What is page speed?
Obviously, as the name suggests, page speed is the time it takes for your web page to fully load. The faster your website loads, the better. There are various metrics that go into website speed such as: images, videos, graphics, HTML, CSS, Javascript, and server response time.
Why Is page speed important?
Page speed is critical for websites because faster loading times lead to an improved user experience, higher conversions, enhanced brand reputation, and better search engine rankings.
Users expect fast performance and are more likely to stay on quick-loading sites. Slower page speeds lead to higher bounce rates and abandonment. Therefore, prioritizing speed optimizations through technical improvements provides manifold benefits for both users and businesses, ranging from higher revenue and search rankings to lower costs and better analytics.
Is page speed important for mobile?
Yes. Mobile site speed is important. There's a large amount of websites that aren't even optimized for mobile and that's a sure way to tank your mobile speed. With a large portion of internet usage coming from mobile devices on cellular networks, your website should account for users using even the slowest networks.
Does page speed affect SEO?
Yes. Page speed is an important factor in SEO that can significantly impact search rankings and user experience. Google has confirmed that page speed is used as a ranking signal, so websites with faster load times tend to outperform slower sites. The main reason page speed matters for SEO is that quick loading pages lead to better user engagement. Users spend more time on sites with fast page speeds, which signals relevance to Google. Fast pages also have lower bounce rates, as users are less likely to leave right away.
Overall, prioritizing speed optimizations can significantly benefit SEO through direct ranking factors, better user engagement metrics, and complementary technical improvements. Faster page speeds should be a top priority for any website looking to improve search rankings and user experience.
Related: The Complete Guide to SEO Marketing
What is a site speed good score?
A good score is relative but, the goal should be to get in the green. A great site will load in under 2 seconds. However, when using the Google Page Speed measurement tool, you’ll notice their score measures more than just page speed. They also measure accessibility, SEO, and best practices. A green (90+) in all four categories is a big indicator of a healthy website in Google's eyes.
Getting good scores in accessibility, SEO, and best practices isn't super difficult to achieve. However, the page speed itself can at times be less than optimal.
How is your site speed calculated?
Your performance score is a weighted average of the metric scores listed in the table below.
First Contentful Paint 10%
Speed Index 10%
Time to Interactive 10%
Cumulative Layout Shift 15%
Largest Contentful Paint 25%
Total Blocking Time 30%
Related: How Do Search Engines Work?
How to improve your sites speed?
Here are some effective ways to improve your website's speed:
Optimize images
Compress and resize large images, convert formats to webp when possible. Use lazy loading for below the fold images.
Minify CSS, JavaScript and HTML
Remove unnecessary whitespace and formatting to reduce file sizes.
Enable caching
Browser caching allows files to be stored locally, reducing server requests.
Defer non-essential JavaScript
Only load crucial scripts first to allow above the fold content to render quicker. There's a useful WordPress plugin for this called WP Rocket.
Reduce redirects
Minimize HTTP redirects between pages to avoid additional load time.
Minimize plugins/extensions
This one is for all my WordPress users. There's a chance you are using entirely too many plugins. Each additional plugin increases page weight, review if all the ones you're using are necessary.
How to test your site's speed?
Testing your page load speed is quick and easy. Use the Google page speed tool. This tool allows you to see detailed analysis and recommendations for how to speed up your site to rank higher within Google.
Core Vitals
What are core vitals? In short, Core Web Vitals measure your page’s overall user experience. You'll see these when you run a speed test on Google's page speed tool. Let me briefly explain what each are.
First Contentful Paint
This is how quickly your website displays anything, including text or images.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
LCP is how long it takes for the largest element on your website to load.
Time to Interactive
The amount of time it takes for your website to be fully interactive.
Speed Index
How quickly the contents of your page are displayed visually.
Total Blocking Time
This is the time between First Contentful Paint and Time to Interactive.
Cumulative Layout Shift
A web vital metric that measures visual stability i.e. how much content shifts around during page load. Your website shouldn’t “shift” once it’s interactive.
To Conclude: Website Speed
Page speed shouldn't be ignored. It's a critical factor in the success of any website. Faster page load times directly lead to better user engagement and experience, higher conversions and revenues, and improved SEO rankings. And don't forget to neglect you mobile speed!
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