How Can Server Response Time Affect Technical SEO?

How can server response time affect technical SEO?

If you’ve been in the SEO business for a while, you know that technical SEO is one of the most important aspects of SEO. Getting your technical SEO correct is crucial for building rankings and driving traffic to your website. 

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If your website loads slowly, people will bounce away from it and visit a competitor’s site. This can lead to a loss in search engine ranking and profits for your company. 

Server Response Time, also known as TTFB, is a metric that determines how fast your web pages load from the server. This metric is used by Google PageSpeed to analyze how your website performs. 

The average TTFB is around 200 milliseconds, but anything higher will indicate performance bottlenecks in your web servers. This could be caused by a slow database query, CMS content, or issues with your hosting provider. 

It’s recommended that you aim for a server response time of less than 200 milliseconds. If you’re experiencing a high level of response time, there are several things that can be done to improve it. 

1. Optimize Your Hosting Service.

You need a speedy server to host your website and deliver a great user experience. If you’re using shared hosting, you may need to switch providers to a more powerful hosting plan. 

2. Use a Quality SSL Certificate.

A secure SSL certificate can help prevent malware attacks and reduce website loading times. It’s also a requirement for many payment gateways. 

3. Keep Your Hosting Provider Up-To-Date.

Make sure you’re on the latest version of your hosting provider’s software. You can also upgrade your hosting to a dedicated server or buy an additional cPanel license for better control over your site’s server. 

4. Avoid Using a Large Number of Resources.

HTML files, images, scripts, and stylesheets all take time to download, which can negatively affect your website’s load speed. To avoid these problems, consolidate these files or eliminate them altogether.

5. Avoid Adding a Large Number of Plugins and Applications.

If you’re using plugins or extensions on your website, it can significantly increase its load time. To avoid this, remove any that aren’t necessary and update them to the latest versions. 

6. Avoid Using a Large Number of Pages.

The size and complexity of your web pages can also influence their load speed. Ideally, your pages should be small and well-organized to reduce the load on your server. 

7. Improve Your Website’s Content and Links.

The content on your web pages is another critical factor in the SEO of your website. Adding relevant and unique content helps search engines identify your web pages and rank them in search results. 

8. Optimize Your Homepage and Other Web Pages 

The main homepage of your website should be easy to identify by search engines since it should be the first thing visitors see when they land on your site. However, your other web pages can be harder for search engines to recognize. 

If you’re aiming to achieve top rankings in the search results, it’s important that your web pages load quickly. The fastest websites will be rewarded with higher rankings and more traffic.