What is Page Speed and Why Is It So Important?
Page load speed pertains to the amount of time it takes for a web page to load. Most of the time, however, the term is widely used for describing the overall speed of a website, as opposed to just individual pages.
How Fast Should Your Website Load
It is said that the ideal page load time is 2-3 seconds. In reality, however, the answer to this question isn’t that simple as this would depend on the type of web page you have and how you measure your page speed.
It’s important to keep in mind that users don’t necessarily have to wait for the entire page to load before they can start interacting with the website or navigating to the pages they want to go. There are situations where Time to Interact (TTI), the time it takes for your website to load the first bits of content or FCP, is more critical to your on-page SEO.
Why Page Speed Matters
As a website owner, page speed optimization should be one of your top priorities. Aside from being more efficient, faster pages offer a better user-experience.
How fast (or slow) your site loads directly impacts your bounce rates and search engine optimization efforts. Visitors to your website aren’t going to wait around for your pages to load. They’ll likely leave and, if this happens too often, hurt your conversion rates.
Page Speed as A Ranking Factor
It’s been a few years since Google has included page speed as one of it’s ranking factors, but it’s relevance to your website’s SERP position is more important now than ever.
While originally intended to measure the time that it takes for users to receive the content they requested, the metric has evolved into a major indicator of how a website’s overall user-experience is perceived. In fact, in the summer of 2021, Google formally rolled out an update, announcing that they will “begin using page experience as part of our ranking systems beginning in mid-June 2021.”
Pages that load quickly are likely to rank higher in both mobile and desktop browsers than those that don’t.
The infographic below will convince you to invest in your website’s page speed.
About the Guest Author
Shawn Byrne is the founder and CEO of SEOPhoenix.net. Shawn started his career in I.T. troubleshooting workstations, servers and networks, then went on to doing SEO as a side project and quickly found success in ranking websites. It was easy for him to grasp not only the algorithms but also the technical side which most SEO strategists miss and neglect because of its complexities. SEO Phoenix then grew based on its own rankings and referrals.
