How Page Speed Affects SEO
Society has become increasingly focused on speed. From 2-day shipping to high speed internet – businesses are expected to rise to the occasion by providing high-quality and speedy service to customers. How page speed affects SEO matters.
The speed of your website is no exception.
Page speed even affects your search engine optimization. This includes the ability for your customers to find you on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
In this article on how page speed affects SEO, we’ll answer four important questions:
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What is page speed?
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How does page speed affect search engines like Google?
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How does page speed affect my visitors?
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What can I do if my page speed is too slow?
What is page speed?
Have you ever clicked on a link or tried to visit a website just to see the loading icon constantly going around? This can make you think your internet must be down or the website is broken.
Did you know most users only have about 3 seconds of patience? 40% of visitors will abandon sites that haven’t loaded in 3 seconds. Three seconds doesn’t seem like very long, but when you’re staring at that loading icon it can feel like an eternity.
Page speed is the time it takes for the content on your web page to load.
The clock starts when a visitor types in your web address or clicks a link to visit your site. At that moment their web browser sends a signal to the server which responds by sending the information.
Once that “Search” button is clicked, the server must send over all the files that make up your webpage. Then it has to load them to the computer, tablet, or phone that is looking for the website.
The more words, pictures, videos, forms and other elements that are on your website the more information that must be loaded.
When your website takes too long to load this negatively impacts your visitors, whether it’s a search engine like Google or a customer.
How does page speed affect search engines like Google?
Search engines like Google, Yelp, and Bing are trying to connect users with the information they need across the internet. They are essentially comparing all the websites to see who is providing the best information and the best experience to make a visitor happy.
One of the “ranking factors” that creates a good user experience is speed.
When Google scans or “crawls” the internet looking for websites that meet their search queries, it prefers to crawl websites that load quickly.
Based on this information we have two takeaways:
How does page speed affect my visitors?
Before we get into the specifics, just imagine yourself going to a new website.
What do you do when it takes a long time for a page to load? Do you stick around and wait? Do you pick another site from the infinite list that Google so conveniently provides?
Web designers and Google have looked closely to determine any correlations between page speed and what visitors do on your site. Both determined some important information about how page speed affects your clients:
What can I do if my page speed is too slow?
Do you find yourself staring at your own “loading” icon for too long? Thankfully there are a few actions your web designer can take to speed up your site.
These steps take a certain level of proficiency and do require experts, but they are sure to speed up your site.
Do you need a team of dedicated professionals to help improve your website? We optimize for search engines, increase your conversions, and achieve your goals this year?
At CS Design Studios, we have an experienced team. This comprises some of the best in the field. Digital analysts, marketing strategists, web designers, graphic artists, content creators, and marketing engineers. They work on the bleeding edge of digital marketing trends to deliver tangible results for our clients. Don’t get left behind in this digital decade, team up with the digital marketing company that never fails to impress.
People Also Asked
What is a good page load speed?
A good page load speed is 2 seconds or less. However, most websites online fail to address this.
How can I find out my page load speed?
There are a variety of tools available online that will measure your page load speed. Remember, these are only tools, but they can provide some insights about where improvements can be made to help decrease your page load speed.
