Question: How fast is your website?
Have you ever done a test to see how quickly your page “loads”, compared to other websites? If not, you should!
Webpage speed is one of the most important factors in SEO, because it directly impacts how quickly your website appears in search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, Google has even created a “PageSpeed Insights” tool that helps you measure and improve your website’s page speed.
But how does page speed really impact your SEO? Simply put, if your website takes longer to load than competitor websites, potential customers will give up before they even try to visit yours. That’s why it’s so important to make sure all pages on your site are as fast as possible. Here are some tips for improving page speed:
1. Eliminate unnecessary resources from your website. This includes unused images, JavaScript files, and CSS files. Minimise the number of requests that your website makes from external sources (like search engines), and you’ll reduce load time overall.
2. Use compression techniques to reduce the size of resources that your website downloads. This can include using gzip or deflate compression on text files and using caching mechanisms for images and stylesheets.
3. Reduce the amount of data that is sent over the web through user-generated content (UGC) and server-generated content (SGC). Use caching mechanisms to store data from UGC and SGC locally on the server, reducing requests from remote sources.
4. Review what content is being included on each page, and structure it efficiently using HTML tags and CSS classes. Minimise the use of image files, for example, by including high-quality images via links instead of embedding them within HTML documents themselves.
5. Keep track of HTTP response codes to identify any issues with your server or network configuration that may be causing slowdowns or problems with webpage loading times. If necessary, contact your hosting provider or web host for assistance in resolving these issues.”
Load speed is one of the biggest impacts on your SEO score – so how high up you’ll appear on Google/how many people will see you if searching for your services – is the page speed, and there are loads of different metrics to ascertain how fast it is?
At Digital Starter Pack, we create WordPress websites using a builder called Oxygen Builder, which is both incredibly powerful AND incredibly lightweight, meaning the sites we make tend to score incredibly high for speed (plus, you know, we make amazing sites and do a load of other stuff to optimise them). And it all comes down to one thing: making sure your pages load as quickly as possible.
In this post, we’re going to take a look at the basics of page speed, what affects it and how you can maximise it on your site – from reducing the use of CSS & JavaScript, to improving server configuration and indexing. Plus, we’ll give you a few tips on how to measure page speed and give you some ideas for ways to make your site even faster. So without further ado…
What is Page Speed?
Simply put, page speed is a measure of how quickly a website or web page can be loaded by a user. In theory, the faster your site loads, the less time users have to wait on loading screens or for content to appear – meaning they’re more likely to stay on your site and explore what else it has to offer.
How Does Page Speed Affect SEO?
Page speed is one of the biggest impacts on your SEO score – so how high up you’ll appear on Google/how many people will see you if searching for your services – is the page speed, and there are loads of different metrics to ascertain how fast it is?
There are two main factors that affect your SEO score: age (of your website) and Alexa Rank (a measure of traffic). Age affects SERP placement based primarily on the number of pages indexed (reach), while Alexa Rank measures organic traffic only. Finally, if there are any SSL errors then this will also degrade your SEO score. So basically: make sure everything is super speedy and you have an SSL certificate installed (which comes as standard with our own hosting packages)!
Oxygen Builder takes all these things into account when building WordPress websites for us – meaning our sites tend to rank really well for speed across all search engines whether we’re looking for UK businesses or US businesses…though obviously not as high as those with no speed issues whatsoever! But still…pretty good results!
We could continue to blind you with science, but we pride ourselves on being clear-talking and jargon-free – our ultimate aim is to build you a website and make sure you understand what the Hell we’re talking about at any given point.
So in a nutshell, all you really need to know is that we know what we’re doing, and we’ll happily do it for you too. The more carefully your page is built from the beginning, the better it will perform and work for you in the long run… and that means you making more money.
Here’s a screenshot of our own website’s score, taken last night. In case you’re confused, green is good – and an A rating is the best of the best.
It means the page loads properly, it loads quickly and it will decrease the “bounce rate” – people are less likely to close the site because it’s taking too long to load up.
Have a look at https://gtmetrix.com/ and put your own site in, and take a look at the score you get.
