Website Speed | SEO Benefits of a Fast Website
Reading time: 8.5 mins
Introduction
Now more than ever, website speed is a crucial component of good SEO. With the endless number of websites and blogs on the internet, users have come to expect quick loading times across all devices – whether they’re on desktop or mobile.
The benefits of a fast website are manifold and SEO-related. According to Google, “pages that load quickly provide a better experience for users and we encourage webmasters to focus on rendering mobile pages as quickly as possible.”
There are many factors that contribute to page speed, such as image size, coding structure, use of plug-ins, etc., but optimizing all of those for performance is critical for delivering a quality user experience.
Not only will it make your customers happy (resulting in lower bounce rates and longer dwell times), you’ll also experiance an increase in online sales or enquiries.
Research shows that 47% of people expect a web page to load in 2 seconds while 54% of mobile users expect a page to load under 2 seconds.
Table of Contents
Measure Website Speed
How to Measure Website Speed
Understanding your website’s load times is critical to obtaining better organic search results as well as increased sales and usership. Luckily there are several great online tools that will help you learn about your websites speed.
We chose our favorite web speed testing applications that we use on a daily basis.
Google PageSpeed
Google PageSpeed Insights
Website owners interested in understanding and improving their website performance can use the free online tool Google PageSpeed Insights.
This tool analyzes a website and provides feedback on ways to improve the page speed, including identifying specific issues that need attention.
In addition, it offers optimization tips for resolving these issues. The Google PageSpeed Insights tool is available as a browser extension and as a mobile app.
GTMetrix
GTMetrix
GTMetrix is perfect for anyone starting out. Log in to save your previous 20 tests and compare data between different browsers, locations, and connections. You can also download waterfall charts to help you find any slowdown on your website.
WebPageTest
WebPageTest
WebPageTest is a great site speed testing tool that offers more advanced data and insights than many other free tools. You can test your website speed across various browsers, devices, and locations, and the tool will generate reports and insights to identify issues and improve site speed.
Understanding your websites load-times are critical when making improvements. The time you use to increase the speed of your website will help improve both your SEO and online sales.
A Good Website Speed?
What is a Good Website Speed?
A website’s speed is one of the most important aspects of its design. In fact, it has been proven that a website’s speed influences not only the user’s experience on the site, but also the site’s search engine ranking.
A fast website is essential for a positive user experience. Visitors do not want to wait long for a page to load before they can start reading or browsing. In fact, 47% of users expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.
If a page takes longer than that to load, 57% of users will leave that page.
It’s important to note that there are still many websites who fail Google’s PageSpeed tests but still rank well in organic searches.
So do NOT panic, if your score is not the best. Stay optimistic and take your time to improve on your websites load-times.
Improve Website Speed
How to Improve your Website Speed
Website speed is a critical element for website owners as it can directly impact revenue, customer satisfaction and even search engine rankings. It is no secret that faster websites create happy users, yet many site owners do not know how to measure or improve their website loading time.
We suggest five easy methods to quickly improve website speed: optimizing images, minifying code, leveraging browser caching, minimizing plugins & extra code and using a content delivery network (CDN).
Minifying Code
Minifying Code
As website speed becomes a more important factor in the ranking of websites, the use of minifying code has become more popular. What is minifying code?
Minifying code is the process of removing unnecessary characters from code without changing its functionality. This results in a smaller file size, which leads to faster page loading times.
Optimize Web Images
Optimizing Website Images
Image optimization can help to significantly improve your website speed by reducing the size of the images that will load when someone wants to your your webpage. Many of the online website speed testers will make suggestions on which images to optimize.
In addition to image optimization we recommend that you look into a new website image formant called WebP.
According to Google, “WebP lossless images are 26% smaller in size compared to PNGs. WebP lossy images are 25-34% smaller than comparable JPEG images at equivalent SSIM quality index.“
Leveraging Browser Caching
Leveraging Browser Caching
Most website owners want their site to load as quickly as possible. One way to improve website performance is to leverage browser caching.
Browser caching stores static files, such as images and style sheets, on the user’s computer browser.
When the user returns to the website, the cached files can be loaded more quickly than if they had to be downloaded again from the server.
Reduce the Amount of Code
Reduce the Amount of Code
When it comes to website performance, there are many factors at play. One of the most important is the amount of code on a page.
The more code, the longer it takes for a page to load. This can be a major issue for businesses that rely on their website to generate sales or leads.
Fortunately, there are ways to reduce the amount of code without sacrificing functionality or design.
Plugins will also bloat the size of your website, so it’s always a good idea to keep plugins to a minimum.
Benefits of a CDN
Benefits of a CDN
A website’s performance is a critical factor for both users and businesses. Slow page loading times not only frustrate customers, but also have a negative impact on a website’s search engine ranking.
In order to ensure that pages load quickly for users around the world, many businesses are turning to content delivery networks (CDNs). CDNs act as a global network of servers that cache and deliver websites’ static files (images, videos, CSS, etc.) from local data centers closest to the user.
We recommend that you take a look at Cloudflare’s free CDN services to experiment with the benefits of using a CDN.
Fast Websites Improve SEO
Why a Fast Website Improves SEO
When it comes to SEO, website speed is one of the most important factors for a number of reasons.
Primarily, when it comes to user experience, a fast website provides an optimal experience that keeps users around longer and reduces the bounce rate.
A high bounce rate is often seen as a negative ranking signal by Google, affecting the visibility and ranking of a website.
Additionally, page load time is also a key factor in terms of user experience for mobile devices. With over half of all searches now taking place on mobile devices a fast website is a must have.
Need a fast website? Hire one of our professional web designers to create a fast and effective website for your business website.
Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts on Website Speed
Online Ventures Asia feels that website speed will always be a critical factor in ranking a website in organic search. A fast website also helps to reduce your advertising costs (quality score) when using Google AdWords.
We hope that our article was helpful in your understanding of the benefits of a fast website. Please feel free to contact us, we would love to hear from you.
Philip J. Polaski
Online Ventures Asia
Philip Polaski is a Digital Marketer and Web Designer with over 15 years of experience in helping small and medium-sized businesses reach their potential through digital marketing.