How To Rank Higher in Search Results
If you own a website, your primary goal is likely to get more people to visit it. There’s no point in having a great site if no one ever sees it. One of the best ways to increase traffic to your website is by appearing higher in SERPs or search engine results pages. Search engines like Google are the primary way we get information these days, and there’s a big difference between appearing on page one of the results compared to page two.
But how do you get your site to rank higher? There are many factors that Google looks at, such as target keyword terms, backlinks, and site structure. Another factor that is very important, but often overlooked, is the speed of your pages.
What Does Google Page Speed Mean?
Google Page Speed refers to the amount of time it takes for your website to load. Google tracks this because studies have shown that if your website is slow, people are more likely to leave and try another site. Google wants to show the best websites at the top of its results, so it factors page speed into the rankings. To improve your page rank within Google, you’ll have to speed up your page.
Test Your Mobile Website Speed
Since speed is more important for people on the go – I.e, on their smartphones – you’ll want to test the speed of your mobile website. To do this, there are two tools that you can use. The first is the Test My Site feature on Think With Google. The second is PageSpeed Insights by Google. You will need to use your own mobile device, or the mobile address of your site, for these tools.
Improving Your Site Speed
If you’ve taken the test, and it says you need some improvements, here are a few things to try. First, the images you use on your website play a large role in determining site speed. If you have a lot of large images, these take a longer time to load, and will slow down your site. There is a correlation between image size and page speed, so don’t overlook the images you’re using.
Besides that, you’ll want to simplify your site. The more things you have going on, the more your site needs to load. Each image, style sheet, form, and script requires their own HTTP request, slowing down the site. Simplify everything as much as you can, and you’ll likely have a faster site.
The third thing you can do is upgrade your server. The server your website is hosted on plays a large role in determining your site speed. Talk with your hosting provider to see if you can upgrade to a faster server.
Monitoring Your Page Speed Going Forward
Once you’ve improved your site speed, your work isn’t done. It’s always possible that changes to your website or hosting will slow down the site again, and you’ll want to know when it does. That’s why it’s a good idea to make a habit out of checking your site speed, so that you can quickly take action to correct any problems.
If you use Google Analytics, it now offers a place where you can monitor the speed of your site. This is a useful tool, as it allows you to track page speed in the same place where you gather all of the other important information regarding your site. You can learn more about monitoring your page speed in Google Analytics here.
So What’s Next?
We hope this guide helps demonstrate the importance of making your website load faster. Page speed has always been a ranking factor, and every site should strive to achieve it. If you’d like to learn more about how to increase the speed of your website, reach out to Creative MMS.