The old adage says that if you want to really know someone, trap them in a room with a slow internet connection.
And it’s true. With internet speeds getting faster all the time, fast is just the new normal. And the faster, the better. We want things NOW.
But does speed really matter when it comes to SEO? If your page is faster, will it rank better and gain more visitors?
And if it does, what can you do to get fast loading times on your site? It’s not like you can just put more hamsters in the wheel and make the whole thing go faster.
Let’s take a look at how speed affects SEO performance and what you can do to improve speed on your site.
Do Fast Loading Pages Perform Better?
Short answer: yes.
Even before we touch SEO rankings and performance, faster is better.
You have about 3 seconds to hook a visitor before they click away from your page. And if your site loads slowly, you may have even less time than that.
Think about the last time you tried to load a page, only to be met with that obnoxious spinning icon. How fast did you say “nope, I’ll go somewhere else.”?
Chances are, it didn’t take long. Unless you’re VERY motivated, you aren’t going to waste your time on a slow loading page. And neither are your visitors.
What Does Google Have to Say?
But the real question is SEO. Does page speed affect your rankings?
We all know that Google is notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to its ranking algorithms.
It might be post length. It’s probably keywords. There might even be a wizard with a crystal ball involved.
What we do know is that while Google loves to play coy about their algorithm, they do drop the occasional hint. And one of those hints is that the faster a page loads, the higher it is likely to score.
Now, it’s more likely that speed is just one of MANY factors that go into the ranking decisions. But if you’re doing everything else right and tanking on speed, you may be making the rest of your hard work pointless.
Increasing Your Speeds
Tons of factors can lower your speed, from inefficient code to too many ads on the screen.
You can use Page Speed Insight to see how you’re performing.
But one of the biggest factors may be your hosting server. If you skimp on hosting, you’ll usually pay for it in the long run. Many times, VPS software can help increase your speeds and give you better results, so you may want to look into VPS software as a solution.
Get Your Speeds (and Rankings) Up!
Speed matters. Talking about how fast-paced our world has become may be cliche, but it’s true.
We want things fast. And in a world where mobile is increasingly king, fast loading pages are more important than ever.
So take a minute to check your rankings, check your page speed, and see where you’re at.
Want to know how you’re ranking? Check us out here!
