Page Speed - That is Why Website Loading Time is so Important for SEO!

Page Speed - Why is it so Important for SEO?

Every search engine analyses fixed criteria that determine which ranking the website receives. One of these criteria is the loading speed of the website. This is the page speed, which has been of particular importance since 2018: because at that time Google defined it as an important ranking factor. This is also the reason why a slow speed can be enormously detrimental to the positioning and thus the existing traffic. How exactly the times are measured, however, is not officially known.

Top Google Ranking with a High Page Speed

Google remains the number 1 search engine for many users. So it makes perfect sense to take a closer look at this ranking factor. According to Google, speed is particularly important because it contributes to a positive user experience. It can be used to determine the quality of websites just as much as other factors. And last but not least, experience is extremely important for content marketing.

A better User Experience and Lower Ascent Rate

The basic user experience is a complementary factor to the bounce rate. In general, slow pages slow down the browsing experience and thus worsen it.

Internet users' patience is limited these days. They prefer faster websites, especially when users are on mobile devices. If you guarantee fast loading times, you can significantly reduce the so-called bounce rate. The fact that it is decisive in terms of SEO has, in turn, a good reason: the fewer people bounce, the more valuable the offer seems to be.

Conveying Professionalism and Increasing Mobile Accessibility

A fast web design conveys a certain professionalism. This characteristic shows users that someone cares about the website and its usability. For companies, page speed is therefore a way to convince with their own company and customer proximity.

The number of mobile users is increasing in every sector. For good SEO, it is therefore absolutely necessary to keep an eye on this target group as well.

A better Conversion Rate

Every second it takes to load the page can reduce the conversion rate by up to seven percent. This makes page speed a crucial factor not only in terms of a good SEO ranking.

Exploit the crawling Budget

The Google crawler has a certain time budget for crawling and indexing the website. If the website loads too slowly, it cannot capture the entire offer. This can turn into a decisive competitive disadvantage.

When does a Website have a High Page Speed?

One speaks of a high page speed when the first content appears on the screen within 0 to 1 seconds. Thanks to methods such as LazyLoading, it is no longer necessary to display the entire content at once. Instead, the visible area is materialised within this time so that users can find the content they are looking for more quickly.

How Fast does a Competitive Website need to be?

An SEO competitive page speed should be oriented towards the average, but may also be faster. Those who want to test their website speed should differentiate between desktop and mobile devices. While users in front of a laptop are usually a little more patient, mobile users bounce faster. To prevent this from happening, the loading time of the website should not exceed 5 seconds. However, with such a waiting time, 50 percent of the site visitors have already jumped off. A competitive site should therefore present the first content within 2 seconds.

How Fast does a Website Load on Average?

Modern web design allows for faster and faster loading times. As long as the configurations are right, the programming and design are up-to-date and no complex database queries are necessary: Then the page speed should be optimal for a good SEO result. For a fast website, the required loading time is between 0 and 1 seconds. Average speed, on the other hand, is when the first content can be seen after 1 to 2.5 seconds. Any page that takes longer to load is considered slow.

These Factors Slow down the Loading Time of a Website

The combination of different factors has an immense influence on website speed. However, it is not exclusively the aspects that are in the hands of the developer.

• External data: Anyone who runs an online shop and sells the products of several suppliers is dependent on external data. This information, in turn, must be synchronised regularly. If the external data is updated at an inappropriate time, this action can lead to poorer page speed.
• Live data: Content that needs to be consistently up to date is also a risk. The reason for this is the same as for synchronisation with external data sources.
• Too many plugins: Bloggers in particular like to opt for elaborate layouts in the design and use numerous different plugins. This can be a problem if latency times increase greatly as a result.
• Social media: A connection to social media networks is often useful, but can adversely affect the loading time. Twitter streams in particular are known to be very slow, due to the API of Twitter itself.
• Outsourced content: If images or videos are outsourced to external galleries, they must be provided by an external service. This provisioning can lead to a poorer loading time of the website. In this case, it is absolutely necessary to regularly test the website speed.
• Advertising: Advertising in the form of banners, videos or dynamic content can be a brake on page speed. If it is not possible to do without them, it is important to check the delivery time regularly.

How do You Test the Page Speed?

For a page speed analysis, it is best to use a tool that examines the different aspects of the design. Such tools look for problems in the code, for example, that negatively influence the quality of web pages. The Page Speed tool, which also outputs the data from Google PageSpeed Insights, is particularly well suited for such a test. From this, the most important information relevant to the loading time of the homepage can be obtained.

How to Increase the Page Speed

Performance has a significant influence on the quality of websites. Therefore, it is by no means a short-term issue, but a long-term optimisation task. Those who do not want to deal with this topic or do not have the necessary expertise: It is best to turn to an expert. Nevertheless, there are some starting points that help to speed up the loading time of the homepage:

• Images should always be compressed so that they are designed for the mobile web.
• Configure browser and server caching correctly.
• Rely on LazyLoading to load content gradually.
• Clean up the source code and minimise JavaScript content.
• Avoid autoplay videos and large images.

In addition, a regular page speed analysis helps to keep an eye on the website speed and to further optimise it if necessary.

Conclusion - The Faster, the Better!

A short loading time is the be-all and end-all of modern web design. It ensures a good ranking on Google and at the same time stands for a successful user experience. Since the topic of website loading time is sometimes very complex, it is worth considering it as a separate project. Bottlenecks that cause poor performance must be identified and gradually eliminated. In this way, it is possible to get the best out of the website and achieve a top ranking.