Wondering how to get ranked on page one of Google and heard that page speed matters, but you aren’t sure why? Let me show you why your website loading time matters so much to Google, how you can check it and most importantly, reduce it!
What is my website loading time and why does it matter?
Your website loading time is termed as your ‘page speed’ by search engines like Google and it refers to how quickly all of the elements fully render on a given device. In other words how quickly images, text and other widgets show on a desktop, laptop, smart device, or phone.
Website loading time, or ‘Page Speed’ is an important Google ranking factor. In fact, they loosely mention it in their SEO starter guide introduction as they talk about getting your site on Google. They state that:
“Here are a few basic questions to ask yourself about your website when you get started.
- Is my website showing up on Google?
- Do I serve high-quality content to users?
- Is my local business showing up on Google?
- Is my content fast and easy to access on all devices?
- Is my website secure?”
Part of what they mean by “is my content fast and easy to access on all devices” is how quickly your website downloads each page onto a visitor's device. They ask this because they know that visitors are deeply turned off by slow sites. It is thought that up to 32.3% of visitors to a site that takes 7 seconds to load will simply click away! They also found that for sites which loaded quicker (as little as 2 seconds), visitors were much more likely to consume more content (or pages) on the site. It is therefore a suggestion that this may also affect potential revenues among the web design and SEO communities.
So it is important to check that all your pages load in a reasonable time.
What is a reasonable website loading time?
Google would love for your website page to take no longer than 2 seconds to load. It is thought that 2-4 seconds is considered a good speed to aim for.
How can I check my website loading time?
Google has their own page speed tool, which you can use to check your website’s speed behaviour. Simply pop your website URL into the bar, select ‘mobile’, or ‘desktop’ and press analyze.
Google will then give you your page speed score from 0-100, on the indicated device setting and an indication of what may need fixing.
Another tool you can try is GTmetrix, which I find to be much more helpful to a layman.
Here is a look at my page speed test results:
GTMetrix screenshot
You can see it clearly indicates how long my page is taking to show on a desktop, or laptop screen. Underneath it will show me exactly where my issues are:
GTMetrix screenshot
If I scroll to the top again, by ‘summary’, press ‘history’ and you can see for free the last 3 months of changes, which is great for checking your progression as you work.
GTMetrix screenshot
This is an easy way to convince yourself you are on the right track, or to provide your boss, or freelance client with data about your work.
Why does Google care about my website loading time specifically
Ok, so we talked about what could happen for you if your website loads too slowly - you are likely to have higher bounce rates (the term search engines use when someone leaves your site, before it fully downloads, or without taking any further action), which shows Google that your site isn’t performing or satisfying what they term ‘UX’ (or user experience). UX is what your site is really being scored on (which is based on multiple things, including website loading time). So, when Google rank your pages in their index, the better your score, the higher you rise in the index towards spot #1, on page one.
You will find many of your competitors could be ranked higher than you currently on page speed alone, even though their content and service reviews are lower. Google do consider your website loading time to be as important as the content you provide your potential clients on your site.
Google are looking for desktop and mobile sites to load at around two seconds (2s). Now depending on your website software and your design skills you may find this is a hard task to push towards.
3 ways to reduce your website loading time without any web design skills
3 main problems you will likely find are;
Images – you either have uncompressed images, or just way too many
Javascript – you may have too many widgets, or heavy weighted widgets causing longer page rendering
Fonts – you might be using fancy scripts, or imported fonts which take longer to load
Working on all these areas can reduce page loading speed significantly.
How to audit your website page to reduce website loading time
Here’s how I take a look at each page on my site in order to design a streamlined and faster website loading time without losing any impact in message or Call to Action (CTA).
I ask myself the following questions;
Can I get away with only having one strong, descriptive image on this page? If so, can I retain a high resolution, at a smaller memory size?
How much text do I need to satisfy my SEO target? Can I reduce the amount of text and make it more impactful in copy terms?
Am I using legible fonts that Google bots find easy to read? If I am using a script font, is it easy to read, load and have I limited it to just a few words on each page (ideally headers)?
How many javascript widgets and buttons do I use on each page? Can I limit these to as close to 1-3 as possible?
I do have to say here that any web designer worth their weight in gold, is someone who thinks about all of these things as they design your site in the first instance. So, if you feel you do not have the skills to have a go, find someone who can do this for you.
If you need a copywriter to create compelling copy, someone who understands SEO, fill in the project brief form below!
