a ranking factor since. In 2018, Google updated its algorithm and ramped up the importance of page speed. Google even provides a set of tools for developers and webmasters. Clearly, your page speed is one of the crucial factors for ranking on the search engine.
What is Page Speed?
Page Speed is the amount of time that it takes for a website to load or open. However, there are multiple factors working to open a web page. The site’s server, page file size, and image compression— everything matters. Also, there are different ways of measuring page speed including time taken for a fully loaded page, time to first byte speed and first meaningful paint/ contextual paint time.
Why Is Page Speed Important for SEO?
Over time, Google has made it very clear that Page speed directly affects ranking. Another way of seeing it is at Google, user experience is paramount. Imagine you click on a link and it takes forever to open. How long would it take for you to switch to another link? It takes only 0.05 seconds approximately for a visitor to judge your website, according to statistics. 3 seconds and your visitors will bounce out from your website. Yes, your website is competing against time to grab the potential customer. That’s why the website page speed is so important for SEO. If people can’t see you content at their little time span of patience, what good is it?
What to Do to Optimize the Page Speed?
- Enable compression: use tools to compress the files you upload on the website including the CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files that are larger than 150 bytes. Compress the image files using photoshop or other professional tools.
- Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML: Optimize your codes by removing spaces, commas, and other unnecessary characters. Remove code comments, formatting, and unused codes as well.
- Reduce redirects
- Remove render-blocking JavaScript
- Leverage browser caching
- Improve server response time
To rank on Google’s first page, it takes more effort than SEO content. Contact Digital Sprout to increase the ranking of your website on google. Outrank your competition and turn your website into a full-time Business with our SEO and Website Design solutions in Annapolis, MD, and neighborhood areas. Book a free consultation today.