If you see it’s not an A score, might it be time we have a chat about building you a new one?
Question: How fast is your website?
Have you ever done a test to see how quickly your page “loads”, compared to other websites? If not, you should!
Webpage speed is one of the most important factors in SEO, because it directly impacts how quickly your website appears in search engine results pages (SERPs). In fact, Google has even created a “PageSpeed Insights” tool that helps you measure and improve your website’s page speed.
But how does page speed really impact your SEO? Simply put, if your website takes longer to load than competitor websites, potential customers will give up before they even try to visit yours. That’s why it’s so important to make sure all pages on your site are as fast as possible. Here are some tips for improving page speed:
1. Eliminate unnecessary resources from your website. This includes unused images, JavaScript files, and CSS files. Minimise the number of requests that your website makes from external sources (like search engines), and you’ll reduce load time overall.
2. Use compression techniques to reduce the size of resources that your website downloads. This can include using gzip or deflate compression on text files and using caching mechanisms for images and stylesheets.
3. Reduce the amount of data that is sent over the web through user-generated content (UGC) and server-generated content (SGC). Use caching mechanisms to store data from UGC and SGC locally on the server, reducing requests from remote sources.
4. Review what content is being included on each page, and structure it efficiently using HTML tags and CSS classes. Minimise the use of image files, for example, by including high-quality images via links instead of embedding them within HTML documents themselves.
5. Keep track of HTTP response codes to identify any issues with your server or network configuration that may be causing slowdowns or problems with webpage loading times. If necessary, contact your hosting provider or web host for assistance in resolving these issues.”
Load speed is one of the biggest impacts on your SEO score – so how high up you’ll appear on Google/how many people will see you if searching for your services.
At Digital Starter Pack, we create WordPress websites using a builder called Oxygen Builder, which is both incredibly powerful AND incredibly lightweight, meaning the sites we make tend to score incredibly high for speed (plus, you know, we make amazing sites and do a load of other stuff to optimise them). And it all comes down to one thing: making sure your pages load as quickly as possible.
What is Page Speed?
Simply put, page speed is a measure of how quickly a website or web page can be loaded by a user. In theory, the faster your site loads, the less time users have to wait on loading screens or for content to appear – meaning they’re more likely to stay on your site and explore what else it has to offer.
How Does Page Speed Affect SEO?
Page speed is one of the biggest impacts on your SEO score – so how high up you’ll appear on Google/how many people will see you if searching for your services – is the page speed, and there are loads of different metrics to ascertain how fast it is?
There are two main factors that affect your SEO score: age (of your website) and Alexa Rank (a measure of traffic). Age affects SERP placement based primarily on the number of pages indexed (reach), while Alexa Rank measures organic traffic only. Finally, if there are any SSL errors then this will also degrade your SEO score. So basically: make sure everything is super speedy and you have an SSL certificate installed (which comes as standard with our own hosting packages)!
Oxygen Builder takes all these things into account when building WordPress websites for us – meaning our sites tend to rank really well for speed across all search engines whether we’re looking for UK businesses or US businesses…though obviously not as high as those with no speed issues whatsoever! But still…pretty good results!
We could continue to blind you with science, but we pride ourselves on being clear-talking and jargon-free – our ultimate aim is to build you a website and make sure you understand what the Hell we’re talking about at any given point.
So in a nutshell, all you really need to know is that we know what we’re doing, and we’ll happily do it for you too. The more carefully your page is built from the beginning, the better it will perform and work for you in the long run… and that means you making more money.
Here’s a screenshot of our own website’s score, taken last night. In case you’re confused, green is good – and an A rating is the best of the best.
It means the page loads properly, it loads quickly and it will decrease the “bounce rate” – people are less likely to close the site because it’s taking too long to load up.
Have a look at GTMetrix.com and put your own site in, and take a look at the score you get.
If you see it’s not an A score, might it be time we have a chat about building you a new one?
Digital Starter Pack is becoming an increasingly well-known name in the world of Web Design in Norwich, we’re here to help without breaking the bank or confusing you. Give us a call today on 01603 339029 and let’s see how we can help you!
