What Is Page Speed And Why Is It Important For Technical SEO?

What is page speed and why is it important for technical SEO? 

Page speed is a term that has been used a lot over the years in technical SEO. It is the time it takes for a web page to load, and can be determined by multiple factors including server speed, file sizes, image compression, and more. 

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What is page speed and why is it important?

Page Speed is a key component of the page experience that Google is looking for. Pages that load quickly are more likely to satisfy user needs and rank higher in the SERPs. 

Having a fast-loading website will also lead to higher conversions and lower bounce rates. Moreover, the average time on the page will also increase and visitors will be more likely to spend more time browsing your site. 

What is Page Speed and why is it important for technical SEO?

Google has incorporated page speed into its search algorithm since at least 2017 and it is an important ranking factor that needs to be improved. However, what is considered a good page speed is constantly changing and it can vary from one webmaster to the next. 

There are many ways that you can improve your website’s page speed and you should not blindly rely on metrics. Instead, it is a good idea to understand your target audience and find out how they use your website so that you can determine what is causing their slow load times. 

  1. Optimize your code for better performance: When you use spaces in your HTML, you are creating a larger file that can take longer to load. Minify your code by removing unnecessary information such as spaces, tabs, and numbers to make it smaller.
  2. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): CDNs can help optimize your pages’ loading speeds by serving them to different users, so they only need to load once. They can also reduce the number of round trips to your server, which can significantly improve your site’s loading speed.
  3. Avoid unused scripts: Unused scripts can take up valuable space on your page’s HTML and can significantly increase your page’s loading time. It is a good practice to have a clean and tidy HTML file and to postpone all non-essential scripts until the end of the page’s code.
  4. Make sure your web pages are mobile-friendly: If your pages are not optimized for mobile, you will lose visitors and may even see a negative impact on your rankings.
  5. Check your Core Web Vitals: Keeping up with the changes to Google’s Core Web Vitals is crucial for technical SEO.

Your Core Web Vitals score is an indicator of how fast your pages load and should be under 100 milliseconds. 

  1. Test your site using a tool like Lighthouse: The PageSpeed Insights Tool from Google is a great resource for optimizing your site’s page speed and can be helpful when determining where to focus your SEO efforts.

The best way to optimize your page speed is by making small adjustments that will have an immediate effect on the overall page experience and your site’s ranking. You can easily check your site’s load speed by using a tool like Lighthouse or by checking your page’s performance in Google Search Console.