The Patel article recommends running your site through the Google diagnostic platform to analyze your site’s speed. If you get a 100-percent score, that means your site is sufficiently fast and that Google will reward your site in organic searches with a high ranking–at least in this area of SEO.
Any Google SEO expert will tell you that your ranking on SERPs, or search engine return pages, is critical if you want to receive organic search business. Most people click on the first few listings, and almost nobody searches beyond the first page of a SERP. Speed is a critical factor in your ranking and also customer satisfaction. Even if you receive clicks from searches, customers won’t stay if your site is slow. Google doesn’t actually give you a blueprint for fixing a slow website, but we can offer the following ideas:
Site Architecture
A poorly designed website often results from adding features and software over the years. Navigation often has to go through several layers to reach the right area. Restructuring your architecture can arrange direct links between site features.
Image Optimization
Image optimization reduces file size and speeds processing. Large image spaces cause most websites to run slowly. You can compress your images to increase page-loading speed.
Browser Caching
Your site typically uses various resources to load each element and image on your site. The site must analyze HTML and the operational coding during the process. This process is repeated each time a customer navigates to your site. Browser caching can speed loading times by “remembering” those elements and images so that reloading isn’t necessary for every feature and every site visit.
HTML Insights
Properly coding your site, images and website features speeds page loads and optimizes SEO. You can also simplify your HTML by removing unnecessary code and duplicated data. Successful strategies include removing comments, unused comments and formatting from CSS, JavaScript and HTML.
Using AMP to Speed Website Displays
AMP, which stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, is an open-source Google utility that can strip unnecessary content when loading pages on mobile devices. Users get a streamlined experience that increases customer satisfaction by making it easier to do business on mobile phones. Mobile searches already outnumber desktop searches, and Google rewards companies that provide mobile-friendly displays. [2]
Server Response Time
Processing speed is definitely affected by website visitor volume. It might be necessary to review your hosting strategy and get more processing power. You can also speed page loads by identifying bottlenecks such as slow database queries, insufficient memory and routing issues that slow speed. The ideal server speed should be under 200 milliseconds.
Redirects
Redirects are annoying to users, and each time a page redirects someone, it increases processing time. You should try to remove as many redirects as possible. Other issues include broken links, which should also be removed.
Google not only helps you speed your page loads with AMP technology but also rewards this formatting by displaying AMP content in its “Top Stories” section of SERPs.
SEO Services for All Your Business Needs
Regardless of the strategy used for speeding up your website, the processes are almost always technically challenging. That’s why it’s so important to enlist an SEO expert in your efforts. Our team of experts can choose the right tools, take advantage of open-source resources and analyze your website carefully to pinpoint and fix the issues that are slowing it down. One study by Portent found that increasing page-loading speed by just 1 second increases page views by 100 percent. [3]
Our team will work collaboratively with your IT staff to maximize on-page and off-page SEO, speed your page loads and get a 100-percent score on Google PageSpeed Insights. Our services include marketing, design, reputation management and SEO services. Contact Internet Marketing today for a consultation.
References:
[1] Neilpatel.com: How to Score a Perfect 100% on Google PageSpeed Insights
[2] Smartinsights,com: Mobile Marketing Statistics compilation
[3] Portent.com: Why Page Speed Matters To Digital Marketing
