What is Page Speed and Why is it Important for Technical SEO?
Page speed is a term used to describe how quickly a web page can load. This is a critical factor when it comes to technical SEO, as well as user experience. Contact us to learn more about gilbertseo.net
Basically, page speed measures how long it takes for a website to load, from the moment you click a link until the entire content is displayed on your screen. This is important because slow pages are a major source of customer frustration and are one of the key factors that Google considers when ranking pages.
The first thing most people see when they visit a website is a blank page. This is a good thing for user experience as it gives them time to read the text and decide whether they want to continue. Then, the user can interact with things on the page by clicking buttons or images, for example.
However, if the page is too slow, then that can lead to a lot of frustration, and users will be less likely to come back. In fact, studies show that if your page takes longer than three seconds to load, more than one-quarter of your visitors will click away and visit another site.
This can affect your rankings and traffic, as well as negatively impact your conversions. It can even cost you money!
It’s a big deal for businesses to have fast-loading pages. Not only is it a good way to improve user experience, but it also boosts your SEO performance.
In addition, if your site takes a long time to load, Google will likely not crawl it. This can also lead to a decrease in your organic search visibility, as fewer crawls mean less indexation.
Google has released a new PageSpeed Insights Tool to help website owners understand their site’s speed and identify opportunities for optimization. The tool breaks everything down into different categories, so it’s easy to understand what issues you need to address.
Some of the most important metrics include Max Potential First Input Delay (PFID), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). You can find this information on seoClarity in a view called “Lab Data.” It allows you to sort by issues that affect the greatest number of pages, or recognize which pages and page types have the most problems or resolved them over time.
You can also use the opportunity section to identify specific fixes for each metric and determine how much improvement you need to make. It’s a great way to focus on what matters most and ensure that you don’t miss any opportunities for page speed improvement!
Page speed is a crucial part of technical SEO because it’s a critical ranking signal and a major influencer on user experience. In fact, a 0.1-second increase in mobile page speed can increase conversions by up to 8%. It can also reduce bounce rates by up to 75%.