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Website creation is now easier. Businesses benefit from that development since websites are exceptional marketing tools. The problem is that everyone is doing the same. The result is a hypercompetitive scene.
So, how can you outperform your rivals? First of all, ensure your website is better than their website. It might take a lot of effort, time, and consideration to get there. But with proper guidance and informed decisions, you can do it. One priority is to ensure your website is faster than your rival’s website.
Why is it that important? Website speed is a key factor in SEO. Your website ranking is highly dependent on it. This article will teach you about the impact of loading speed on SEO. Discover why faster sites rank higher in the SERPs and the best techniques and practices for improving your website’s performance.
Speed-Related Metrics Google Use for Ranking Website
There are different search engines. However, many of them use almost the same metrics for ranking websites. Since Google is the most-used search engine, we will use it for our analysis.
Google checks several factors related to speed when ranking websites. These are the Core Web Vitals. Here’s more information about them:
1. Largest ContentFul Paint (LCP)
This measures how fast the largest content on a web page loads after the user has opened the page. Now, remember that your target is to make the website as a whole load in 3 seconds. Therefore, your website’s LCP should be lower than that. It should be 2.5 seconds or less.
2. Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
The Interaction to Next Paint or INP measures your website’s responsiveness. It checks how fast your website reacts when users interact with it. For example, if a user clicks on an internal link, how many seconds will it take before the loading starts? Your target INP is 200 milliseconds or less.
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
You can call the CLS the “lag” that you experience when interacting with a website. It measures how much of a web page’s layout shifts within 500 milliseconds. The typical score is 0.3, but you should aim for 0.1 for the best results.
Your website may or may not reach the top of search engine results pages, depending on your scores. A website that is faster than yours will likely rank above it if SEO is done properly as well.
The Impact of Website Speed on the Competition Between Businesses
Your business has to compete with others both in the real and digital worlds. Your website is your best weapon in this battle. It gives your business a wider reach, better visibility, and improved accessibility. But a sharp sword is much better than a rusty one. Thus, websites that are better optimised than yours will be more successful.
To paint a picture, let us imagine there’s an individual interested in the products that you sell or services that you offer. Suppose they clicked on your website first.
However, your website took a long time to load fully. Your website visitor is most likely to leave to search for similar businesses. If they find a fast website, they are likely to buy from them or contact them. Therefore, they will not come back to your website.
With that said, you should work on improving your website’s loading speed.
Ways To Improve Website Speed and Ranking
Need to improve your website’s Core Web Vitals scores? Here’s a list of actions you can take.
Optimise Your Images and Videos
Images and videos will probably be the largest content on a web page. Ensuring they will load fast improves your LCP score. That said, you should use reliable compression tools to reduce the file sizes. With that, you can boost the loading speed.
Furthermore, you should scale the images yourself. By setting attribute dimensions, the web browser will know how big they should be. As a result, it will not have to decide while the website is loading. This practice is good for improving the CLS.
Minify the Code
The website code also affects the speed of your website. Every line of code adds to the loading time. Thus, you should minimize your code. It is the practice of removing unnecessary lines and shortening what you can.
It also involves removing third-party scripts that are not essential for your website’s functionality. You should also consider minimizing or deferring JavaScript. Doing these can improve your INP.
Optimising for CLS
Here are a couple of tips for improving your CLS score.
First, you should be careful when using ads or web fonts. Ads may cause layout shifts, especially if you add them above existing content. As much as possible, have a space reserved for them so that they don’t affect the layout when they load.
Web fonts, on the other hand, cause layout shifts because they are not loaded right away. System fonts are used first, and then web fonts replace them. They will cause significant layout shifts if the web font is a lot different than the system font.
Find a Reliable Web Hosting Service
Unfortunately, your efforts will be in vain if your website is on an unreliable server. They can’t provide your website with good page speed and performance. Therefore, it is a must to find a good one.
Bluehost hosting solution is one example. Besides good website performance, it offers free domain and SSL certificates, as well as a user-friendly interface. They also offer different hosting types, so there are options regardless of your business size.
Conclusion
Search engines check several factors related to website speed to identify which websites to recommend. These factors heavily influence your ranking in the SERPs. Therefore, you should optimise your website content to minimise page load speed and accelerate response time.
However, search engine optimisation is a big task. For the best results, consider asking SEO agencies like Ignite SEO for help. Ignite SEO is the best SEO agency in London. With our innovative and process-driven approach, you can rest assured your website’s ranking will drastically improve – we help businesses across a range of industries to achieve their SEO goals, with proven results for IT support companies, estate agents, and more.
Contact Ignite SEO now to book your 30-minute analysis.