In Inbound Marketing we learn that there are many factors that interfere with good positioning in search results.
There has been a lot of talk lately about one of them: Page Speed.
In this article you will learn its real importance, not only for search engines , but also in the user experience. Discover how to measure it and understand which practices will help you improve it.
Ready? Then let’s go!
What is page speed?
Page speed is the time it takes a page to netherlands telegram data load, that is, how long it takes to show the user all of its content.
Page speed is a measure of the speed of the entire website , as each page may have a slightly different loading speed. However, since it is the same structure, the variation in speed between each of the pages on a website is minimal.
Why is page speed important?
Page speed is extremely important both methods are reliable and easy to use to satisfy two fundamental elements: the user and the search engines .
How does it satisfy the user?
Today’s audiences demand agility at all times, and the same goes for websites.
If a page takes too long to load, the user can easily lose interest and look for another option that satisfies them. Even if they don’t, this delay will result in a less than optimal user experience on our website.
A dynamic website contributes greatly to a good experience, which can encourage return visitors.
Why is it important for search engines?
One of the factors considered for good sms to data positioning in search results is page speed. Therefore, a good loading speed is important for search engines to consider your content as relevant to the user.
The page speed associated with good SEO practices will allow your website to be well regarded by search engines.
How to know what the page speed is?
To find out what your page speed is, Google has created a very useful tool: Page Speed Insights . With it, you can not only find out what the page speed of any page on your website (or your competitors’) is, but you will also find recommendations on how to improve it.
This resource will give you a complete diagnosis of everything that interferes with loading speed. It will also tell you what improvements need to be made to make your website faster.
As it is a fairly demanding tool in terms of speed, the diagnosis and optimization tips are quite good for improving page speed.
If you are looking for a more complete analysis, you can use another excellent tool for this task: GTmetrix . Much of the information is more detailed and the best thing of all is that it tells you the root of the problem, ideal if you are not an expert in this area.
When using GTmetrix, you will often find that the server is at fault. In these cases, you should contact your hosting provider to resolve these types of issues.
What are the best SEO practices to have a good page speed?
Within SEO, there are some practices that can help you improve page speed. Do you want to know some of them? Here we go!
Optimize images
Images are great for any content, they draw the user’s attention and make texts easier to consume.
However, many people overlook some important considerations that need to be made. One of them is size.
Reducing the weight of an image does not mean compromising its visual quality. There are tools that can help you optimize images manually or directly on your website .
The most practical way is to use a plugin. If you use WordPress, I recommend EWWW Image Optimizer . This plugin not only optimizes the images you upload in the future, but also optimizes the ones that are already on your website, converting them to the most suitable file format.
If, even after using this tool, you notice that there are some images that were not processed, you will have to do it manually. For this, you can use an online tool such as Optimizilla , which will allow you to compress the images while maintaining the quality you want.
It has a responsive design
Responsive design is essential for SEO but it can also affect page speed.
Responsive design is not only about the aesthetic part, of course, that is the most obvious: the size of the letters, the buttons; the visual part is what is most noticeable.
However, there is a lot going on behind it. A responsive design is lighter than one that loads on a computer . This will not only save the user data, but will also influence speed.
Delay loading of images that are not visible
Another very important recommendation that can help a lot with page speed is to postpone the loading of images that do not appear on the screen.
What does this mean? Not all images on the page fit within the screen the user is viewing, right? Well, if they don’t see them, they don’t need to load when the page opens, they can load as the user scrolls down.
This feature can be configured in WordPress with Lazy Load or Lazy Load by WP Rocket . These two plugins are very easy to use and significantly improve loading time.
Create AMP
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page) pages emerged from an open source project created by Google to speed up and improve web pages on mobile devices .
Sites that are created using this technology load much faster, almost instantly, on tablets and cell phones.
If you don’t want to mess around with code and you use WordPress, you can use the AMP for WP plugin . It will allow you to build your pages from several available templates.
Take advantage of the cache
As you know, the cache is used to store the content of the web page being accessed on the user’s device. This way, on future visits, the loading time will be faster. Generally, this is done automatically, however, it may be necessary to have some extra help.
To help you with this task, there are several WordPress plugins that can help you. I recommend these two: W3 Total Cache and WP Fastest Cache . In addition to improving loading time, it will also improve your website’s SEO.
Prevents being redirected many times
Every time a page is redirected, you have to wait the natural time it takes for a request and a response.
For example, if when you type your page name “page.com” the redirect is “-> www, page.com -> m. page.com -> m. page.com/home”, you are losing speed. Because in each redirection there is a time that is used for each of the requests and responses.
Ideally it should just be “page.com -> m.page.com”.
These are some of the recommendations that, if followed, will not only significantly improve your page speed, but also, and no less important, you will optimize the user experience .