Website load speed has come a long way from the days of dial-up. Nowadays, if pages don’t load within a few seconds many of us will just move on. It’s no surprise then that page speed plays a vital role in any coherent SEO strategy.
Many factors can impact your page load speed. Most notably are large images and frivolous coding. Indeed, some like to spruce up their websites with animated text and images galore.
But if these colorful additions hamper the user experience, does it matter in the end? We don’t think so. Often a simple website design with a faster load time will convert more than a gaudy website design that is sluggish.
Does Website Speed Impact SEO?
It’s unknown if your website’s load speed has an actual impact on your SEO results or domain authority. However there tends to be a strong correlation between high ranking websites and well optimized web pages. Keeping this in mind, it’s best to just assume that page speed has a positive effect on your SEO ranking.
SEO aside, a fast website has many other advantages. Consider the user experience for a moment. Many users are likely to leave your web pages if they take too long to load. In fact, conversion rates drop by about 4.42% for every additional second your page takes to load.
This means you have even more incentive to increase your load speeds. Remember that clients that aren’t converting through avenues like paid advertising are costing you money.
How to Check Website Speed
The easiest way to check your website speed is via a website speed test. There are many services that offer site speed tests, however one of the more relevant ones is Google’s own page speed test. Google’s pagespeed insights is especially relevant considering we are trying to rank on it’s search engine.
The program will essentially run a ping test on your page, checking for its load time and more. This speed test will allow you to get a glimpse of what errors are holding your website back.
You’ll easily be able to identify problem spots. Things like large image sizes, too much code, and overuse of website plugins could easily be slowing your site down.
How to Improve Page Load Speed
Speeding up your website is fairly simple once you’ve identified what’s slowing it down. You’ll want to make sure that your images remain at a reasonable size. If you’re using a platform like WordPress, plugins can help with your website page optimization. Some even allow you to compress code to further reduce speed times.
Plugins can also be a reason for a slow website. Every plugin exists as code on your website, this means it needs to be loaded if it’s being used on a web page. If you are using a lot of plugins to run your website, consider which ones are actually essential. Deleting some unused plugins is a surefire way to increase load speeds.
If you want a website speed test, full with a full free website SEO audit, then look no further. At Digital Marketing Whiz, we provide you with the SEO techniques that will keep you ranking at the top of your niche. Our in depth competitor analysis will allow you to take full advantage of your industry’s most recent SEO practices, so you’ll never be behind the curve.
