Site speed is one of the most important factors for SEO, and slow sites turn away visitors. This causes them to hit the back button and never return.
Large JavaScript files, heavy CSS, and oversized images add to a page’s loading time. Any kilobytes or bytes you can shave off these files will increase the page’s performance.
1. Increased Conversions
For ecommerce sites, slow website speed can mean lost sales. A one-second delay in loading time is enough to cause customers to leave a page and visit a competitor’s site. In fact, a study found that the conversion rate drops by 4.42% for every second of delay. This makes it incredibly important to keep your site’s load times as fast as possible.
When your website’s content and images take longer to load than they should, it can create a bad user experience. Users are impatient and want to get the information they need quickly. This is why it’s so important to optimize all the elements of your site, including your images, for faster load times.
One of the best ways to improve your site’s load times is by compressing your images. By reducing the size of your images, you can dramatically decrease your website’s loading time. You can also use image resizing tools to help make your images smaller without losing quality.
Another reason why site speed matters is because it directly impacts your SEO. Google prioritizes a good user experience and knows that fast websites are more likely to satisfy users. Therefore, they reward sites with fast loading times by ranking them higher in search results.
In addition, Google has confirmed that site speed is a direct ranking factor for both desktop and mobile sites. A fast website will rank higher than a slow one in all search engines. This is because Google wants to provide the best experience for users, so if a site loads slowly, it’s unlikely that a user will be satisfied and will likely leave the search results page to find a better site.
2. Better User Experience
Having a fast website is important to users, as they appreciate sites that load quickly and easily. Slower websites make them frustrated, and it is likely they will leave your site and go to a competitor’s site instead. In fact, according to Google’s own research, over half of users leave a page that takes more than three seconds to load.
This is because people are impatient, and they don’t want to wait for pages to load. They might initially think that the problem is with their own network, but as soon as they realize that your page is slow, they will exit the site and try to find a better one.
The good news is that you can improve user experience by optimizing your site speed. Google has made it clear that page speed is a ranking factor, and there are tools to help you measure and test your site. One of the best is Google Lighthouse, which is an open-source tool that audits core performance and accessibility issues. Another great tool is seoClarity, which also uses Lighthouse to provide an accurate and complete speed analysis of your site.
There are many things that can affect your site’s performance, including large JavaScript files, video content, high-definition images, and more. Those additional resources add ‘weight’ to your page, which increases the amount of time it takes for the page to load for a user. A lot of these additional resources can also cause issues with caching, server responses, DNS lookups, parallelized downloads, encoded headers, and more.
As you can see, there are many factors that influence site speed, and it is difficult to understand and measure. However, you can optimize your site speed and improve the user experience by taking steps to reduce TTFB and other performance metrics.
3. Higher Search Engine Rankings
Just like a bad waiter can make a restaurant’s Yelp reviews plummet, so too can a slow-loading website lead to poor SEO rankings and lower site traffic. Search engines, especially Google, place a lot of importance on website speed and the user experience when determining which websites to rank for keywords and in which position on search engine results pages (SERP).
This is why it’s important to keep an eye on your site speed and performance on a regular basis. If your website is taking too long to load, it can negatively impact your website’s SEO and lead to a higher bounce rate. Fortunately, there are many ways to improve your website’s loading speed and boost your SEO.
The first step in improving your website’s loading speed is to check your page speed using a free tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Once you know your page speed, the next step is to determine what’s causing it to be slow. This can be anything from oversized images to extra plug-ins.
Once you’ve identified what’s causing your website to be slow, it’s time to start making improvements. Some of the best ways to improve your site’s speed are by compressing images and removing unnecessary plugins. These simple fixes can have a huge impact on your website’s speed and your SEO ranking.
In 2018, Google made site speed a direct ranking factor for mobile searches and is set to do the same for desktop searches in 2021. Google is keen to ensure that all users have a positive experience while visiting their search engine results pages, so they reward sites with fast loading times and punish those with slow pages.
4. Increased Traffic
Site speed is a key factor in website traffic, and higher traffic results in better SEO. Slow load times can cause visitors to leave your website within a few seconds, and they won’t be back. Faster websites also have a lower bounce rate, meaning that more people visit your website on a regular basis. This will result in more organic search engine traffic, which can lead to increased sales and overall business success.
Google is constantly updating its algorithms, so it’s important to stay up to date on the latest trends. An agency that specializes in SEO in Sydney would be able to keep you up to date on all the latest SEO trends. For example, in 2018, Google announced that page speed would be a ranking factor for mobile searches. This shows that Google values user experience and wants its users to have the best possible experiences on its websites.
According to research by Skilled, 79% of customers who have a dissatisfactory shopping experience are less likely to repeat purchase from that same online store. This is why it’s so important to make sure your website has the highest possible speed, and that it loads quickly for everyone.
If you have a lot of large images on your website, for example, they will take a long time to load for visitors. You can check your website’s loading speeds using a free speed test tool, such as the one offered by Google. Alternatively, you can use a tool like seoClarity to identify issues that affect your website’s speed. It will show you a list of items, with the most critical ones at the top.
Aside from images, there are many other things that can affect a site’s speed, including JavaScript files, stylesheets, and HTML. These can be optimized to reduce their size, so they load faster. You can also implement a content delivery network (CDN) to accelerate your website’s load time.
5. Higher Conversion Rates
For ecommerce sites, speed is critical because one second of delay in load time can result in an 4.42% decrease in conversions. This is because customers lose interest if they have to wait around for a site to load. This is especially true for mobile users who have a lower connection speeds. Slow page loads are frustrating and can cause a customer to leave the site and look for alternatives.
The reason why website speed matters for SEO is that it is a ranking factor in Google search engine results pages (SERPs). In 2018, Google ramped up the importance of site speed with their Speed Update, making it one of the factors in their algorithm. This shows that Google places a high value on fast-loading websites and will rank them higher than slower sites.
Another reason why site speed is important is that it provides a better user experience. A visitor will be more likely to stick around on a website that loads quickly and will return to the same website in the future. In addition, a fast website will make the user feel more connected to a brand and will trust that company to provide them with quality service.
As a result, it is essential to optimize your website for speed in order to boost your visibility online and improve the customer experience. By implementing simple web optimization techniques, you can ensure that your website is loading at its best, allowing you to attract more visitors, retain them for longer, and secure more sales. So don’t delay – start optimizing your website now! It’s worth it.
