How to Monitor and Improve Website Speed for SEO
Website speed has become an essential factor when it comes to search engine optimisation (SEO), user experience (UX), and conversions. Slow loading website frustrate your visitors, increasing your bounce rate, and in turn, lowering you ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Website speed is the time it takes for your web page to load and display on your visitors browser. It is determined by numerous factors, including server response times, content delivery network, the size of the page, browser caching, and code optimisation. Website speed does matter as it affects how users interact with your website.
Google has advised that over fifty percent of mobile users will abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load. Website speed is also a Google ranking factor on desktop and mobile websites. Google is prioritising website that are fast and responsive.
In order to measure the speed of your website, you are going to have to use tools that can simulate different scenarios, offering relevant metrics. The most popular online tool to use is Google PageSpeed Insights. It helps you analyse your website performance from various devices, connection speeds, and locations. It provides scores, along with recommendations.
When you assess your website speed, you need to ensure you look at the key metrics, including First Contentful Paint (FCP), Time to Interactive (TTI), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Total Blocking Time (TBT), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS):
In order to speed up your website, you need to identify and fix any problems that may be slowing down your website. Using the Google PageSpeed Insights tool, you can find what problems are slowing down your site, enabling you to address them effectively.
Common fixes includes reducing server response times by using reliable and reputable hosting providers, adapting a content delivery network, and server side caching. All your images should be optimised by resizing, formatting, and compressing them to reduce loading times.
You can also minimise code to remove redundant elements. Browser cashing is also a highly effective way to improve page speed times.
It is very important to ensure you monitor your website speed on a regular basis, across various scenarios. Use Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Lighthouse to collect valuable data that you can analyse, such as user behaviour and site speed. By regularly monitoring your website speed, you can identify and fix issues that may arise, ensuring you always provide a good user experience.
In today's fast-paced world where people are busy and often in a rush, having a slow loading website can negatively impact your SEO efforts. By improving your site speed, you can improve user experience, reduce bounce rates, and increase engagement. Do you need assistance in speeding up your website for success? Contact the Genie Crawl team right now to find out more.
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