Page Speed and its effect on SEO: The old saying is that ‘speed kills.’ However, when you talk about website speed, slow speed indeed kills. A study conducted by Deloitte and Google indicates that your page speed improves for o.1 seconds, increasing your conversion rate by 8%. A good page speed is considered a confirmed ranking factor that can influence crawling and enhance user experience and higher conversion rates. On the other hand, low page speed impacts high bounce rates. So, we know that page speed improves user experience and page performance, but how it impacts SEO? Let’s get into it!
Why Page Speed Matters?
Google released an article in 2010 on page speed and how it will affect website rankings. It considered it one of the main ranking factors for the search index. In 2017, Google gave more consideration to page speed and incorporated mobile website speed to rank for mobile site pages or mobile-first pages.
Page speed is a ranking factor:
Google gives much importance to user satisfaction that users love fast-Loading pages. As Google has said many times, the more your pages load faster, the more your pages rank better on Google. Even Google made website speed a ranking factor for mobile searches.
Loading times influence crawling:
The visitor is not patient to wait for a minute and watch your website loading. That’s why modern websites invest in a good hosting plan that comes with good page speed and make a difference. These servers act as a finely tuned machine. If your website is more extensive, speed optimization will have more impact. Speed optimization will affect conversion rates and user experience and influence the crawl rate and even crawl budget. If your page loading time is good, Googlebot can come more often and get more done.
Affect conversion rate:
When you offer a fast loading page speed to your visitor, it will improve your conversion rate. Moreover, it will help to build brand loyalty and trust.
How can poor page speed affect SEO?
Poor page speed can impact your overall SEO; here’s how:
Page speed affects user experience
In this fast pace world, people don’t want to wait a minute to access information. They want information in a matter of seconds. So, if your website doesn’t deliver the required information in a blink of an eye, that will decrease your conversion rate. User behaviors send signals to Google, which in turn impact your SERPs ranking.
Lower conversion rates
Insufficient page loading time will not impact your ranking in search engines but also decrease your conversion rate. Another consequence of slow page speed is that it comes with brand disloyalty. Moreover, it comes with a high bounce rate, and your visitors won’t complete the actions on your website you want them to. In short, faster page speed will lead to a high stream of conversions.
Poor conversion rates
Even if the user gets past the first page of Google, lands on your website, and is constantly faced with a delay, you might miss out on conversions. According to research, around one out of five buyers will abandon a cart if page speed is too slow, which costs up to $3 billion annually. A one-second delay in page loading can lead to 7% fewer conversions every day.
Fewer page views
If your visitors face a delay in page loading, then you will lose your page views. For example, studies show that one-second delays can means11% loss of page views.
High bounce rate & low time on page
A lot of users wont’ have the patience to wait too long to stick around. People found and visited your website for a reason, and any negative fraction that they experience will turn them off. When someone is trying to browse your website, and he faces a delay, he will bounce from the page. According to research, around 47% of people expect to load in two seconds or less than two seconds. Approximately 40% of people will give up if the page takes more than three seconds to load. So, if your page loading time is not good, you may have a high bounce rate or even low time on the page.
How to improve page speed?
There are many reasons why your page speed is slow, like your images and the website design is not optimized, the hosting server is not inadequate, and others. Here’s how to improve your page speed:
Get better web hosting for speed quality:
Cheap servers are the main culprits behind poor page speed. Each web host uses different types of servers, which can dramatically impact the loading time of your pages. If you’re looking for good speed quality, it might be worth considering changing your web host. Instead, use web hosting services that have optimized and fast servers.
Optimize your site design
These days, website designs are too clunky that in turn decreases your page speed. But fear not; you can improve your website performance by leveraging browser caching, optimizing coding, and removing JavaScript. In addition, a web design partner like SEO After Coffee can help you optimize your website design.
Optimize your images
High-resolution images play an essential part in slowing down your page. These images overkill the browsing and add more seconds to your page loading time. If you resize and optimize your images it will improve your page speed, you need to resize your images and compressed them to reduce the file size while maintaining a high-quality look.
Bottom Line:
Google likes happy visitors. The impact of page speed is recognized as user satisfaction. When evaluating user experience, the central part of Google’s methodology is core web vitals that assess loading time, content’s visual stability, and interactivity that influence your overall ranking in SERPs. That’s why it is said that the faster your website, the better your website ranking in search engines. Page speed indirectly affects your SEO through low conversion rate, higher bounce rate, poor user experience signals that directly impact your position in the search results. If you have a low page speed issue and need to pick up the pace to compete in the digital race or digital marketing solution, contact us today!
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