Clutch
G2
Webmasters understand the need for unique, informative content to earn Google’s favor. Everyone says content is king, so who is the queen? The other day I was waiting in line for donuts at a popular chain, and the wait was killing me. I walked to a lesser-known donut shop nearby and had my donuts within three minutes. That told me speed shapes the customer’s experience. The same applies online, so page speed is the queen.
Why page speed matters
The key is user experience. Every website’s job is to provide quality content, and you also have to make sure visitors enjoy their time on your site. In a world where everything moves fast, slow pages cost you visitors and leads. These are the main reasons to make page speed a priority.
Google uses page experience when assessing organic rankings
Google has used site speed as a ranking signal since 2010 for desktop searches, and it extended that to mobile searches in 2018. Today Google measures page experience through the Core Web Vitals: how quickly the main content loads (Largest Contentful Paint), how quickly the page responds to a tap or click (Interaction to Next Paint) and how stable the layout is while it loads (Cumulative Layout Shift).
Speed also affects how well search engines can crawl your site. Slow servers can mean fewer pages crawled, and the effect is more noticeable on large websites.
A fast page does not guarantee the top spot, but it gives you an edge. When two sites have similar authority and relevance, page experience can be the factor that separates them.
Page speed improves the user experience
User experience is a critical part of the traffic you earn. If your site ranks well enough to bring visitors to your door, you do not want to lose them while they wait for pages to load. More often than not, they hit the back button if a page is slow.
Mobile speed matters even more now
Most searches now happen on phones, often on slower connections, and Google uses the mobile version of your pages for ranking. Optimize your site’s performance for mobile as well as desktop, with responsive design and lightweight pages that please visitors on smartphones.
Better page speed supports higher conversions
Slow pages hurt conversions. Visitors who have to wait are less likely to continue, and even small delays can lose sales. People expect fast access to your content and will leave if you do not provide it.
Page speed can lower your Google Ads costs
If you run Google Ads, page speed affects your Quality Score. Google gives better scores to landing pages that offer a good experience, and load speed is part of that. Quality Score influences your cost per click, so a faster landing page can help you spend more efficiently on advertising.
Think of it this way: faster pages lead to a better landing page experience, which supports higher Quality Score, more efficient spending and better reach.
How to improve your page speed
There are several things you can do to speed up your site.
Use caching
If your site runs on a content management system such as WordPress, every visit triggers database queries that build the page. That adds time. A caching solution serves a stored static version of the page instead. You can set the cache to refresh after a certain period so content stays fresh.
Choose good hosting
Shared hosting packages make it hard to reach top speeds, because you share resources with other sites. Consider a VPS, dedicated server or quality managed hosting for dedicated resources. A server located near your main audience helps too.
Use a content delivery network (CDN)
A CDN stores copies of your files on servers around the world and delivers them from the location nearest each visitor. It helps most on sites with many large images or videos, and both free and paid options are available.
Optimize your content and code
Clean up your code and content so the page runs efficiently. Remove unused CSS and JavaScript, minify files, compress images, serve modern image formats such as WebP, lazy-load images below the fold and use text instead of images wherever you can.
WordPress tools for improving page speed
If you use WordPress, plugins can handle much of this work. Most people leave it to their SEO provider, but if you are managing it yourself, these categories are the ones to look at. Test each plugin carefully, because conflicts between plugins can break your site, and read the documentation thoroughly.
- For caching: W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache
- For minifying and combining CSS and JavaScript files
- For compressing and converting images
- For cleaning up and optimizing your database
- For connecting a CDN
- For checking which plugins slow your site down
Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to test your pages before and after any changes, and check the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console to see how real visitors experience your site.
Content is king, and page speed is queen
If you are investing in content, pair that investment with improving your page speed. With so many benefits, it makes sense to set aside budget to improve your page speed and the user experience of your website. Now you know why content is king and page speed is queen.
“I highly recommend David and the team at SmartSites to any business looking to improve its online presence, increase search rankings, generate more leads, and grow through website optimization, social media marketing, and Google Ads.”
Carlos Suescun MDElite Testosterone Replacement
