Page Speed and SEO

Google’s search algorithm is constantly changing, and it’s never the same. Experts at our Digital Marketing agency in Mumbai can tell you that the future of search will revolve around speed. Google is aware of this, and they’re already taking steps to ensure that users are getting the fastest results possible. This article will discuss what you need to know about web page speed and how to optimize your site to work with these search engines.   Table of Contents What is Page Speed? Impact of Page Speed on SEO How to Speed up your website?   Key Takeaways Page speed is a crucial factor for search engines and website visitors, and faster site loads generate more conversions and sales over time. Google considers page speed as one of the most important ranking factors, and slow-loading web pages can lead to a significant reduction in conversions. The ideal loading time for a website is around 2-3 seconds, and if it takes more than 3 seconds, users are likely to abandon the site before it loads. To speed up a website, you can host it with a reputable web host, compress images, use CSS Sprites, convert Flash to HTML5, and use a content delivery network (CDN). The future of search will revolve around speed, and Google is already taking steps to ensure that users get the fastest results possible, so optimizing your site for speed will become more critical in the future. What is Page Speed?   Page speed is an essential factor for the search engines and your visitors. As a leading SEO company in Mumbai, we explain that the faster your site loads, the more visitors you will have. This will help you generate more conversions and sales over time. With that said, let’s start by discussing what page speed is? The definition of page speed varies from one source to another but in general terms, it’s an indicator of how fast a page loads on your website. This is usually measured in seconds or the number of kilobytes transferred per second. In some cases, it can also be determined by the number of requests the browser needs to make before the page fully loads. Speed is described as two different factors: performance and optimization. Performance refers to how quickly your server responds to each request by sending relevant content, while optimization refers to how efficiently and effectively you store, compress and deliver this content to users. When we speak of site speed and SEO, we’re discussing how to optimize our pages, since performance has little to do with this subject—web servers are getting better at serving pages quickly.   Impact of Page Speed on SEO Google is changing the way it ranks websites, and your website speed is a BIG factor in Google’s determination of your site’s rankings. In fact, according to Search Engine Land, “Page speed is one of the most important ranking factors that we have at our disposal.” Tristan White, Director of Developer Relations at Google, said: “The faster your site loads, the more likely you are to convert visitors into customers. A 1-second delay in page load time could lead to a 7% reduction in conversions.” You should also know that: According to Conductor’s October 2015 Page Speed survey of more than 100 e-commerce and B2B websites, the top-performing sites had an average page load time of 2.56 seconds. If a webpage takes longer than 3 seconds to load, 41% of users will abandon it before completion; 58% will leave if it takes longer than 5 seconds. According to Kissmetrics article “Website Speed Still Matters,” there is a correlation between website speed and conversion rates: “In fact, every one-second delay in page response time caused an 11% increase in abandoned shopping carts and a 1% drop in conversion rates.”   How slow is too slow? Every user has different standards, but some general guidelines can help you measure your speed and find ways to optimize it. The truth is that page speed isn’t a sexy topic, but there are many reasons why it should be on your radar — ESSENTIALLY if you operate an e-commerce site or any other site with a high bounce rate, let’s see a few interesting stats: – 44% of users expect web pages to load in 2 seconds or less. (Source: Google) – 79% of users will abandon a mobile page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. (Source: Google) – 57% of online shoppers who have trouble with a mobile web site’s performance will go to another website instead. (Source: Forrester) – 14% of consumers consider fast website loading speeds as an ESSENTIAL factor when shopping online. (Source: Branding Brand) – 40% of customers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less — even on a mobile device (Source: Google)   How to Speed up your website?     If you’re wondering how to speed up your site, here are my top 4 tips: Host with a reputable web host. Compress images and use CSS Sprites. Don’t use Flash – convert Flash to HTML5. Use a content delivery network (CDN) We will see each one in detail, so follow along to make your site faster.  1. Host with a reputable web host Let’s talk about how hosting affects speed and SEO. Website hosts are companies that store your website’s files and provide the connection between your website and the Internet. If you think of your site as a house, then the host is the person who owns the land on which your house stands. You pay them for using their land and facilities that they may offer, in addition to just space they offer on their land. The two main types of hosting that you’ll run into are shared hosting (sometimes referred to as virtual hosting) and dedicated servers. Both of them possess different advantages and disadvantages. What is shared hosting? Shared Hosting refers to an Internet hosting service on whose server multiple