From keyword density to quantity (and quality) of inbound links and then topping that off with brand presence on social media, some elements of SEO are pretty easy to digest. You can be a non-coder and understand those signals. However, not all factors that impact your website rankings are as easy to comprehend. One of the most important signals according to man industry experts is site speed. Let’s explore why site speed matters for SEO.
Official Google Statement About Site Speed
In 2011 Google announced the Page Speed Online tool as a way for Webmasters to better understand the performance of their websites. Google described the tool as such:
“At Google, we’re striving to make the whole web fast. As part of that effort, we’re launching a new web-based tool in Google Labs, Page Speed Online, which analyzes the performance of web pages and gives specific suggestions for making them faster. Page Speed Online is available from any browser, at any time. This allows website owners to get immediate access to Page Speed performance suggestions so they can make their pages faster”.Mr. Google
There was also an announcement that came prior to the launch of the tool back in 2010 which can be read about here.
Another interesting gem to strengthen Google’s position on page speed is their patent titled “Using Resource Load Times in Ranking Search Results” which states that:
“A search result for a resource having a short load time relative to resources having longer load times can be promoted in a presentation order, and search results for the resources having longer load times can be demoted”.Mr. Google
Does A Faster Website Rank Higher in SERPs?
Unfortunately, Google doesn’t give any specific metrics that indicate how much increasing your site speed will impact your rankings. That would be very un-Google of them to do. I’ve also looked for tests conducted by other marketers and was unable to locate anything worthwhile, but if you have your own or know of one, please drop me a comment and I will happily toss your results in (and give a backlink too).
History of Site Speed and Societal Influences
Website speed has always been considered the key to the user experience (followed by UI of course). After all, in a world where we demand results instantly, information in less than 150 characters and accessible information across all devises 24/7/365, it’s pretty obvious this has been a long time coming. Adding to this fact is the reality that our society demands longer work days, less time off and an accessibility that is all too evasive. It seems that as society has evolved, the web has evolved in parallel (definitely a chicken or the egg situation here). Technologies advanced, computing powers evolved and browsers became more and more sophisticated; all of which led to websites, and their respective load times, being expected to advance as well. Toss in the recent Mobilegeddon fiasco and we have very high expectations to hit.
The Three Second Rule
3 seconds: it’s long been accepted as the golden number of time in seconds for optimal website usability. Many experts report that after 3 seconds, 25% of a website’s visitors are known to abandon the task altogether (Kissmetrics 2014).
With 2014 being the year that finally marked mobile browsing surpassing that of desktop browsing (Search Engine Watch 2014), today’s consumers expect the mobile browsing experience to be just as quick as the desktop one. This expectation holds true despite the fact that many smart phones don’t have access to 24/7 WiFi or fast networks that deliver websites in a timely manner (under 3-5 seconds).
Why Do We Care About Mobile Site Speed?
You may be asking yourself this very question. Well the truth is simple, people shop on their smart phones. You need a website that loads fast on the mobile device to better convert users. The more engaged these users are with your website, the more Google chips you stack!
It’s known that every 1 second delay in page load speed results in a 7% reduction in conversions and with users being on mobile devices so much, mobile page speed must be dialed in as well. Here are some stats that emphasize the importance of mobile users and their willingness to purchase::
- 78% of mobile searchers go on to make a purchase thereafter (Search Engine Land 2014)
- Online shoppers spend more time and money shopping on mobile devices than via desktop (comScore 2014)
- 94% of SmartPhone users search for location info (The Mobile Playbook 2015)
- 35% of SmartPhone owners in Q2 2013 used their device to locate a physical business (comScore 2014)
How To Test Your Website Speed
There are a variety of ways to test the speed of your website, but the two I love are Google PageSpeed and GTmetrix. Since Google always gets the most love, I’m going to talk about GTMetrix instead.
