In today’s fast-paced digital world, website speed has become a crucial factor not only for user experience but also for search engine optimisation, also known as ‘SEO’!
While many websites primarily focus on content, keywords, and backlinks, website speed often goes overlooked or unnoticed until it is too late.
However, it plays a significant role in determining your site’s google rank, user engagement, and overall success. In this blog, we’ll explore how website speed affects SEO and provide tips on how to improve it.
Why Website Speed Matters
Website speed refers to how quickly a web page loads and is displayed in a user’s browser. It’s often measured by key metrics such as First Contentful Paint (FCP), and overall page load time.
These metrics are essential because they directly impact the user experience, and by extension, your SEO performance. It is all well and good having users find your site, but if they leave due to loading issues, you are back to square one!
User Experience and Engagement
As mentioned above, a fast website enhances user experience. Users are more likely to stay on a site that loads quickly, which reduces bounce rates and increases the time spent on your site. Google takes these engagement metrics into account when ranking websites. A slow website can frustrate users, leading them to leave your site and visit a competitor's, which can harm your rankings. Keep this in mind at all stages of building your website.
Mobile Usability
With the growing number of mobile users, having a fast-loading website on all devices is critical. Google’s mobile-first indexing means that the mobile version of your website is primarily used for ranking and indexing. A slow mobile experience can negatively impact your SEO, even if your desktop site performs well. Data regarding the devices your visitors are using can be found in GA4, using this information and understanding what it means is essential to improving your site.
Core Web Vitals
Google introduced Core Web Vitals as part of its page experience update that launched in 2021. These new metrics focused on three main aspects: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). LCP measures loading performance, FID measures interactivity, and CLS measures visual stability. Websites that perform well in all of these areas are likely to rank higher in search results.
Crawling and Indexing
Search engines like Google use bots, or as we like to call them… ‘spiders’ to crawl and index your website. If your site is slow, these spdiers may not crawl as many pages, leading to fewer pages being indexed. This can limit your site’s visibility in search engine pages, affecting your overall SEO performance. Not good.
How Website Speed Affects SEO Rankings
Bounce Rate and Engagement
A slow website increases bounce rates, which is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page. High bounce rates signal to search engines that your site isn’t providing a good user experience (which to be fair, is probably true!), in turn this can negatively impact your rankings. On the other hand, fast-loading pages encourage users to explore more content and flick through more pages, this increases engagement time—another positive SEO signal (whoop!).
Conversion Rates
Website speed doesn’t just affect SEO; it also impacts your conversion rates. Studies show that even a one-second delay in page load time can lead to a significant drop in conversions! It sounds crazy but it’s true! How many times have you left a website and went elsewhere due to things just not loading quickly? If your website isn't quick, you can be sure a competitor's site is!
Competitive Advantage
In a competitive market, every second counts. A website that loads faster than its competitors can gain an edge in both user retention and SEO. Google’s algorithms take speed into account when determining rankings, so improving your site’s load time can give you a competitive advantage in google rankings. Following these best practices will also mean users are much more likely to come back to your website time after time.
How to Improve Your Website Speed
Optimise Images
Large, unoptimised images are a common culprit for slow load times. Use tools to compress images without compromising quality, and consider using next-gen formats like WebP. Unless you cannot avoid it, you ideally want images to be less than 1mb, this is a great quick fix for websites with many galleries/carousels of large images.
Leverage Browser Caching
Browser caching stores some of your site’s resources in a user’s browser, so they don’t have to be reloaded each time the user visits. This can significantly reduce load times for returning visitors.There are many plugins out there that can help with this on Wordpress sites such Wordpress Rocket and LiteSpeed Cache just to name a couple.
Minimise HTTP Requests
Each element on your page, such as images, scripts, and stylesheets, requires an HTTP request. Reducing the number of requests can speed up your site. Combine files, use CSS sprites, and remove unnecessary plugins.
Optimise Your Server Response Time
Slow server response times can delay the loading of your site. Optimise your server’s performance by choosing a reliable hosting provider and keeping your software up to date. This can be a bit of a task if you have never changed your provider, but well worth doing if you are experiencing issues.
Summary
To summarise, website speed is a critical factor that influences your SEO performance.
A fast-loading website not only enhances user experience but also improves your chances of ranking higher in search engine results. Happy Google = Happy users.
By focusing on optimising your website speed, you can reduce bounce rates, increase user engagement, and gain a competitive edge in the digital landscape.
Improving your site’s speed should be a continuous process, with regular monitoring and updates. Google updates come thick and fast and it's important to always check in on your site's health.
In a world where every second counts, ensuring your website is as fast as possible is not just beneficial—it’s essential.