GTMetrix For Page Load Time
I’ve tried most tools on the market, but my default tool is definitely GTmetrix. The new interface is a much needed upgrade, but the performance is still on point. Another piece I enjoy is the mobile analysis. Here is a quick breakdown of what GTmetrix will tell you about your website:
- PageSpeed and YSlow scores and recommendations
- Page load details (time, size, number of requests)
- Various analysis options
- Waterfall, video and report history
Tips To Improve Your Website Speed
By now you understand the importance of speeding up your website to Google and users. I definitely recommend connecting with someone who has a technical background to help when it comes to improving your website speed. Here are some steps to get your website buzzing.
Optimize Images
The majority of Webmasters have no idea how large an image should be on their website. All most people see is the experience created once a webpage loads on either desktop or mobile. I’ve seen web developers create websites using images up to 5000 px wide. An image that large could be used on a highway billboard (not really..but maybe?). Images only need should follow these guidelines:
- 72 DPI
- Less than 1600 px wide
- JPEG is the best option
As a rule of thumb, your image should only be as wide as the container it will be placed in. For example, if you image is added to a blog post and the container is 600px wide, the image should be no more than 600 px wide. Responsiveness added a new dimension to the mix, but following this rule will ensure you are good to go.
Reduce Plugins And Other Bells N’ Whistles
Forget about your tracking codes, embedded videos and share buttons
Plugins and scripts from other additional items such as A/B testing pixels, social media sharing buttons, etc. are awesome for usability. In most cases they can slow down a website. However, if you think the benefits on usability outweigh the benefits of a faster website than you should leave them. Just make sure you are using them if you are foorcing them to load when a user visits your website.
One thing to note is some plugins and scripts can be turned on or off in the mobile environment. Make sure that if a script isn’t being use on mobile it is turned off.
Reduce On-site Redirects
Generally, when we think of redirects we think of external links coming in. However, internal links sometimes are the bigger culprit. If you were to open your website now and view the page source, you will notice a variety of descrpancies in the link structure. For example, some links may have www., some have non-www., some have a trailing slash or some may even be a relative structure. Each time a link is incorrectly written, the browser is forced to fire a redirect to the appropriate version anytime someone navigates through your site.
Most platforms like WordPress do a great job of helping users over come this hurdle out of the box. If you are building something out of the box, you should definitely make note to see that your website isn’t listing internal links in multiple formats.
Embrace Browser Caching
Browser caching allows certain pieces of your website to be stored locally for users. That means if a browser revisits your website, it will only load the portions that are unique and not duplicate to what was previously loaded. This will have an immediate impact on the amount of time it takes your website to load. Below is a list of resources that are cacheable:
- JS files
- CSS files
- Image files
- PDfs
- much more
For WordPress users you can take advantage of plugins like W3 Total Cache that out of the box will improve your site speed.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A Content Delivery Network stores your content in various locations around the world so someone in the U.S. searching for your website will receive the site just as fast as someone located in Australia. Without a CDN your website needs to travel far distances to reach users depending on their proximity to the server your website resides on. Most hosting companies will have CDN capabilities or will work with a thrid party provider who can easily make this possible for you.
A study performed by Matthew Woodward shows that using MaxCDN provided an average website speed increase of 2.77 seconds with WebPageTest and 2.67 seconds with Pingdom.
There are definitely many ways to increase your website speed so it resonates well with Google. Just remember Google and the user aren’t that different. They both want fast loading websites that deliver what the user wants in both desktop and mobile.
Let me know if you have questions or additional information to share in the comments
About the Author
2 Comments on “Understanding Why Site Speed Matters for SEO”
You should also try to compress your images wherever possible. Often times is easy to want to just crop an image and call that good, but not all JPEG’s need to be saved at 100% quality. More often than not, I can reduce a JPEG’s quality to about 60%-80% of the original and still have a beautiful image. What’s even better is that even an 20% drop in quality shaves off hundreds of Kilobytes of data.
You just have to be careful not to go too far.
Hi Cameron!
Thanks for the insight. You definitely know what you are doing sir 😉
– Mike